While there were, and still are, many good and effective pro-life billboards on the interstate highway serving Ocala, Florida, prior to 2009, there were none in the city near the abortion mill itself. Knowing that, historically, the presence of pro-life billboards frequently helps to change the minds and hearts of abortion-minded women, Life Education Ministry sought to erect a billboard downtown.
Planning strategically, LEM placed its first billboard in January 2009. It overlooked a large city parking lot in view of heavy pedestrian traffic and surrounded the city courthouse, office buildings and Ocala City Square.
Encouraged by the reaction the first billboard produced, Life Education Ministry began looking for a second location. Again, strategic planning led to the selection of a spot near a very busy post office. Here it is easily seen by the post office-bound audience, but it can also be viewed by a large number of motorists traveling from the north side of the city to the south side.
The same artwork—a mother and sleeping child, as well as the LEM office telephone number—is displayed on both billboards, but each has a different message. The downtown billboard reads, “Abortion … the ultimate child abuse.” The suburban billboard reads, “Abortion … in your heart you know it’s wrong.”
Mabel Ryan, president of Life Education Ministry, notes that the organization has received numerous calls in response to the billboards. Of course, there are some who are not happy about the billboards and their messages. Yet many others have called to thank LEM, saying that they reconsidered having an abortion after seeing the mother and child artwork and applying the picture to themselves. One woman acknowledged, “The billboard tipped the scale against abortion for me.”
Such testimonies confirm that these public messages do save the lives of preborn children. However, logic tells us that not every mother who changes her mind against abortion will tell someone that a roadside message saved her baby’s life. That’s okay; we do not need to know. God, who created and gave us the gift of life, knew each of these babies before their creation—and He knows. The important part is that numerous lives have been saved.
Life Education Ministry has been an American Life League Associate group since 2007. For more information on the Associate Program, visit www.all.org/associates.