(LifeSiteNews) — A pro-life TV advert funded and launched by conservative entrepreneur and multimillionaire Miguel Milhão in Portugal has sparked widespread debate — and vicious backlash from abortion activists.
The ad — a music video titled “Obrigado, Mãe” (Thanks, Mom) — shows a young woman in an operating room, presumably in an abortion clinic, about to get an abortion. According to Milhão, the ad is “an artistic tribute to his mother, who, as a young woman of only 19, bravely refused to abort Miguel … a harrowing condemnation of abortion and its main enabler, the Portuguese state.”
The video begins with 23-year-old Joana. As she is about to get an abortion, the video shows a lineup of women taking tickets, a conveyor belt of abortion purchasers. The song, performed by Joelissa Campos, is sung from the perspective of a baby. “I am an echo of the impossible/ After so much suffering/ I am a miracle/ Surviving,” the child sings. “Be a warrior/ not a worrier/ Without fear of what is coming/ ’Cause I am powerful/ Life is always one step ahead.”
Abortion activists, including groups such as Associação Escolha, did not find the ad inspiring. They immediately called for the ad to be pulled from the airwaves, insisting that it was not merely a celebration of motherhood but an “attack on individual freedom” for portraying the opposite choice and allegedly violating the Law on Television and Audiovisual Services on Demand.
“Through a false context surrounding the surgical procedure for voluntary termination of pregnancy, it clearly advocates a ‘No’ to abortion, a political issue, and is an attack on the individual freedom of every woman and pregnant person — broadcast by a television channel with a high reach at a national level, among children and young people,” the association claimed. They saw no irony in their claim to be defending children.
The association additionally requested Media Capital, the company responsible for one of the channels airing the video, to “immediately cease the advertising agreement signed with Miguel Milhão and to remove any mention of the music video.” Abortion activists have flooded Portugal’s media watchdog, Entidade Reguladora para a Comunicação Social (ERC), with over 500 complaints calling for the ad’s removal from the airwaves, even though it obviously breaks no laws.
Milhão, the founder and CEO of sports nutrition company Prozis, was characteristically unapologetic. “Want to censor the guru’s artistic productions? 25 de abril, always!’ he wrote in response. The “April 25” reference was to Portugal’s Carnation Revolution, when military officers initiated a coup that inaugurated the country’s transition to democracy. Milhão famously referred to himself as “uncancellable” in 2022, and despite the potential cost to his business has refused to remain silent about his pro-life convictions.
In May 2024, for example, he purchased TV ad space to air a video celebrating the day of his conception, making the point that life begins at conception rather than at birth. In 2022, he celebrated the overturn of Roe v. Wade in the U.S. with a post on LinkedIn: “It seems that unborn babies got their rights back in the USA! Nature is healing!” That post cost him partnerships with several influencers, including actresses Jessica Athayde and Diana Monteiro.
On his podcast “Conversas do Karalho,” Milhão has detailed his position further, leading to more cancelled partnerships:
Let’s imagine that I’m going to murder an elderly person. What have I stolen from him? It’s the set of experiences and sensations that he would have had from the moment I killed him until he died naturally. If I killed a young adult, I would steal much more. If you kill the fetus or the embryo, you steal all of this. In my way of thinking, killing an embryo, or a fetus, or a newborn, or killing an adult, it’s all the same thing, it’s stealing experiences.
Thus far, attempts to cancel the sports CEO have failed, and his willingness to defend the weakest and most vulnerable members of Portuguese society is admirable. The backlash from abortion activists indicates that his TV ads and public criticism are hitting home. If Europe had more corporate leaders like him, it would be a better place.
