Advice please :)

[TillyTotter1]

Hiya

I'm not usually proactive on issues but I feel very strongly about a poster I saw today in a local Christian shop in our town centre. It was very graphic, depicting a full grown baby charred and blackened from the shoulders down with the words "Abortion is murder" emblazoned on it.

I found the picture really distressing and found it inappropriate to be on display in a town centre window so prominently. Aside from that I think it is misleading to anyone uninformed reading it as I am from Northern Ireland where the law is very strict only allowing abortions up until 12weeks, for example, the teenagers from the school opposite who may not realise that this is not a twelve week foetus.

Although I am personally pro-life, I believe in tolerance and pretty much believe it is none of my damn business if someone else has one as long as I don't.

I am trying to write a letter to the shop to get my point across and would appreciate it if I anyone had any suggestions as to how I could word the above better or add any other points to it. I am keen that it focuses on the inappropriateness of the picture rather than the issue of abortion in general

Please don't flame me for not being pro-choice!

[PacificDogwood]

Hey, I am pro-choice - both wrt termination and wrt to your choice to be pro-life

Sounds like a horrible poster all round.

"Dear Shop, I found the poster in your window hugely inappropriate as it is inaccurate to depict a term baby as if having been aborted.
If you do not approve of terminations, don't have one (NB I love this point - I am prochoice, but am grateful that I never had to make a decision either way wrt unwanted pregnancy) and stop hectoring the general public which includes passing school children with misinformation.
I expect the poster to be removed by and will be informing thereafter if it is still on display. Yours sincerely, Tilly."

Is it the council you'd threaten with? Or trading standards?? Or their head office? Not user, sorry.

I am sure more eloquent and ferocious posters will be along.

[PacificDogwood]

Oh, and well done for going through the trouble of complaining about it

[PenguinsIsSleepDeprived]

Just as an aside, I think being pro-life is misunderstood.

If you think it is none of your business is anyone else has an abortion, if you think abortion should be legal and safe, you are pro-choice.

You can think abortion is horrible. You can think you'd never have one. You can think it is rarely the right decision and taken too lightly. But if you believe that it should be safe and legal for other women, you are pro-choice. 'Pro-life' means you are pro taking the decision away from other women.

I don't think arguments about abortion per se are going to convince them to take such a horrible poster down. If that is your goal, I would also include a strong section in your letter about how it is likely to be incredibly distressing for women who have suffered miscarriage, still birth or SIDS to see such a graphic image.

[PacificDogwood]

I am 'pro-life' - I like life, I wish all children arrived as hoped for, loved and cherished additions to happy families. Alas that is not always the case.
I think the Pro-Life movement as hijacked the phrase.

I agree with Penguins, Tilly, you are in favour for women to chose.

[AsAMan]

All good points and agree with Penguins that it is horribly insensitive to parents who've lost a child as well just spreading misinformation. Don't forget to tell them you won't be using their shop until it is taken down and that this is the consensus from all of your friends as well.

[itsbetterthanabox]

What you have described yourself as isn't pro life it's pro choice.
I myself would not have an abortion (although ofc I cannot know that I wouldn't in some circumstances) but I think all women should have the right to access safe and free abortion if they require one. That makes me pro choice.
You are pro choice.
Well done for complaining.
Abortion is illegal in Northern Ireland. Why do you think it's legal up to 12 weeks? It is completely illegal unless the mothers life or long term health is in danger. Tbh that's why posters like the one you saw are accepted because it is a place that doesn't allow women control over their own bodies.

[ShadowKat]

I would be surprised if they really cared about the misinformation aspect of it. If they're strongly anti-abortion, I'd expect them to be perfectly happy with this kind of misinformation if they think it'll put women off abortion.

I agree that playing heavily on the potential distress to mothers of miscarried or stillborn babies or babies who died shortly after birth is likely to be more effective in terms of getting them to remove the poster.

[TillyTotter1]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. I never thought of it that way before about being prochoice.

box I'm not 100% sure but afaik it is legal to have an abortion up until 12 weeks if the mother's life is endangered at the Marie Stopes clinic (which I do support).

I have typed it up and leant heavily on the potential impact on those who have lost their babiesto hopefully shame them into taking it down. Fingers crossed and I'll let you's know how I get on :)

[greenbananas]

I'm a Christian, would probably find the idea of abortion pretty horrific even if I wasn't, but am definitely pro choice. We are not supposed to be judging other people. listening to them, yes, helping them find positive solutions, yes, providing information, yes, judging them, no!

The poster sounds incredibly upsetting. I'd be inclined to talk to church authorities about this. Is the shop Catholic, evangelical, whatever? I'd be surprised if any mainstream Church organisation thought this kind of tactic was okay.

[AskBasil]

I wish people would stop using the term pro-life to refer to anti-abortionists.

We're all pro life. Some of us just happen to think that women's actual lives matter more than that of a potential life in the form of a foetus. Some of us even think a woman's right to self-determination is so important that she has the right to refuse the use of her body to a foetus or baby who without it would die, just as men have the right to refuse the use of their bodies for someone else's life.

Pro life is a propaganda term which invites you to think of people who are in favour of a woman's right to self-determination as pro death. That's why they chose it. If they're pro anything, they're pro-forced birth, not pro life, because many of them are exactly the same people who once the babies are born, don't really give a flying fart about them being brought up in decent circumstances free from poverty and the lack of life chances caused by that. But mostly they're just anti.

Good luck with your letter.

[noddingoff]

Good luck with the letter, and while you're at it, hand a copy to that lot across the road from the Europa who had a similar poster up, last time I looked. I agree with sticking to the distressing and misleading nature of the picture; don't waste any ink discussing women's right to autonomy - remember you're dealing with people who think that women shouldn't be able to abort a foetus conceived as a result of rape or incest, or if the baby will have an horrific deformity that will cause it tremendous suffering from the moment it draws breath until it dies hours, days, or years later.

[AskBasil]

Yes. Damn sight more accurate