“Welcome to Colorado, where you can get a safe, legal abortion,” is what a west-facing billboard on I-70 near the Utah border tells drivers travelling east.
In response, Denver-area attorney and talk radio personality Dan Caplis began a daily segment on his 630 KHOW show featuring listeners’ pro-life billboard ideas.
“It’s really poetic,” he said on his show last Wednesday, “because that pro-abortion billboard has now triggered this beautiful creative outpouring from our listeners.”
Following the first billboard – which Caplis said he and his listeners will fund together – the lawyer has plans for a larger campaign based on his pro-life messaging.
“We want your creativity, and we want your money,” he said, because “nobody’s offering these boards for free.”
Caplis discussed, “a delicate balance when” approaching “the folks we’re trying to reach,” whom he dubbed, “the persuadables.
“You don’t want to be, either in your imagery or your words, so off-putting that people just shut down and the message never has a chance,” he said.
“But at the same time, it’s got to pop. It’s got to cut through the noise.”
Caplis’ prospective campaign seems very focused on imagery – particularly from the medical world – as a way to catalyze people on the fence.
“I worked at an OBGYN clinic,” said Stacy – a caller to the show from Greeley, “and I had a good friend that was pro-abortion.”
“One of our patients brought in a sample of a miscarriage,” she said “and you could see the little eye slits and the fingers,” and other miniature body parts.
“My God, Stacy,” her friend said. “It’s a baby.”
At one point, Caplis took a call from Eric – a self-described “Trump supporter” and “die-hard conservative” from Westminster – who had a more nuanced take on abortion.
After explaining he found the practice sickening, Eric told Caplis it was something he had to go through – presumably for medical reasons – with his first wife.
Caplis tried desperately to change the subject, but Eric wasn’t budging. The two went on to have a short but nuanced conversation on Roe v Wade and the ethics of the conservative pro-life position – particularly as they pertained to a woman’s right to choose.
