Tara at Abortion Gang is depressed.

Tara recently learned her former lesbian partner and new partner who is pregnant have refused an amniocentesis. The two have decided they will take whatever baby they get, healthy or not, “whatever the universe thr[ows] at them.” Good for them!

There’s an interesting subplot in the post of a “gobsmacked” Tara arguing with her friend about the “flaws in her logic,” and then realizing what a “complete jerk” she was being for protesting her friend’s “reproductive health choices.” I applaud the mea culpa.

But here’s what Tara blames for her pro-choice friend’s change of heart:

But more and more these days I feel an unshakeable pessimism sinking into my bones….

[S]he had clearly been psychologically duped by years of exposure to those damned billboards….

While I ended up feeling resolved in regards to the tiff between my friend and me, I’ve remained troubled by a larger concern that’s been kicking around in my head since that conversation – the billboard factor: the thought that years of unrelenting exposure to the deliberate misdirection, manipulation and half-truths of those ubiquitous cherub-faced please-mommy-don’t-get-an-abortion billboards could have seeped quietly into the psyches of rational-minded, reality-based people.

My creeping suspicion is that under the barrage of relentless advertising over the years, even the most hippie liberal folks must be feeling hard-pressed to think of embryos/fetuses as anything less than fully-formed, thinking, talking, swimming, bouncing, giggling people.

And THAT is what’s given me a bad case of the grim-pessimisms these days, because if the most hyperbolic, highly- mock-able anti-choice propaganda is working on us liberal-minded folks – we’re in more trouble than I thought.

Weekend question: How big an impact do you think these “highly mock-able” pro-life billboards have made? We’ve all seen them.

My own mea culpa here: I’ve always thought most are a bit cheesy.

But apparently they do have an effect… even if it’s revulsion?

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