As our nation commemorates the fortieth Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which made abortion legal in all fifty states, a recent Gallup poll suggests support for abortion rights is waning, particularly among young Americans, and that more people now regard themselves as “pro-life” than “pro-choice.” This trend has not been lost on Planned Parenthood, who after commissioning an internal focus group to help hone their message, announced on January 7, that they will drop the label “pro-choice” from their communications.
“The labels can mask people’s support for access to safe and legal abortion, and they can politicize a conversation that is deeply personal and often complex,” Planned Parenthood executive vice-president and chief experience officer Dawn Laguens said in a statement. “We’re eager to help people have an authentic conversation – while we continue working to ensure that abortion remains safe and legal.”
Through the use of moral ambiguity and hazy language, Planned Parenthood is making a play for middle America – those Americans who may not passionately identify with either the “pro-life” or the “pro-choice” language. By taking a concept that is ridiculously simple – that abortion is the taking of human life – and making it “complex,” Planned Parenthood is clouding the issue so that the abortion debate becomes void of moral absolutes. Add in complicated factors like the “welfare of women” and “reproductive health” and soon you have a confused public who cannot come to a consensus on an otherwise obvious truth – abortion kills children.
In addition to labeling abortion as “complex,” Planned Parenthood has added the “personal decision” to their lexicon of acceptable terms. This takes the air out of the pro-life movement, because now anyone who fights for the rights of the unborn will be accused of infringing on the reproductive rights of women.
Essentially Planned Parenthood is trying to take the abortion debate out of the public forum by making it a very personal and complicated matter. However, our nation’s founding principles forbid this. Since America’s founding, it’s been the duty of the government to protect its citizenry, including and especially those who are defenseless and voiceless. As Thomas Jefferson, both author and signer of The Declaration of Independence said, “The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government.” If we as a nation fail at this most important duty, how can we perform others with any credibility?
Despite Planned Parenthood’s best effort to shift the message from absolutes to more innocuous terms, the fact remains that abortion is not really “complex” nor is it a “personal issue.” It is the willful taking of an innocent, defenseless human life that affects every American at some level. Whether it’s the parent who is forever scarred by the emotional loss associated with abortion, the families and friends who live with the guilt that they could have done more to protect the unborn child, or the heavy societal toll that the loss of 1.2 million babies a year has on America, everyone is impacted by abortion in some way – either directly or indirectly. If we allow those in favor of abortion to muddle the issue to the point that we become ineffective in rescuing unborn children, then we are failing the desperate parents who are searching for someone to share the truth about abortion in a compassionate and non-judgmental way.
Planned Parenthood’s message, although clever and well-engineered, will not offer hope to a scared man or woman who is searching online for an abortion. But the loving and caring counselors at life-affirming pregnancy centers who speak the truth about LIFE are able to do just that.
That’s why it’s so important that Human Coalition continues to connect these abortion-determined individuals with our life-affirming centers, so that they can hear an accurate message about life spoken to them through a prism of love and compassion.
Your support of Human Coalition helps us continue to reach these men and women so that we can dispel the myths advanced by Planned Parenthood, and ensure that they receive a truthful picture of abortion and its lifelong effects.
Please help us encourage abortion determined parents as they reject the lies they are being told about abortion and instead – allow them to be encouraged with a message of truth and hope.
Make your donation to Human Coalition today and help each child makes its mark.