I don’t find myself with many opportunities to draw a parallel between Poland and Georgia unless I’m talking about Georgia the country and not Georgia the U.S. state and that would still be a stretch. The time has finally arrived, however, in the form of anti-choice billboards designed to open decades-old wounds and fuel long-held fears. [Click here to view the billboard. Contains graphic images]

As discussed in a previous post, billboards have gone up in predominately black neighborhoods around Georgia claiming that Black children are an “endangered species” and abortion is an evil plot to exterminate Black babies. If that wasn’t enough crazy on earth for you, an organization called Fundacja Pro has erected billboards of their own in Poznan, Poland featuring Hitler, some bloody fetuses, and the slogan, “Abortion for Poles: introduced by Hitler, March 9, 1943.”

Just like Black folks in America have always had a healthy (and often justified) mistrust of white-led movements/organizations purporting to help out the community, Poles still have a nasty taste in their mouth from the Nazi occupation of their country during WWII. Anti-choice forces in America want to use Black Americans’ fears around racism and eugenics to advance their agenda (controlling women’s bodies, sexuality and morality) and Polish anti-choicers are no different.

Backlash and criticism in reaction to the billboards’ tactics is steadily mounting both home and abroad. One of the pro-choice voices speaking out is Dr. Vanessa Cullins, the vice president for medical affairs at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. When interviewed by the The Plain Dealer, Dr. Cullins said “the language of our painful history has been co-opted and bastardized. They are the racists. These people are trying to use racial issues to destabilize African-American women’s ability to control the size of their families . . . and provide a nurturing environment for their children.” Similarly across the pond, member of Parliament and the parliament’s health committee, Elzbieta Streker-Dembinska, weighed in. “I understand that this campaign is designed to shock but there are limits to the use of shock.” A foetus and Adolf Hitler is unjustified comparison. The design of the billboard is unacceptable and crosses the boundaries of decency.”

There is no doubt that Poland suffered greatly at the hands of Hitler and his Nazi forces but to many, co-opting that pain and suffering to advance a political agenda is just plain tacky. I am not surprised, though. I often find the methods of those hell-bent on fitting women with chastity belts to be tacky and tasteless. I mentioned in my previous post linked above that these anti-choice wingnuts make me laugh. I’m not laughing so much anymore. This type of ignorance and fanaticism runs far and deep all across the globe. Truthfully, thinking about it is starting to wear me out. Where do you stand on the issue? Will these billboards sway the public toward a more anti-choice sentiment or simply anger people who see them as disrespectful and cheap?

Oh and since when did billboards make a come back?

source: Telegraph UK