The Shocking-Poster Attack- still a trusty fallback for radical antiabortionists!

Submitted by UHPP Board Member Dyrleif Bjarnadottir

It's been a rough few weeks for Planned Parenthood supporters. A radical group of antiabortionists is on the offensive, releasing tapes from what they are calling an "undercover sting operation", supposedly showing Planned Parenthood employees callously talking about selling human body parts. One look at any one of the tapes quickly confirms that this is not actually what is happening. But the insinuation has been made and the climate created for discussing this as if it were a real possibility. So we must endure for a while answering questions about legitimate practices carried out according to the strictest government standards by highly trained professionals in certified state of the art clinics, as if unscrupulous individuals were engaged in shady unethical doings for profit. Endurance is the name of the game here - the bully is on the playground who cannot be reasoned with, we must stand patiently and endure the taunting and teasing and even the occasional injury, knowing that we have the high ground, that we are right, but the bully still gets the attention of the hour.

So what can we learn from the recent and ongoing "Undercover tape" events? No new and interesting facts about Planned Parenthood have come to light. We already knew that a few Planned Parenthood clinics in the country collect fetal tissue for research. We already knew that Planned Parenthood follows the strict rules set out by government agencies about human tissue samples, collecting, storing, and use. We know there is informed consent from the women who make the choice to donate their fetuses for scientific research and we know that the money that changes hands as a result of the collection of these samples is solely for the storing and proper shipping. (As a side note here: It is always useful to remember that informed consent is a big deal in modern medical research. Many people, scientists, doctors, clinicians, ethicists, philosophers, and policymakers, spend good portions of their careers making sure that we get both parts of the process right, the informed part and the consent part).

What we have been reminded of is that facts were not the issue in the first place. The people who spent 3 years gaining access to and secretly taping Planned Parenthood employees, the people who lied about who they were and presented fake identification, who collected hours upon hours of footage so they could edit it to make it say whatever they wanted, those people didn't care about the facts. Again, nothing new here. What is mildly interesting is how completely without shame this radical wing of the anti-abortion movement is. There is no accountability anywhere in this chain of events. Accountability, as in having a reference point in reality that guides your actions. Without the minimal integrity provided by a standard of honesty or accountability you can pretty much reach your goal by any means you can come up with. In this case the anti-abortionists took a leaf out of an old playbook, and in the absence of any facts to support their claim, they appealed directly to emotion. The edited snippets in the tapes shown to the public and the politicians they want to influence are a much more elaborate and high tech version of the gruesome posters of aborted fetuses we have seen paraded in front of health centers, designed to shock and evoke negative emotions. They have set out to create an emotional response of disgust amongst people who are already inclined to support their views. They do this to create an environment of confusion and emotional upheaval because, in such an environment, the levelheaded scrutiny that prevents their agenda from going forward, may temporarily take the backseat.

A prime example of how the 'shocking poster effect' works can be seen in some of the media coverage of the past several days. Take a look at George Stephanopoulos interviewing Cecile Richards on NBC a few days after the first tape hit the airways.  Mr. Stephanopoulos hones in on the "tone" of the PP employee in the video. Not on the facts diligently presented or on the points repeatedly made that exonerate Planned Parenthood of any of the accusations made. It is the tone of the woman on the tape that is incriminating. If we learn nothing else from this episode of attacks, let’s take note of this: The case against Planned Parenthood relies on gruesome posters and the many forms they take in our technologically advanced world. This time it took the form of the "wrong tone of voice". Thankfully our elected representatives still see the difference between shock tactics and facts. At least some of them.