Quotes from signers of the TWSR petition:
See more responses here: https://oursilverribbon.org/wp-content/uploads/petition-abortion-rts-1-9-14-public.pdf
| Trust Women/Silver Ribbon Campaign Petition: Lies About Abortion Hurt Women 1-9-14 | ||
| First Name | Last Name | Personal Message |
| Betsy | Eudey | Accurate information and resources related to health is a necessity, and federal, state and local governments must do all they can to ensure that misinformation is not overtly or covertly supported. Individuals and organizations should not have the opportunity to post misleading or medically false information on public property, especially when doing so appears to have the blessing/support of the government. |
| Tracy | Sherman | I have never visited San Francisco, it has long been on my list of places I would like to go. I assumed the culture was open and honest (you are famous for your Gay community after all). But this has changed my mind. Any city foolish enough to let a few idiots put up banners that are patently FALSE is no longer a place I want to visit. I speak from the experience of 2 abortions for very different reasons. One saved my life and the other saved my child from suffering and dying right after birth. Not only did these not hurt – they were blessings. Next time you decide to make stupid statements, perhaps you will think about the tourist money you are losing. |
| Patricia | Jackson | A false, hate message should not be displayed by the city. |
| Barbara | Nielsen | Abortion does not hurt women. Abortion is legal. San Francisco City and County is displaying false statements about women’s legal healthcare and reproductive rights options in contradiction to City policies and practices. We call on the Mayor and elected leaders to TAKE DOWN THE BANNERS as soon as possible. |
| Liz | Newbury | Abortion is safe and legal. Let’s keep it that way. Disseminating deliberate misinformation to promote particular religious ideologies is dangerous to women and their families. The great city of San Francisco can do better by its citizens and guests than to use city property to promote misinformation for religious purposes. |
| Louise | Calabro | Abortion is safe reproductive health care for women — lies about this hurt women, rather than helping them. |
| Lauren | Schweizer | Abortion must be legal to be safe, illegal abortions hurt women. Take down the banners! |
| Michele | Chandler | Access = CHOICE! |
| John | Fiore | Appalled that we are paying for lies on OUR lamp posts. Will we do absolutely anything/everything for money? |
| Mary Ann | Castle | As a former resident of San Francisco and an advocate for human rights, I am outraged at the medically inaccurate public health message that are being displayed on SD City banners. I request that they be removed immediately and that medically accurate information be provided to girls an women. |
| shayna | lewis | As a former, and hopefully again in the near future, resident of San Francisco, it is incredibly disheartening to learn that the City is promoting such blatant misinformation. I urge you to take down these banners as soon as possible. |
| Carol | Bailey | As a frequent visitor to San Francisco, I can not believe the signs posted along Market St. I expect “the city” to be an eclectic mix of everything good – not a messenger for untruths. |
| Trina | Semorile | As a native San Franciscan, I am outraged this this has been permitted and allowed to continue. I will shortly be in San Francisco for a visit and trust these signs will be gone. Get them down. Hate speech is NOT free speech. Hate speech kills. |
| Ann | Boddum | As a Nurse practitioner who has worked in San Francisco Kaiser OB department. These banner goes beyond the line ..they are false . And it is a very false statement to allow to put up as if the city of San Francisco is saying this. You must have them removed. |
| Joan | Edelstein | As a nursing faculty in SF, and past resident, I trust the administration will properly attend to this violation of City regulations. These banners harm women! |
| Kathy | King | As a physician I am outraged that the city would allow these signs to be posted on city property. Freedom of speech – yes – but city support of misinformation – NO! |
| Gene | Bishop | As a physician I find this a poor public health message |
| diane | gottlieb | As a woman and a health professional I am dismayed by this poor choice. This same mayor has also been responsible for the increase in homeless mentally ill in sanfrancisco, which is another preventable public health situation. |
| Norma J F | Harrison | ASK ME ABOUT HOW WONDERFUL I FELT, ABORTING MY unwanted PREGNANCIES!! |
| Thea | Selby | Attaching to the Snowflakes? Really? |
