Matthew Yglesias posted a tweet recently with the following photo of a 1971 billboard in Pennsylvania advertising abortions in New York:
Googling for the slogan “usually under $250” reveals another version of the same billboard. For comparison’s sake, $250 in 1971 is equal to $1800 today when adjusted for inflation. Abortion in modern-day NYC costs around $700.
Back in the day this particular billboard proved quite controversial, with Newspapers.com counting at least 42 articles talking about it. What did the journalists say about the ad back in the day? An article from Ohio called it “a sign of times”:
An article from Pennsylvania elaborated further on the story:
Billboards in parts of western Pennsylvania advertising a New York abortion service have aroused the ire of the citizenry, but even the severest critics admit there may be no legal way to remove the signs. The billboards read: "Legal Abortions. Usually under $250, price includes our service fee. Professional Scheduling Service, Inc.. 545 Fifth Ave., New York." A phone number is also given.
The signs are being handled through the Hugh Ettlinger Advertising Agency of New York, which signed a 12-month lease or the boards. Much of the outcry is centered around the legality of advertising for abortions, which are legal in New York while they are illegal in Pennsylvania. "We are advertising on billboards not by choice but because it is the only means through which we can reach those who desperately need and want our services," said Peter Levine, president of Professional Scheduling Service. He said the signs are not meant to encourage abortion, but to make people aware that he operation can be done legally in New York. Each woman who contacts the firm gets professional counseling, he said.
Some local citizens complained the billboards are "utterly gross" and "revolting." "Legally there appears to be nothing we can do," said the Rev. Francis Ginocchi, pastor of Mount St. Peter Roman Catholic Church and head of the Greater Kensington Clergy Association. "We take strong opposition to the blatant commercialism shown in the signs, and our members see in this a breakdown in the approach to morality," he said. Local newspapers have reported many calls protesting the billboards, At least one sign has been partly obliterated with paint.
Mrs. Carole Pellis of Greensburg regional secretary for the Pennsylvanians For Human Life, said not all of the protests were from people who are against legalized abortion. "We've gotten phone calls from housewives who have seen the signs while driving their children to school," Mrs. Pellis said. "One woman from a group supporting Planned Parenthood said she was appalled by it." She said the reactions will probably swell the rolls of the Pennsylvania for Human Life, which has about 3,000 members in the Westmoreland Courtly area.
If the article is to be believed, publicly talking about abortion was quite taboo in 1971 and parents were worried about their children seeing the billboard. Its hard to say if the ranks of Pennsylvanians for Human Life have indeed “swelled up”, but the organization still exists today.
The same abortions scheduling company also put out ads in North Carolina, offering readers to “clip and save”:
And their phone line seems to have been open 24/7:
I couldn’t find anything on what happened to Peter Levine or “Professional Scheduling Service, Inc”, but presumably they’ve shut doors in 1973 when abortion was legalized across the nation. Another organization from those days called Jane Collective operated illegally in Chicago and was saved from prosecution in 1973 by the Roe vs. Wade decision.
An Illinois billboard from 1972 was advertising the services a company that chartered private planes to fly women from states where abortion was illegal to Niagara Falls in New York. This version of the service cost $400 or $2900 adjusted for inflation.
Central City, ILL.: Once limited to "underground" newspapers, a referral service for abortion has come out into the open with this billboard sign recently posted along State Route 51 near Central City. The billboard has been leased for a year and another sign is in the Mt. Vernon area. Telephoning the number on the board contacts a man named Martin Mitchell, an auto parts dealer at Detroit who styles himself "the poor man's Ralph Nader-a crusader for zero Population Growth. Although this type of advertising is new to southern Illinois residents, it is said to be already up in 40 states.
Modern abortion ads seem to be more discreet, with somewhat explicit billboards being discussed on Fox News when they show up.
I imagine such billboards will soon become extremely common in the 13+ states that plan to restrict abortion. The Supreme Court decided back in 1975 that such advertising is protected by the First Amendment and its unlikely that this ruling would be changed as a follow up to Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Somewhat coincidentally the German Parliament recently scrapped its decades-old ban on advertising abortion services.