Antiabortion-Rights Groups Turn To Video, Online Media To Rally Support

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: IT / Internet / E-mail
Article Date: 02 Apr 2009 - 8:00 PDT

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The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday examined antiabortion-rights groups' increasing use of Internet videos and other online media to gain new supporters and circulate their message. The Journal reports that the producers behind CatholicVote.org -- an antiabortion-rights group with a strong online presence -- consider their tactic of posting short online video clips "a strategic triumph that can help chart a new course for their movement," which is facing a "hostile climate" under the Democrat-controlled White House and Congress. CatholicVote.org President Brian Burch said, "When you're out of political power, you start thinking about new ways to do things." One popular video, which has been viewed nearly 1.8 million times on YouTube since January, shows an ultrasound image of a fetus with a caption that reads, "This child's future is a broken home. He will be abandoned by his father. His single mother will struggle to raise him," before a photo of President Obama appears. The caption then reads, "Life. Imagine the Potential."

According to the Journal, the new strategy -- which some antiabortion-rights groups call the "hearts and minds" tactic -- "depends on presenting the antiabortion movement in an unexpected light, the better to catch and hold attention." The Journal reports that "after decades of laboriously building mailing lists one name at a time," many groups are "thrilled" to see a growing number of online viewers. Some proponents of the tactic report that they have received donations and letters that reference the online videos. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, said the group is "able to reach people directly" through its online videos, which explain abortion procedures through use of a plastic model of a fetus. "TV networks would never show this type of video, but now that doesn't matter," Pavone said. Father Thomas Berg, director of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person, said the group is "getting beyond the hackneyed ways of holding up posters with graphic pictures of abortion," adding, "That just doesn't work." Susan B. Anthony List, an antiabortion-rights lobbying group, has also joined the online movement, offering $2,000 in awards to activists who can develop online videos "that bring new converts to the cause," the Journal reports.

Abortion-rights groups also have turned to online media, using text messaging and social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube to rally supporters. NARAL Pro-Choice America launched an online video that emphasizes personal choices, which has been viewed about 30,000 times on YouTube, and both NARAL and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America have posted online clips of celebrities discussing the importance of abortion rights. NARAL President Nancy Keenan said, "All these new tools are critical for engaging activists." She added that the recent online antiabortion-rights videos are too harsh to win over large amounts of people because they fail to address the issues that most people say are important, such as preventing unintended pregnancies or preserving women's health. According to the Journal, NARAL and Planned Parenthood's videos have received far fewer hits than the antiabortion-rights groups' campaigns, and "some longtime analysts of abortion politics say the right's online campaign appears to be having an impact." Alesha Doan, a political scientist at the University of Kansas and an abortion-rights supporter, said, "Certainly, there's a preaching-to the-choir effect, but I don't think you can discount the effect on society over time." She said antiabortion-rights groups have been able to humanize the fetus in the minds of some people by circulating ultrasound images online, adding, "I've seen a marked change in how people talk about abortion," especially young people (Simon, Wall Street Journal, 4/1).

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