An inflammatory anti-abortion ad equating abortion by black women with genocide will be taken down from a Manhattan billboard, officials said today.
The controversial advertisement — posted on a billboard at Sixth Avenue and Watts Street and sponsored by pro-life groups Life Always and thatsabortion.com — features a pensive little girl beneath the startling message: “The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton and Planned Parenthood groups, which had blasted the ad as a racist attack against a woman’s right to choose, applauded the decision to yank the message.
“It sent a clear message that it was against a woman’s right to choose, and [exhibited] classic racial profiling,” said Sharpton spokesman Rachel Noerdlinger.
Louisiana-based Lamar Advertising Co. made the decision to pull the advertisement, she said, and “The Rev. Sharpton salutes the company.”
In a statement earlier yesterday, the pro-life groups said the billboard was placed in honor of Black History Month.
“We celebrate our history, but our future is in jeopardy as a genocidal plot is carried through abortion,” the statement said.