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3 Comments

August Homework for Pro-Lifers

18 Aug 2015
Connie Marshner
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If you’re lucky, you live in or near a city where an anti-Planned Parenthood demonstration is going to take place this Saturday—August 22. Click here to find the one nearest you.

Whether or not you go to a protest, there are things every single one of us can do right now to help foster a national conversation about Planned Parenthood. Thanks to the Center for Medical Progress, it’s never been easier to talk about life issues to total strangers.

When has our worst enemy ever before gotten so much bad publicity? The videos were mentioned in the GOP presidential debate, which was watched by an estimated 24 million people. Mainstream media tries hard to ignore the story, but when David Daleiden—the young pro-lifer who made the videos—gets mainstream exposure, he acquits himself well. So what can the grassroots pro-life citizen do in the remaining weeks of summer?

Talk about it! To everybody you can!

With this huge and compelling media story surrounding us right now, it’s never been easier to bring up the subject.

How many conversations have you had with strangers since the “baby-parts trafficking” stories broke? Have you had at least one a day? Why not?

What are you afraid of? That you won’t have all the answers? You don’t need to. That the total stranger—someone you never saw before and will never see again—will not like you? Why do you care?

In the weeks since this story broke, you’ve probably stood in line to get an ice cream cone or a gallon of milk.

Standing next to total strangers gives you 30 seconds to plant a seed.

Try this: “Man, did you see that Planned Parenthood video?”

Most likely response: “Huh?”

So you quickly put a frame around the picture: “I saw this thing on the internet and I can’t get it out of my mind. It was this video that shows people who work at Planned Parenthood quibbling about how much money they’re going to get if they sell an arm or a kidney from an aborted baby.”

The stranger may look at you as if you’re from Mars, then turn away. If so, what have you lost?

Or the stranger may say something polite like “Really?”

In which case you can say something like this: “Isn’t that gross? It’s awful enough to cut up the baby inside the mother, but then to sell it for parts—that’s yukky.”

And leave it at that. You’ve planted a seed.

Later on, the stranger may hear something about the videos while channel-surfing and remember somebody told him about them; he may then pause to learn more.

Seed-planting does not have to be totally random, either. Now is a good time to pick up the phone and call your local junior high. Ask the receptionist: “Has Planned Parenthood been in this school?” Then explain about the videos and how you hope they aren’t inviting the abortion provider to come in and sell its services there.

You don’t have to be a parent to have this conversation. You don’t have to get the receptionist to agree with you. It doesn’t have to be a long conversation. Just be polite and end the call after a minute or two. Remember, all you are doing is planting a seed.

Next, call your local high school and deliver the same message. Maybe whoever answers will jump through the phone at you—but so what? It’s not personal—so don’t let your feelings be hurt.

If your call causes a buzz to go around the teacher lounge, something to the effect of “Boy, this community doesn’t like Planned Parenthood,” somebody might think twice before they issue the next invitation to PP to come speak to a health class.

OK, so you don’t buy ice cream and you’re not sure you want to call your local middle school.

Maybe you stand in line at the coffee hour at church. Why not ask the person next to you what he or she thinks of the videos? Just because people attend the same church you do doesn’t mean they know anything about them.

What’s your hesitation? Are you afraid of what they’ll think of you? Are you ashamed of your pro-life convictions? Of course not! So don’t hesitate to make a simple comment!

Ordinarily, it is hard to start a conversation out of the blue about pro-life issues.

But not now, not with #PPsellsbabyparts trending on Twitter, and the Center for Medical Progress videos all over television, and nationwide demonstrations coming up on Friday.

It’s never been easier to talk. Think of it as an August homework assignment.

*     *     *     *     *

Connie Marshner is a commentator and researcher on life and family issues in the Washington, D.C., area.

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3 Comments

  1. Ingrid Christensen August 25, 2015 at 8:52 pm Reply

    Everyone I have mentioned this to has been aware of what Planned Parenthood is doing and repulsed. Amazing! Can we change their name for them, they have nothing to do with parenthood?

  2. Pingback: My August Homework Repor - The Human Life Review - The Human Life Review

  3. Pingback: How to talk about the Planned Parenthood videos with your friends

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