| Bertha | Mo | Dear Mayor: As a long time public health professional and advocate, I request that you remove the incorrect information about abortion on the City’s publicly managed lamp posts on Market St. in San Francisco. As a public health professional, I am shocked that these untruths are being spread on City managed banners. As a former City public health worker, I was proud that I worked to support the health and well-being of families in the City; particular the health and well-being of girls and women. San Francisco DPH has always practiced what it preaches and support reproductive rights of women. Please take these banners with incorrect messages down today. |
| Larry | Adelman | Dear Mr. Mayor: I am a big believer in freedom of speech but not statements which are lies and can harm others. For the City to allow banners on its property which are outright falsehoods about women is as alarming as it would be to see banners on City property promoting racist or anti-Semitic remarks. Further, the statement that “abortion hurts women” itself harms women. That’s not a public health message I believe you or our other City leaders wish to propagate. Please promote accurate and positive messages about reproductive health. Thank you. Larry Adelman |
| Claudine | Torfs | Did you know that public health data show that maternal death from abortion are highest where abortion is forbidden? Why? Because through all ages and in all countries, women do abort, either safely or unsafely. Abortion is and has has been done all over the world forever. It was even allowed by the Catholic church for the first semester of pregancy until the “ensoulment” –that is the time the church thought the “soul” of the embryo entered the fetus– until the 13th or so century. It is still the same rule for the present day Muslims until the “quickening” or “ensoulment”. Check it out. Use only scientific sources: they don’t lie or have a religious prejudice. |
| Virginia | Anderson | Don’t participate in sliding backward regarding truth about reproductive health care services. In this era when many families with children are forced to live on the streets because they’re not able to provide decent lives for themselves and their children, it’s a troubling bent to support limits to reproductive rights. Are we raising a caste of slaves? |
| Dena | Bergstrom | Don’t tell women what to do with there bodies! Abortion is safe! I know!! |
| Yoana | Corro | Don’t treat women like children that can’t take the truth and don’t treat them like if they’re idiots and don’t know about their own body. |
| Dave | Sweet | Follow our lobby @USVetJOBs to help stop these government scams! |
| z | kastl | Freedom of speech is not the issue when one is lying. |
| steve | heilig | Hello – “Free speach” does have limits when lies and inflammatory language is involved. Plus these signs violate local policy. Thank you for your attention. |
| Ruby | Kane | Horrifying! I almost don’t believe it, it’s so outrageous. |
| gene | grabiner | I am a former San Francisco resident, and i am appalled at this anti-abortion disinformation campaign proliferating from lampposts in The City. These banners, with their public lies and medical misinformation about the safety of abortion, should immediately be taken down. I urge the Mayor of San Francisco to do right away. |
| Dr. Martha | Lincoln | I am a medical anthropologist and public health researcher residing in Oakland, California. San Francisco’s history as a progressive city supportive of gender freedom is dishonored by the false and politically motivated message that “abortion hurts women.” What really hurts women is the limitation of their power to be informed and exercise their autonomy in choosing safe medical options. |
| Krishanti | Dharmaraj | I am deeply disturbed by this information. San Francisco became the first city in the United States to pass legislation on the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). This legislation protects women’s right to family planning and reproductive freedom. The banners in San Francisco is counter to this legislation and women’s fundamental human rights. Please ensure women’s human rights in San Francisco by removing the banners. Thank you. |
| Diana | Madoshi | I am so shocked that a city that has been supportive of women’s right to choice would do such a thing. |
| Licita | Fernandez | I believe that women should have the right to choose whether or not to have an abortion, and misinformation about the harm abortions do to women distorts the truth. Lies add another barrier to choice. |
| Lorraine | Honig | I do not believe the city should permit signs or banners which contain false information. Abortion should be a choice for women and there is no evidence to show that it hurts them |
