NEW YORK CITY, May 3, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Focus on the Family is planning a unique event in New York’s Times Square this weekend to highlight the humanity of preborn babies, but ran into a snag when billboard owners denied them space to display ultrasound images on the location’s famous screens.
On Saturday, May 4, Focus on the Family will hold an event it’s calling “Alive from New York,” featuring speakers, live music, and a “live 4D ultrasound of a baby in the third trimester of pregnancy and broadcast on the jumbotrons in the middle of Manhattan.” New York became a focal point of the abortion debate in January, when the state enacted a law effectively permitting abortion-on-demand up until birth, to the cheers of Democrat lawmakers and left-wing activists.
“Nearly 60 million babies have been aborted since 1973,” the group explained. “In fact, just three miles from where we’ll be gathering on May 4th, sits Planned Parenthood’s largest clinic. Over 11,000 babies are aborted there each year, an unfathomable fact for anyone who loves and cherishes life. So, our goal is to fill Times Square with joy-filled people who are committed to protecting pre-born life.”
On Wednesday, Focus on the Family president Jim Daly announced that three of the companies who own Times Square billboards – Silvercast, Clear Channel Outdoor, and ABC Supersign – have refused to lease space for the pro-life event.
“In many ways, this blockade only confirms what we’ve long known,” Daly wrote. “There are many people who don’t want the world to see these images of preborn life, because the abortion industry is predicated on a lie – namely that a baby is just a blob of tissue inside the womb.”
The event will go on without the billboards; Focus will bring digital billboards of its own to compensate. But Daly encouraged supporters to contact the companies to respectfully express disapproval of their “flat-out discrimination” against the pro-life message.
“Please let me know of your interaction,” Daly asked. “And please join us in praying for Saturday’s big event and that by the time the sun sets on Saturday everybody in Times Square will have seen life clearly!”
Pro-lifers support and abortion activists oppose ultrasound requirements for their ability to convey the humanity of preborn babies and dissuade women from abortion. Pro-life groups Save the Storks says that four out of five pregnant women who see one of their free ultrasounds ultimately choose life. The similar ICU Mobile attests that its ultrasounds have convinced 56 percent of women who had already decided on abortion to change their minds, and 87 percent of those who were undecided to choose life. A 2011 study by Quinnipiac University’s Mark Gius concluded that “ultrasound laws had a very significant and negative effect on the abortion decision.”
Contact Information for Respectful Feedback to Times Square Billboard Owners:
Silvercast:
Phone: 212-634-1000
Email: [email protected]
Clear Channel Outdoor:
Phone: 212-812-0000
Email: online contact form
ABC Supersign:
Phone: 212-456-7389
Email: [email protected]