News

by Hilary White

WASHINGTON, February 28, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The pro-life movement has made such gains in arguing for the humanity of the unborn, that abortionists and their apologists are finding their rhetoric is too harsh, even in traditionally supportive political circles.

The campaign slogans familiar to everyone who has read a news report on abortion: “my body my choice,”“women’s choice is a human right,” are no longer resonating with the US public that is increasingly confronted with the devastating psychological and social aftermath of abortion. With even such politicians as notorious abortion campaigner Hillary Clinton trying to position herself as a moderate, the abortion industry is worried for its PR and clout.

Francis Kissling, head of the abortion industry front organization, Catholics for a Free Choice, said the movement is losing on what it used to consider its own ground. “There is a deep-seated fear (in the abortion lobby) that if you address the moral issues, you’re going to lose,” Kissling said.

“But we’re losing anyway. It’s only by addressing the moral issues that we’ll get some relief on the political questions.”

The problem is becoming so dire, that a leftist think tank, the Center for American Progress, is hosting a summit for abortionists, lobbyists and activists of all kinds to talk about how to address the situation. The meeting this Friday in Washington DC will attempt to forge a new public relations strategy.

An article in the current edition of Newsweek featured Peg Johnston, an abortionist in upstate New York who will be attending the Washington meeting. Johnston said that she eschews the euphemisms and jargon of the abortion lobby when speaking to clients. She says that her patients speak in terms of “babies” and “killing” so she uses those terms as well.

“At first I thought they were picking up the language from [anti-abortion protesters] outside. But then I started really tuning in to my patients, and I realized, ‘She really feels that way’.” Johnston says.Â

But the shift to a warmer, more “compassionate” public image by abortionists has been developing for some time. George Tiller, the abortionist in Wichita, Kansas who specializes in killing late-term babies, features on his website photos of a macabre ‘baptism’ ceremony for the dead child which clients can have for an extra fee.

Claire Keyes told Newsweek that she plans to establish a “sanctuary space” in the abortion facility she directs in Pittsburgh and has offered ‘baptismal’ ceremonies.

Many abortion organizations, including Planned Parenthood now include a “chaplain” on the payroll whose job it is to help clients overcome their “guilt feelings” for having killed what few now deny is a human child.

Advances in sonogram technology were hailed by the pro-life movement as a great help in the argument for the humanity of the unborn, but this has not necessarily translated into moral comprehension.

Kirsten Moore, spokesman for the Reproductive Health Technologies Project says a focus group showed that women who see the pictures of their unborn child on a sonogram are as ready to kill as they ever were. “Women who are thinking about ending a pregnancy are not asking, ‘Is this a life?’ They know that it is. They are asking, ‘Can I take care of this baby?” Moore told Newsweek.
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  Despite the best efforts of pro-lifers the result, at least among committed abortion activists, is a further distancing from the fundamental notion that it is wrong to kill. The shift may be one that pro-lifers are not prepared for.

“We’ve really moved onto the next rung of the ladder haven’t we?” Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition commented to LifeSiteNews.com. “What do you do when they admit that they are killing babies and claim the right to feel good about it?”

“Abortion was bound to lead to this and the idea has finally sunk in,” Hughes said. “We have made the case for the humanity of the unborn only to convince the abortionists to claim the right to kill human beings without guilt. It’s a moral shrug. How do you argue with a shrug?”

Read the Newsweek article:
https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11590468/site/newsweek/page/2/