'Terminator' billboard erected outside pro-choice abortion clinic termed 'unfortunate and inappropriate' by workers
The placement of a suggestive billboard outside an abortion clinic in Australia has sparked fury amongst the workers who called it "unfortunate and obviously inappropriate."
The ad in question was one for the upcoming Arnold Schwarzenegger movie 'Terminator: Dark Fate,' and was placed just outside the Marie Stopes Bowen Hills Day Surgery in Brisbane's inner-city, according to the Daily Mail.
Marie Stopes, which has been operating since 2000 and describes itself on its website as a "proudly pro-choice" clinic which offers women medical and surgical abortion options, as well as "contraception post-abortion, decision-based abortion counseling, and 24/7 aftercare," has hit out against the sign.
"It was through our staff we started to make inquiries to get it removed," a spokesman told the Mail. "It's unfortunate and obviously inappropriate."
The image of the billboard outside the clinic was first posted on Reddit, where commenters mostly took to making fun of the Terminator movie, which is set to hit Australian cinemas on October 31.
"Terminator is a movie about a failed pre-conception abortion," one wrote, while another posted, "A very bad photoshop job. Should've have terminated as soon as the idea was conceived."
A third user commented, "Another Terminator movie is similar to an abortion. Highly controversial and capable of causing significant trauma to anyone subjected to it."
The spokesman said the sign had not been up for long and said the clinic would release a full statement addressing the issue once they had completed their investigation into the matter.
Abortion was decriminalized in almost all of Australia late last month after lawmakers in New South Wales, the country's most populous state, voted in favor of overturning a 119-year-old law and passed a bill that decriminalizes abortion and makes terminations available to people who are less than 22 weeks pregnant.
CNN reported that, previously, "unlawful abortion" was listed in the Crimes Act and carried a possible penalty of 10 years in prison, and that the passage of the bill meant that abortion is decriminalized everywhere in the country except the state of South Australia.