Pro-life message spreads across Valley billboards
By Ambria Hammel | July 1, 2009 | The Catholic Sun
“Choose life” is still plastered on handheld po- sters touted by sidewalk counselors and abortion protestors, but now the message can reach pregnant women before they even get to the abortion clinic.
Two “choose life” advertisements have been up on Valley billboards for the last three months. The independent ads — one sponsored by a pregnancy resource center and the other by St. Steven Parish and the Knights of Columbus — encourage women facing an unplanned pregnancy to give their children a chance at life outside the womb.
They simply say, “Choose life.” One billboard repeats the message in Spanish. Both ads provide phone numbers for free pregnancy and parenting resources in the area.
“It’s gotten an awful lot of support,” Kay Allen, executive director of 1st Way of Maricopa County, said of the bright blue and yellow billboard. Volunteers and local Knights of Columbus councils helped pay for 1st Way’s ad.
The pregnancy resource center near downtown Phoenix began leasing the billboard from CBS Outdoor in December.
Ruth and Bob Runkle, who serve on 1st Way’s board of directors and pray outside of Planned Parenthood on the weekends, noticed the billboard’s location and suggested leasing it. The billboard essentially looks down into the abortion clinic’s parking lot on Seventh Avenue.
With the help of the local pro-life community, 1st Way renewed its lease this spring. It also added “free pregnancy services” to the sign at the request of a sidewalk counselor who talks to women on their way into the abortion clinic.
“That’s the most important service that people see,” Allen said.
1st Way has found that it’s not so much the thought of pregnancy, but its cost that often scares women into abortion. The center offers various resources and ultrasounds to abortion-vulnerable women.
The need is growing. Compared to last year, 1st Way more than doubled the number of ultrasounds it provided in March and April.
“We’re getting more desperate cases,” said Laurie Pittsenbarger, 1st Way’s nurse manager.
More and more of their clients are college students. Pittsenbarger said those cases are harder on the counseling end because the pregnancy is seen as a disruption of life.
Fortunately, she said, 1st Way workers have also seen more people at their abstinence and parenting classes. The community is also offering more support financially.
“It gives the baby humanity,” Pittsenbarger said of the support services. Moms leave the center with food, clothing and diapers for the unborn baby. That often helps women choose life, she said.
‘Life’ on the freeway
Anne DeRose, a parishioner at St. Steven in Sun Lakes and a member of its Respect Life ministry, hopes the group’s billboard at Interstate 10 and Riggs Road has the same effect.
“They just see this baby’s face and right away they start thinking,” DeRose said.
The $7,000 billboard, which the state’s Knights of Columbus co-sponsored, features the face of a blue-eyed infant on the left and “choose life” against a plain white background on the right. The ad went up April 20 and should continue to greet commuters through most of July.
“The simplicity and the plainness says it all,” said Fr. Pierre Hissey, St. Steven’s pastor. “It’s a face and a telephone number. They’ll turn to look.”
Fr. Hissey said it was important to post something positive on the billboard because many abortion-vulnerable women already feel alienated.
Results from the current billboard aren’t in yet, but some 70,000 cars travel Interstate 10 at Riggs Road daily.
“For crisis pregnancies, statistics show that 90 out of 100 women would have preferred a positive alternative to abortion if only they knew a realistic one was available at their time of need,” said Kathy Hastings, director of Pinckney Pro-life.
