Nat’l pro-life ad campaign seeks to dispel myths

WASHINGTON (Catholic Online) — An advertising campaign from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Pro-life Secretariat has been released throughout the country to dispel myths about Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision and to challenge the public to reconsider the scope of abortion law in the United States.



Called the “Second Look Project,” the advertisements currently running in buses and trains and on radio in the Washington area and in print publications in major U.S. media outlets asks “Have we gone too far?.”

New “Roe v. Reality” ads from the Second Look Project are now running in buses and trains throughout the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority system. In addition, 60-second radio spots are being aired in a focused campaign in the Washington, D.C. listening area. Print ads have also been appearing around the anniversary of Roe in major media outlets including the Washington Post and the New York Times.

“The Second Look Project seeks to inform Americans of the actual legal status of abortion in the United States,” said Deirdre McQuade of the bishops’ pro-life secretariat, who oversees the initiative. “By citing pro-choice legal scholars, Supreme Court justices and a feminist organization’s survey, the new ads challenge Americans to take a ‘second look’ at common assumptions about abortion that are, in reality, false.”

McQuade expressed confidence that the advertisements would appeal to the general public. “Public support of abortion on demand is declining,” she said. “One Metro ad highlights this point in a myth/fact pairing: ‘Myth: The vast majority of American women believe abortion should be legal for any reason. Fact: Only 30% do.’”

Other Second Look Project ads have been running for several weeks in the San Francisco Bay area transit system, sponsored by Friends of the Oakland Diocese Respect Life Ministry. There, many of the ads have been vandalized and destroyed in what McQuade describes as “vigilante censorship.”

“The destruction of these factual, understated ads is quite revealing,” McQuade said. “Some supporters of ‘choice’ would deny the public the right to make informed choices on this important issue of public policy.”

The advertising direct viewers to a website with the radio spots as well as references and additional information on Roe v. Wade: www.SecondLook.org. The Second Look Project first mounted an ad campaign in the D.C. Area in January 2005.