An extremely tall billboard, about 3 stories in height, has been deliberately placed at one of the busiest intersections of Watts and 6th Ave.
"The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb," reads the ad sponsored by the Dallas-based pro-life group "Life Always".
It features an African-American girl looking out at viewers with a somber expression, wearing a bow in her hair and a pink jumper. The ad directs viewers to the group's website, thatsabortion.com.
Life Always leader, Pastor Stephen Broden, an African-American, said that his group intentionally released a billboard that would elicit such a outlandish reaction.
"The black community is oblivious to what is going on with this practice," Broden, 58, said about abortion rates in the African-American community.
"This is far from hyperbole, these are facts and statistically back up that abortion is having an impact on the demography of African-Americans," he said.
According to New York City's latest Vital Statistics report with data from 2009, two out of five pregnancies in New York City end in an abortion, giving the city an overall abortion rate of 41 percent.
Among the African American women in New York City, the abortion rate is reportedly 59.8 percent, while the abortion rate for Hispanic women is 41.3 percent and the rate for white women is 20.4 percent. The rate for abortions among Asian women in New York is 22.7 percent.
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn both criticized the ad, with de Blasio calling for it to come down.
"To refer to a woman's legal right to an abortion as a 'genocidal plot' is not only absurd, but it is offensive to women and to communities of color," Quinn wrote in a statement of Broden's claim that the high abortion rates among minority women amounted to genocide.
Mae Collazo, 38, who works across the street from the abortion billboard, said she perceived the billboard highly offensive.
"I don't like it all, what is that supposed to mean?" said Collazo, who is African American, "It makes it sound like all we do is abort our children."
Collazo added that she didn't think the higher percentage of abortions registered for African American women in New York necessarily reflect what is actually going on in the community, and questioned the source of the statistics and whether abortions conducted at private clinics are included in the statistics.
Broden said his organization will remain in the city for another three weeks before kicking off similar ad campaigns in six other cities around the country.
I've actually learned that there are viewers that have agreed with the billboard & it's placement. I'm kind of on the fence with it though; only because I can see the point that was trying to be made. I honestly believe that the message was delivered in such a blatant and disrespectful way that everyone is perceiving it in a negative sense.
But my real question is, what do YOU think? I'd love to know!!
