Ad company pulls NYC anti-abortion billboard

Updated at 12:41 p.m. ET

NEW YORK - An outdoor advertising company has taken down a New York City anti-abortion billboard that showed a black girl along with the tagline, "The most dangerous place for an African-American is in the womb."

(Scroll down to watch a report from CBS News station WCBS-TV in New York)

A manager for Louisiana-based Lamar Advertising confirmed Thursday the company had decided to take down the billboard. Some black residents said they found it offensive.

The Rev. Al Sharpton praised the decision and canceled plans to protest the billboard.

The removal was ordered three weeks before the billboard was scheduled to come down, CBS News station WCBS-TV in New York reports.

"They got a lot of attention, but they may not have gotten a lot of support," Sharpton told WCBS-TV.

The Texas-based group behind the billboard, Life Always, released a statement that it "strongly disagrees with Lamar Outdoor's decision to remove the billboard ... but the billboard's message holds true ... that abortion is outpacing life in the black community."

"The survival of our country, our nation, is tied to the woman's womb," the Rev. Stephen Broden of Life Always told WCBS-TV.

The billboard was placed in a busy Manhattan neighborhood as part of a national campaign tied to Black History Month. Life Always said its message highlights Planned Parenthood's "targeting of minority neighborhoods."

Planned Parenthood called the advertisement a "condescending effort to stigmatize and shame African-American women."

The billboard was gone by early Friday.