A University of British Columbia Okanagan campus student who raised more than $3,000 for a pro-choice billboard is stumped on where to post her message.
Sophie Harms says she wants to create a billboard that says “Abortion is safe, normal and common” to counter the anti-abortion billboard messaging that peppers the Okanagan region.
Recent billboards in the region have shown a pregnant belly next to a person holding a baby, with the text “Our right to life does not depend on our location.” Another sign said, “Abortion is not ‘healthcare.’ Pregnancy is not a disease.”
These anti-abortion billboards are often the subject of advertising standards complaints. Some complaints result in the replacement of the billboard with the decision of the Ad Standards council.
Harms’ request to purchase a pro-choice billboard has now been turned down or ignored by all four billboard companies in the region.
Harms points out that though abortion has been decriminalized in Canada, there are still issues with stigma and access that prompt a need to counter anti-abortion messaging.
Abortions can be medical, where a patient takes an abortion pill prescribed by their doctor at home, or in-clinic, where a clinician does a short procedure. Both options are “generally very safe” and “low-risk,” according to a provincial website with abortion information.
Harms, who was born and raised in the Okanagan and is currently researching abortion politics in the region, said she grew up surrounded by anti-abortion messaging that focused on emotional co-option.
This strategy focuses on the personhood of the fetus and features slogans like “Mommy, don’t kill me,” she said.
In 2021 there was a shift where being “pro-life” fell out of vogue and anti-abortion groups repackaged themselves by appropriating the language of feminism, Harms said. Today, “we’re seeing a lot more rhetoric of ‘Abortion harms women,’ and it ‘causes psychological damage, infertility or breast cancer,’” none of which is true.
There’s also the trend of “abortion awfulization,” where abortion is represented as something inherently negative and traumatic, Harms said, like with billboards that say, “Abortion is too horrific to be shown on this sign.”
Research shows that relief is the primary emotion people feel after an abortion, she said.
Harms said billboards that negatively frame or spread disinformation about abortions feed into stigma, which is why she wanted to create her own message that abortions are normal, shared in the same mass communication style of a billboard.
She launched a crowdfunding campaign with the goal of raising $1,500 to produce the billboard, $25 per day to rent the ad space and $500 to cover unexpected costs.
She told The Tyee she thought she might be able to raise $200 over a month. Instead, 79 donors stepped forward and she surpassed her fundraising goal in a matter of days.
The next challenge was finding a billboard company willing to post her pro-choice message.
Harms said she reached out to Pattison Outdoor, Coast Outdoor, the Electronic Billboard and BC Billboards.
She says a Pattison Outdoors sales representative was initially supportive of the idea but later said the billboard was “too controversial and they wanted to stay neutral.”
Harms said she was surprised Pattison Outdoor declined to run her pro-choice billboard because the company has run progressive billboards that support LGBTQIA+ issues.
Pattison Outdoor faced publish pushback after running anti-abortion ads in Alberta and Nova Scotia in 2018, Victoria in 2019 and Manitoba in 2024.
Harms said Coast Outdoor, which has billboards in five communities across Vancouver Island and 23 communities in the Interior, also told her they wouldn’t host her billboard because it was “too controversial.”
The Tyee contacted Pattison Outdoor and Coast Outdoor to ask them to clarify their policies on abortion but did not hear back.
Harms said the Electronic Billboard in Kelowna didn’t answer her email. BC Billboards also didn’t respond.
BC Billboards is a company that’s popular with anti-abortion organizations. Its website hosts a testimonial from Marlon Bartram, executive director of the Kelowna Right to Life Society, in which he praises the “amazing company” he’s run ads with for two years.
“BC Billboards has always bent over backwards to make sure we are satisfied with all aspects of billboard advertising,” his testimonial reads.
In 2021 the anti-abortion group LifeCanada said, “We have secured a 12-month contract with BC Billboards to display pro-life messages to tens of thousands of motorists each month.”
Harms said that in 2023 BC Billboards defended running an anti-SOGI billboard because it respected an advertiser’s rights to free speech.
“I wanted to see if I could hold them to it, if they actually believed in free speech,” she said.
Joyce Arthur, executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, said it’s a contradiction for a company to accept anti-abortion advertising but not pro-choice ads. It’s also frustrating because access to abortion is supported by a person’s Charter rights, human rights and overall freedom. Abortion is also widely supported by Canadian culture, status quo and laws, she said.
If billboard companies are standing on private land, then the private company does have the right to choose what advertising clients or messages it puts up, she added.
Harms said she’s brainstorming what steps to take next to get her message out.
Arthur said billboards always seem like the flashiest way to get your messaging out, but an ad at a busy transit hub might get more eyeballs at the end of the day.
– By Michelle Gamage, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