| Kathy | Kramer | I hope the City moves quickly to remove the offensive “Abortion Hurts Women” signs on Market Street. The message is incorrect, and inappropriate. (According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, abortion is one of the safest medical procedures. The risk of death is 13 times higher for carrying a pregnancy to term, compared with abortion, in the U.S.) It is also legal. A message like this does not belong on the City’s light posts. |
| Elaine | Butler | I remember when abortion was illegal and it did hurt women when they were done under unsanitary conditions. |
| Carolyn | Scarr | I sign in honor and memory of my mother who was a Planned Parenthood volunteer. |
| Helen | Cagampang | Illegal abortion hurts women. Even though rarely needed, access to legal and affordable abortion is an essential component of comprehensive women’s health care. The posters are deceptive and part of a propaganda campaign that undermines women’s health. They should be removed. |
| Caryl | Gorska | ILLEGAL abortions hurt women. Keep abortion legal and safe! |
| Mary | Swope | I’m shocked. How did hey go up in the first place? |
| Debbie | Mytels | It’s shocking that the City of SF would put such provocative and untrue banners on public light posts! |
| Chris | Coombe | I’ve always been so proud of the Bay Area – my former home for over 25 years. How can the city allow this? Would you allow banners advertising “Gay Sex Hurts Men” or a “Walk for One-Man-One-Woman Marriage”??? Of course not. Shame on you!! |
| Charles | Simons | Just take ’em down |
| Inge | Horton | Keep abortion legal! |
| Kathleen | Kennedy | Keep abortion safe, legal and accessible. Women’s lives depend on it. |
| paul | page | Keep advertisements out of public places. |
| Patricia | Holcomb | Keep womans health care safe…. |
| Linda | Ray | Lack of reproductive choice is what hurts women and girls who are old enough to become pregnant. Religious belief should not be announced as if it is medical information. |
| James | Paulson | Mayor, Tell the truth….Stop spreading HATE…The reality is women and women only are to be the ones who control their own bodies! |
| Hallie | Chen | OH MAN TAKE THESE DOWN ASAP |
| Leonore | Tiefer | Oh, for heaven’s sake – it’s 2014!! |
| M.L. | Jones | Please do not help in perpetuating these lies. The city regulations that require accurate information should not be violated. Thank you. |
| Caryl | Hughan | Please have signs removed. Abortion is a woman’s choice and “Abortion hurts women” is not a value position that SF should take. Many thanks. |
| Alyse | Ceirante | Please remove the banners. They represent quite a significant step backwards for women’s rights. By allowing these banners to remain in place, it is as if the city is condoning the lie that is contained therein. |
| Jan | Feldman | Please stop giving access to your lamp posts to groups who want to post misleading or false statements. |
| Sofia | Balderas | Please stop the misinformation! What a shameful display in a historically progressive city! |
| Marlene | Aron | Please take these banners down. They are lies and will scare young people who don’t know the difference. Abortion does not “hurt women”. Abortion can be safely done. It is up to each woman, individually, to make the choice as to whether she wants to have a child. Take these banners down. They are lies and do not belong here. Marlene Aron |
| Eva | Pettersson | Please, no lies on public places! |
| Michael | Holland | Promote the right message. Abortion is safe. |
| Larisa | Stevens | Really San Francisco?! |
| Ann | Hart | Really? the forward thinking west coast is not supporting women’s right to choose? I thought only the midwest was backwards…please keep the west coast sane! |
| RENAE | TRAN | remember GOVERNMENT, THIS IS MY CHOICE; NOT YOUR FREAKING CHOICE OK! ” FOR THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE….OF THE PEOPLE!!” |
| Paula | Carder | San Fran, I thought you were BETTER than this. Seriously. This is just shameful. Not having access to SAFE abortions, shaming women, flat out LYING… THIS is what hurts women. BOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
| Gail | Xandy | San Francisco is a beacon of light compared to Texas. Don’t let your light go out! |
| Ellen | Shaffer | San Francisco should stand up for women’s rights. |
| Kate | Holum | San Francisco women will defend our rights to terminate pregnancy and control our own bodies. Forcing women to bear children is what causes suffering-to overburdened moms and neglected, unwanted kids. |
