Anti-Abortion Group Sued Over Controversial Billboard

The New York Daily News reported last night that Tricia Fraser, the mother of the young girl depicted in an anti-abortion billboard, has sued the organization behind the ad. The billboard shows Fraser’s daughter Annisa in a pink dress and a bow in her hair, with the words: “The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb” above her photo. Tricia Fraser’s lawsuit charges the use of her daughter’s image was defamatory and racist.

When that billboard first appeared in New York, Courtney Bowie blogged:

I find the advertisement offensive for a number of reasons. In addition to being offended as a black woman, I am offended that groups such as this one would deny a black woman facing an unintended pregnancy the ability to make the best decision for herself and her family and would ignore the danger to black children after they are born.

About 34 percent of black children live in poverty, compared to 30 percent of Hispanic children, 15 percent of white children and 19 percent of children overall. Thirty-five percent of black children live with two married parents, compared to 67 percent overall. Statistically, every place in this country is a dangerous place for a black child. The infant mortality rate for black children in Washington D.C. rivals that of undeveloped nations in Africa. Seriously. Memphis is like a Third World country for black children.

In addition to the message that black women shouldn’t be allowed the choice of whether to have a child or not, Courtney lays out the problems facing black childen after they are born, including schools that fail to educate them and a system of policies — called the school-to-prison pipeline — that pushes students from schools into the criminal justice system.

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