The Anti-Abortion Messages Haunting Florida's Highways

[brooklynite]

New York Times

The billboards were one of the first things I noticed when my family and I moved to Central Florida in 2021. We drove around the state a lot, and as we made our way through the sprawl of the Miami suburbs, across the upper reaches of the Everglades where a river of grass transitions to a sea of sugar cane, through the citrus groves of aptly named towns like Frostproof and Fruitland Park, I was struck by the number of anti-abortion billboards we passed on the roadside.

Some are simple messages meant to induce shame, with pseudoscientific statistics and cute baby pictures. Many offer a friendly face and a phone number for a religious counseling center. All are stark and jarring against the powder-blue Florida sky.

Recently, I set out on a road trip to document some of the many billboards standing in the empty parking lots of long-forgotten motels and strip clubs. I sought out the signs that loom over early morning commuters at corner gas stations and provide a little extra income for the Pentecostal churches and boarded-up restaurants that host them. Along quiet country roads, they keep the cows and crows company; on bustling, strip-mall-lined boulevards they jockey for attention with an alarming number of ads for personal injury lawyers.

Right now, a woman in Florida is about a half-hour drive, on average, from a place where she can get an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, according to research by Caitlin Myers, an economist at Middlebury College. When the bill that Mr. DeSantis signed last week goes into effect, that drive will, for most women, take over nine hours, much of it along these very highways. It’s a long road ahead.

[dchill]

1. Jesus.

[Joinfortmill]

2. It's a beautiful State...sadly, it's run by the American Taliban

[RKP5637]

8. And more and more so. It is chilling what is going on

in Florida. And it really feels unsafe in Florida. The American Taliban laws are endless. Even travel warnings have been posted for people thinking of visiting Florida or relocation. What a shame.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. "haunting" is a good word for this.

[Thunderbeast]

4. In my last trip to Florida, the billboards were evenly split.

Half were of the "JESUS LOVES UNBORN BABIES" flavor.

The other half read something like "ADULT BOOKS AND TOYS...NEXT EXIT!"

[Pantagruel]

5. Put some sobering facts on those billboards

"A middle-income family with a baby born in 2015 can expect to spend about $233,610 on that child up until the age of 18. This figure does not include any costs before the birth (prenatal care), or any expenses after his or her eighteenth birthday (like a college education). "

Unwanted children drive the societal costs way up. UC are 4-5 X more likely to require systemic aid like welfare, SNAP and sadly "correction" costs.

[Dear_Prudence]

6. Triggered

When I was in Catholic Sunday School in the 60s, we learned that unborn babies went to "Limbo," so a mother knew that, even in heaven, she would never see her miscarried or stillborn child again. No miscarried or stillborn baby was ever listed in the Sunday handout amoung the souls for whom we prayed. I don't know or care what the Church teaches now, but for my generation, we were taught that Jesus couldn't have cared less about any unbaptized soul. It was a cruel teacihing and, if revised, it is likely for political expedience, imho. Of course, I knew as a child that Jesus up in heaven loved all children and all my deceased cats, whether they were baptized or not. So, that was an early warning that this 'cradle Catholic' would not end up as a 'casket Catholic.' Ignore billboard White Jesus; I am on the lookout for brown Jesus cradling my cat.

[roamer65]

7. Ah...the old white Jesus thing again.