A billboard which effectively compared legal abortion with genocide has been severely criticised.

The billboard appears to be the latest strategy in targeting particular communities in an effort to influence them. While hard hitting adverts are normal today – anti tobacco ads have been around for a long time now – this appears to be the first of its kind focusing on anti abortion.

The advert has been criticised not just for the general message but also as it appears to have racist overtones. One critic Linda Greenhouse says that the advert (which contains a picture of a black child) effectively tries to make out that white people are behind an attack on black people.

Another prominent critic, Shirley Chisholm who just happens to be the first black woman in Congress told reporters recently: “[comparing abortion with genocide is] male rhetoric, for male ears.”

Linda Greenhouse added: “… Illegal abortion was the cause of 25 percent of the white women’s deaths, 49 percent of the black women’s, and 65 percent of the Puerto Ricans. She also observed that 90 percent of the ‘therapeutic’ abortions in New York City — the safe and legal ones during the regime of criminalization — were performed on white women.”

Shirley Chisholm, one time honorary president of Naral, a pro abortion group has been actively campaigning for safe and legal abortion for many years.

The abortion debate in America has always been a contentious issue. However it seems that using very emotive language and images is now a new dimension.