May 15, 2012 (Unmaskingchoice.ca) – Change public opinion, and you’ll change public policy.
This has been the mantra of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform and its affiliates for years. And with the youth activated like it never has been before, that is swiftly becoming a reality.
I realize that it is dangerous to look across the border to our Southern neighbors when making comparisons, because Canadians pride themselves on being, first and foremost, not Americans. But when we see Canadian youth rising up to take on Canada’s perceived abortion consensus, a quick look to the United States tells us just how effective that will be.
While American commentators such as David Frum have urged Republicans to give up on the abortion fight and let it sink into irrelevance, his advice doesn’t reflect the current reality. Each year seems to bring more pro-life legislation than the last, and pro-“choice” activists are beginning to notice, with one Planned Parenthood director noting worriedly that “the sky is falling on Roe v. Wade.” Last year brought 92 pieces of pro-life legislation across the US.
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It was this phenomenon that compelled the head of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL) Nancy Keenan to announce last week that she would be leaving her post as president of the organization. The reason? According to the Washington Post, she is “leaving out of concern for the future of the pro-choice movement—and thinks she could be holding it back.”
According to the Post:
“In recent years, Keenan has worried about an ‘intensity gap’ on abortion rights among millennials, which the group considers to be the generation of Americans born between 1980 and 1991. While most young, anti-abortion voters see abortion as a crucial political issue, NARAL’s own internal research does not find similar passion among abortion-rights supporters. If the pro-choice movement is to successfully defend abortion rights, Keenan contends, it needs more young people in leadership roles, including hers.”
And how has the pro-life movement been changing the abortion consensus? In spite of National Post columnist Chris Selley’s recent sneer at the idea that documentation of the abortion procedure could sway hearts and minds, abortion advocates are admitting that these tactics are working. According to Frances Kissling of Catholics for a Free Choice and Kate Michelman, a former leader of NARAL:
“In recent years, the ant-abortion movement successfully put the nitty-gritty details of abortion procedures on public display, increasing the belief that abortion is serious business and that some societal involvement is appropriate.”
The pro-life movement, they admitted, has “succeeded in shifting public attention from broad support for legal abortion to strong support for restricting access. Twenty years ago, being pro-life was declasse. Now it is a respectable point of view.”
Abortion advocates in Canada may scoff at the idea that the pro-life movement is making gains by citing political unwillingness to discuss abortion, but they know as well as we do that politicians become willing to discuss things very quickly when they feel the pressure from the people. We have no intention of trying to force top-down change. We have every intention of shattering the supposed abortion “consensus” in the minds of everyday Canadians.
These tactics have worked in the United States because people are beginning to recognize that none of the facts line up with an ideology based on killing pre-born children. This isn’t a right versus left debate. This is a human rights debate. Abortion advocates say the sky is falling on Roe v. Wade.
This just in: R v. Morgentaler is next.
Reprinted with permission from Unmaskingchoice.ca