Washington D.C., Mar 9, 2005 / 22:00 pm
With a recent shift in public opinion that seems to have placed pro-lifers in a more positive light, pro-life leader Jill Stanek says pro-abortion activists have scrambled to adopt new strategies in an effort to divide and defeat pro-lifers.
In an article Stanek wrote for WorldNetDaily.com, she said the pro-abortion organizations’ “marketing strategies of the past 30 years have finally started to fail … forcing them in recent months to dramatically shift their strategies.”
One strategy they have developed is to “appear sensitive about abortion and to focus less on that and more on contraception,” said Stanek, who fought to stop live-birth abortions after witnessing one as a registered nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill.
The abortion movement’s first talking point is: "Can we all work together to prevent unintended pregnancies by promoting better access to contraceptives?"
This expressed desire to work together makes pro-abortion activists “appear rational on the topic of abortion while at the same time promoting sex ed. and contraceptives – both moneymakers for them,” said Stanek. “And when contraceptives fail, they know they will still make money from abortion without having to push it so rabidly.”
She suggested that pro-lifers counter this point by “demonstrating the great success of abstinence training and the upsides of chaste living.”
“We cannot budge on the counterfeit ‘abstinence plus’ training the other side is hawking, which says it's great to teach abstinence, but kids should also be given ‘tools’ if they cannot control themselves,” she said. “This is ridiculous.”
The second strategy of pro-abortion organizations is to settle on the topic of contraception to make pro-lifers seem fanatical. Stanek suggested that this is a powerful point since “the contraceptive mentality is so engrained in American minds.”
Pro-abortion activists know that contraception “is a wedge issue for pro-lifers. The natural family planning mentality is foreign to most Protestants and prehistoric to many Catholics,” said Stanek. However, she urged pro-lifers to be aware of this strategy and not to allow pro-abortion activists divide them on this point.
“Pro-life groups and churches must take greater responsibility for abstinence training and not leave that up to the pregnancy help centers,” she urged. “We must also continue to dialogue about the issue of contraception and make up our minds not let the other side divide us on that.”