| Kathy | Reed | Shame on the city for displaying a false message on publicly managed lamp posts! Take the message down now! |
| Deborah | Chase | Shameful!! |
| sheila | goldmacher | shocking to think that SF has allowed these lies to hang in its streets! remove them please on behalf of the truth and womens’ and girls’ lives. |
| Marti | Smith | Standing in solidarity with you from Sacramento. |
| Susan | Stafford | Stop spreading falsehoods about abortion and reproductive rights. |
| Nancy | Shand | Stop spreading lies! |
| Lisa | Diehl | Stop with the bullshit lies, and take the banners down. Why is abortion ANY of your business? |
| Lynne | Averill | TAKE DOWN THE BANNERS. |
| Renee | Collins | Tell the Truth. |
| Edith | Bargoma | That is a fear tactic and it is not okay. |
| Andrea | Jesse | The “Abortion Hurts Women” campaign goes against San Francisco’s long tradition of liberty and progressive values. |
| Barbara | Hokw | The lies these banners tell are against public health policy and should be removed. |
| Peter | Van Coutren | The Right to choose is the right to freedom |
| Leeza | vinogradov | The right wingers are just Non-Stop!! |
| Clare | Feinson | These banners must come down! They perpetuate statements that have been proven wrong by research! Their placement on governmental property is questionable, at best. Women deserve support, not more harassment. |
| Clare | Feinson | These banners must come down! They perpetuate statements that have been proven wrong by research! Their placement on governmental property is questionable, at best. Women deserve support, not more harassment. |
| Sophia | Yen MD MPH | These lies are a public health hazard to any woman contemplating this procedure. 1 in 3 women will have this procedure in their life. Abortion is one of the safest procedures out there. Abortion is safer than continuing a pregnancy to term. |
| Margaret | Spaulding | These signs are absolutely outrageous. It may be true that abortions hurt women; many things hurt women, including unwanted pregnancies, abuse, poverty, poor health and ignorance to name but a few. Women must have freedom to make choices about their health. TAKE DOWN THE SIGNS. |
| Kathryn | Roberts | This is hate speech advocating that women be denied their right to reproductive health. It doesn’t belong anywhere. |
| Catherine | Pinkas | This is not an appropriate use on San Francisco public property |
| Mary Beth | Brown | This is not the sort of propagada I expect to see hanging from lampposts in The City! My city, the place of my birth, the place I am proud to say I’m from. Tax payer dollars should NOT be spent on displays of scientifically inaccurate propaganda. PLEASE remove these banners! |
| Claire | Brindis | This is the wrong message to give women…when it so distorts reality. |
| Elizabeth | Krueger | This on top of the obnoxious billboards is abhorrent. |
| Susan | Jakubiak | Unbelievable that those banners could be displayed on public property! |
| Melanie | Grossman | Unwanted pregnancies hurt women and illegal abortions have hurt women tremendously. |
| Helynna | Brooke | We wouldn’t allow the Klu Klux Clan to post signs so why these terroists? |
| sadja | Greenwood | What hurts women and drives them to dangerous back-alley abortions is lack of reproductive choice. |
| Alex | Pirie | What?! On city property? What is happening to San Francisco? For shame. Take them down now. |
| Sandra | Schmaier | Who paid for these banners? This is as bad as the banners that went on SF buses criminalizing Palestinians about a year ago…remember?. Who paid for these? Pro Life groups do not provide economic support for unwed mothers or daycare for career woman who accidentally get pregnant or woman are raped…..what is going on here? Once the water breaks they are no where to be found……how does that help woman? |
| Diane | Fenster | women have the right to choose for themselves. |
| Robin | Brasso | Women’s reproductive rights and the attempts by the right to control women’s bodies are based on fear and lies. We will NOT allow these lies to be posted on banners on the streets of San Francisco. We will work to overturn the restrictive laws in the Republican held states. They will NOT be allowed to stand. |
| Susan | Englander | Would San Francisco fly banners that say Ed Lee is homophobic or San Francisco Police discriminate against women? Free speech may be our highest right but public policy also has a role. |
| Tina | Ann | you are my city- please represent all of us |
| Lin | Kaatz Chary | You don’t have to live in San Francisco to be shocked and upset by these banners. I have lived in San Francisco and continue to have friends and family there – you can be sure they will be hearing from me about this! |