Abortion Billboards

     When driving on I-35  from where I live in San Antonio, Texas to Dallas, Texas I saw multiple billboards that showed a baby and stated “I have a heartbeat 18 days after conception”. Becoming a mother has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me and as much as I want to sit here and encourage others to have babies, there are so many factors that come into play when it comes to pro-choice. This billboard is intended to convince women to keep their babies and to not continue the drive to bordering states for abortions, however I feel there are factors that should be taken into account when considering abortion as not a human right.

Being a woman that grew up in California and lived in Oregon for 4 years, I never thought that access to healthcare would be something that would be taken away from me and so many other women, until I moved to Texas. Living in Texas I am forced to consider how politics affect my life as a woman. I am lucky to be in a healthy and stable relationship, live in a safe home, have access to health care, and not have any existing health concerns, but there are so many individuals in Texas that do not have the luxuries I do. With the status of poverty being stated at 17.7% in San Antonio, Texas by the Human Services-Status of Poverty 2024 Report and the direct correlation in Women with incomes below the poverty line having a unintended pregnancy rate more than five times higher, we need to consider the bigger picture. 

As stated in the Human Services- Status of Poverty 2024 Report, one in five individuals lack the socio-economic resources to meet their basic needs. With abortions being illegal in Texas and low income Women not having the socio-economic resources to be able to afford or have access to contraception, there must be a problem with education and funding.  With the overturning of Roe V. Wade everything that I have mentioned has become exacerbated maily here in the south. Funding for Planned Parenthood has been drastically cut by the federal government in an attempt to permanently eradicate it.

With the CDCs report of fertility rate dropping 3% from 2022-2024 and annually 2% from 2014 to 2020, I can understand a fear from Pro-Lifers stance on the sanctity of life, but in the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute in 2022, 368,000 children are living in the U.S. foster care system. If these individuals were so worried about the well being of a fetus, then why wouldn't they open up their arms and wallets to children that are already in need.  

I may not have ever had an abortion myself, but I have close friends and family that have had medical and surgical abortions. With the fears that come from having an abortion in a safe space, I can only imagine the fear a woman may have, having to drive hours away from their home to have a procedure done. Placing these billboards along I-35, the busiest highway in Texas, incites fear and shame in Women. 

References

CDC. (2024, April 25). U.S. fertility rate drops to another historic low. Retrieved from www.cdc.gov website: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2024/20240525.htm

Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. (2021). Fact Sheets. Retrieved from www.ccainstitute.org website: https://www.ccainstitute.org/resources/fact-sheets

Guttmacher Institute. (2023, January 24). Wealth Inequity Puts Abortion Out of Reach for Many Americans Living with Low Incomes. Retrieved from Guttmacher Institute website: https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2023/wealth-inequity-puts-abortion-out-reach-many-americans-living-low-incomes

Prolife Across America. (2025). Current Billboards. In Prolife Across America. Retrieved from https://prolifeacrossamerica.org/portfolio_page/fact-human-since-conception/

Services, H. (2024). STATUS OF POVERTY. City of San Antonio Texas: City of San Antonio Texas. Retrieved from City of San Antonio Texas website: https://www.sa.gov/files/assets/main/v/1/dhs/documents/shared/2024-poverty-report.pdf