Greg Carr
2018-04-05 01:28:32 UTC
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© Submitted A lone woman stands dressed as a handmaid in front of a Lethbridge city bus in protest of the anti-abortion ad on its back.Raw Message
The City of Lethbridge in southern Alberta is pulling controversial anti-abortion ads from transit buses, bus shelter and benches.
The ads from a group called Lethbridge and District Pro-Life featured photos of fetuses with statements like "preborn babies feel pain."
"After reviewing comments from city residents, the City of Lethbridge has made an administrative decision to remove the advertisements due to adverse community reaction," reads a statement from the city.
'Strong opposition'
When the controversy first broke, the city said Lethbridge Transit advertising was handled by a third-party contractor and directed complaints to Advertising Standards Canada.
In the statement released on Wednesday, the city said the contractor has confirmed the ads will be removed from buses on April 5 and from benches and shelters this weekend.
"To date, the City has received more than 100 emails as well as numerous comments via social media, the large majority of them voicing strong opposition to the pro-life ads," reads the statement.
Handmaids
The move comes after silent protests started popping up in the city, with lone women standing in handmaid costumes —from Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale — in protest of the ads.
Pirate Jen Takahashi, one of the handmaid protesters, said the issue is not one of free speech, but of what she says is misleading information.
"It's the fact that it's like, mock ups of fetuses and then wildly inaccurate scientific information," she said, just prior to the city announcement.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/lethbridge-transit-anti-abortion-ads-to-be-pulled/ar-AAvtBVS
Wildly inaccurate scientific information? The article only states that fetuses feel pain. That is true. Unborn children have been shown through ultrasound to react to music let alone pain.