Selling Abortion Door to Door
If, as the saying goes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, maybe the women of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign should be pleased by Planned Parenthood’s new fundraising campaign.
A story on the Bloomberg News website explains how the tactics developed in the fight for recognition of gay marriage in California are being employed to change people’s minds about abortion. Young women are being sent out to knock on doors and tell people that they have had an abortion. By seeing the person behind the statistic, the thinking goes, California prolifers will give up their antiquated views and jump on the Planned Parenthood bandwagon, checkbooks at the ready.
A few things about that:
This idea is being credited to political strategist David Fleischer, who saw results when he had gay canvassers talk to voters about gay marriage following the Prop 8 vote. But the idea of speaking personally about abortions is not new, and it is not his. The Silent No More Awareness Campaign was founded in 2002 to do just that; since then thousands of women have held signs at public events and outside abortion clinics and inside churches. They tell their unique stories, many of which are included in my book, Recall Abortion, but the similarities shouldn’t be missed. Abortion is unlike any other encounter with a medical professional. It is cold and impersonal and brutal. It hurts, and the emotional pain lasts long after the physical agony has subsided. It is a choice these women will regret forever.
According to the brain trust behind this door-to-door idea, abortion supporters are too impatient to wait for “generational evolution” to make abortion widely accepted. But anyone with eyes can see that today’s youth is evolving towards life. The March for Life in Washington every January, attended by hundreds of thousands of people, is overwhelmingly dominated by those 21 and under. Youth realize they were the lucky ones; one-third of their generation has been lost to abortion. They have grown up with the internet and ultrasound and selfies. They see a baby in the womb, not the “products of conception.” They know, instinctively and organically, that killing an unborn child is wrong.
Pro-choice people have always stuck to the story that they are not pro-abortion, but that is changing. Many are coming out and saying things like “So what if a child is killed in abortion,” and “Abortion is always good, or even a blessing.” An abortion worker got her 15 minutes of fame by filming her abortion and declaring it “cool.” A young woman tried to crowd-fund her procedure, claiming she couldn’t pay for the abortion herself because it would cut into her cigarette money.
Does Planned Parenthood really think people are going to change their minds on abortion just because young women are willing to knock on doors and talk about how inconvenient their unborn child was for their plans? Are they imagining there is no one left in California who considers personal responsibility an admirable character trait?
Planned Parenthood gets taxpayer funding to the tune of $1.5 million a day—A DAY!—and has most of Hollywood’s deep pockets already playing their tune. Is it really necessary to endanger women by sending them out to strangers’ homes?
It seems that Planned Parenthood cares more about money than it does about women’s health and safety. But we knew that already.
—Janet Morana is executive director of Priests for Life. A slightly different version of this commentary appeared on www.thecatholicviewforwomen.com.
Related links:
http://cbswashington.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/464383393-e1390425095525.jpg?w=620&h=349&crop=1
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/23/so_what_if_abortion_ends_life/
http://inthesetimes.com/article/17216/abortion_isnt_necessary_evil_its_great_pro_choice
http://www.vice.com/read/meet-the-girl-whos-crowdfunding-her-abortion-905
