“The pro-life way won’t stop abortions,” declared Planned Parenthood’s recent very expensive full-page advertisement – a clear indication that they are quite aware that it will work.
This advertisement demonstrates Planned Parenthood’s mastery of the techniques of propaganda through manipulation of feelings, language, figures and facts.
Like CARAL, and all pro-abortion groups, they aim for emotional reactions, so they stress feelings, not analysis. They know full well that their claims cannot survive scrutiny. But scrutiny and analysis are what pro-lifers must apply tot his kind of material.
This advertisement is extremely well done. Seldom does a single document use so many propaganda techniques and use them so cleverly. The whole pro-choice movement uses similar strategies, so recognizing and being able to counter them is very useful.
A major purpose of this Planned Parenthood advertisement blitz seems to be to sow discouragement and confusion among pro-life forces. To make it appear that we ourselves cause abortions through opposition to contraceptives (including known abortifacients) is a particularly clever tactic.
Another obvious purpose is to generate sufficient ill will toward the pro-life movement that previously uncommitted bystanders will begin attacking the pro-life effort.
These purposes can be achieved only if readers accept, uncritically, a set of carefully-crafted suggestions:
- Curbing teen abortions will solve the problem of abortion; in school sexuality education courses and contraceptive use are the way to do it.
- Parents, and pro-lifers in general, are rigid, uninformed, uncaring people, living in a fantasy land, and largely responsible for the teen abortion crisis.
- Only Planned Parenthood has the answers and the motivation to rescue these young people.
Language
All pro-choice propaganda uses commonly-accepted terms, but gives them special meanings. Here are some examples from this particular advertisement, with translations:
The fundamental needs of young people: Sex without babies.
School Based Clinical services/basic services/family planning services: “The Package:” a mix of contraceptives and contraceptive advice; abortion tests, counseling and referral services; sterilization. (Any organization that promotes contraceptive use also promotes abortion. It has to, because not a single contraceptive is 100 per cent effective.)
Basic information and support to enable people to take control of their reproductive health: The Package above.
Family planning providers: Planned Parenthood and their kind. (Certainly not church, parents, or NFP providers).
Men must take responsibility for family planning/for handling any crisis that may arise: This means obtaining and using contraceptives, not practicing self-control, chastity and fidelity. In the pro-abortion viewpoint, the greatest possible crisis is an unintended baby, so the truly responsible man will arrange and pay for the abortion.
Figures
It is good to remember the saying “There are lies, damned lies, and statistics” when confronted with statistics in pro-abortion claims, and to ask “Can they prove this statement.”
It is their common practice to exaggerate or minimize figures to produce a desired effect. In fact, figures do not have to be true, or even close to accurate, in order to provide effective manipulation. Three sets of statistics used in the Planned Parenthood advertisement will illustrate this truism.
On in five teenage girls become pregnant before she is 20. “Notice first that they “forget” to tell us that some of those girls were already married, and it’s not unusual for young married women to become pregnant.
With this kind of statistic, there is an important rule for pro-lifers to remember: never help them by repeating their figures. In this case, it is important to turn the figure around, and to quote it boldly, clearly, and often: 80 per cent of girls do not become pregnant in their teens!
Another paragraph states, “Two thirds of Canadian women are of reproductive age. Many have no contact with family planning providers. Half of their babies are unintended. (Added emphasis our).
After a suitable pause to marvel at their mind reading abilities, let us do some calculation with their figures.
It would seem that out of any 100 women, 67 (two-thirds) need family planning services that they often cannot get. Since about 20 per cent of women are infertile and do not require such services, we can subtract them the 67. And let us allow 10 (a very conservative number) for those who are not sexually active. We may as well also subtract the 10 who do not need contraceptive information because they are lesbians (10 per cent of the population, they claim).
Surely, at least half of the remaining 27 women receive family planning information from such sources as parents, NFP organizations, and church-related groups.
That leaves 14 women who either have no information at all, or get if from the family planning providers. According to the ad, half of their babies are unintended.
This situation looks considerably different from the crisis implied in the original statement.
Consider one more piece of statistical information. We are given the impression that the abortion problem is most acute among teens. But near the end of the article we learn that teenagers have 22.9 per cent of the abortion in Canada.
Who has the other 77 per cent? Could it be the older women who know about contraceptives and use them conscientiously? The fact that is obscured is that even if all teen abortions were eliminated, over 50,000 abortions would still occur in our country annually.
Manipulation of facts
Fifteen years ago, Planned Parenthood’s medical director, Malcolm Potts predicted, “As people turn to contraception, there will be a rise, not a fall, in the abortion rate,” a prediction many subsequent studies have confirmed as accurate. Yet in the spring of 1988, Planned Parenthood tells us easier access to contraceptives would prevent “hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and abortions.”
They claim a deep concern for the health and well-being of Canadian women. “Canadians lack the most basic information which would enable them to take control of their reproductive health,” they say.
Yet in the same paragraph they promote the IUD and the Pill – two items that have done untold damage to the reproductive health of women, and to their general health. Could Planned Parenthood itself be withholding basic information that would enable Canadians to take more effective control of their reproductive health?
In October 1980, PP’s Family Planning Perspectives reported on their 10-year-old national family planning programme (American): more teens were using more contraceptives more consistently, but the number and rate of teen pregnancies continued to rise.
Five months later, President Faye Wattleton was unchallenged when she told a Senate subcommittee the programme’s success was “stunning” and showed a declining in rate of pregnancies among sexually active teens. She did not mention that the actual number of sexually active teens increased enormously, out-of-wedlock births increased from 190,000 to 240,000 and abortions rose form 90,000 to 500,000.
Stunning indeed. Perhaps that is how Planned Parenthood measures success.
This advertisement uses other ploys as well. The use of partial truths and apparent compliance with parental standards is illustrated by this quote: “Sexuality education programs help teens understand that waiting until they’re ready to have sex is a legitimate option.”
There is no indication here that waiting until marriage is healthier, will eliminate teen abortion, and is the only legitimate option for Christian young people (not just one among several). Nor is there any acknowledgement of the importance of church teachings, prayer, chastity, or self-control.
What can pro-lifer learn from this advertisement?
Obviously, abortion promoters to not hesitate to manipulate facts and figures to their own advantage. They capitalize on presenting their version of reality boldly, loudly, and frequently. We must recognize their distortions, and proclaim the truth just as boldly, confidently and frequently.
We all know the source of truth, and the source of lies. So we must be ever aware that to win this battle, we must combine much intelligent human effort with evermore spiritual effort.
