In this election year, the pro-abortion movement has done what it does best: spread fear far and wide to push more people to support abortion.
The pro-life movement is the side of life, hope, and love. Yet, with the help of left-wing media outlets, pro-abortion activists and organizations have convinced the public that they are the compassionate side, while the pro-life movement is cruel and archaic. Not only do the activists want women to view pro-lifers negatively, but they also want women to be scared of pro-life legislation as well.
That’s right, and it works: one of the most successful tactics used by the pro-abortion movement is their efforts to paint the pro-life movement as “cruel” instead of compassionate.
For decades, the pro-abortion movement has used scary “what-if” scenarios to drive their point home (that point being the call for the murder of the unborn.) The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization dealt a serious blow to the pro-abortion movement, but since then they’ve redoubled their efforts.
They don’t worry about their arguments for abortion being logical; instead, they focus on emotional manipulation, especially of women. The pro-abortion lobby gets inside women’s heads to stoke anxiety. They want women to ask the question, “What if it was me?” and be scared of the answer.
Pro-abortion activists distract women from what abortion really is, what the facts surrounding certain situations really are, and what their conscience says about the murder of the unborn. They push women to support abortion out of fear, and, sadly, these tactics have so far succeeded. This explains the alleged increase in pro-choice sentiment since Dobbs. Fear is winning, even among those who consider themselves pro-life.
So we know the pro-abortion movement is trying to get into people’s heads, but how exactly do they do it? By fear-mongering and propagandizing on every available media platform. To see this in action, all you have to do is look at the advertisements being used to push for pro-abortion amendments in the states.
This month, the Population Research Institute launched a nationwide social media campaign to reach every state that has a pro-abortion amendment on the ballot. We are determined to spread the truth about what these amendments really entail, because on November 5th, ten states have protections for life on the line.
Nine of these states – Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, and South Dakota – are trying to put a so-called “right” to abortion in their constitution: If passed, many of these amendments allow loopholes that will effectively allow abortion up to birth. Additionally, once the “right” to abortion exists in a state’s constitution, it becomes much more difficult to put restrictions on the practice. It also pushes the state to greater extremes and abuses against the unborn.
Consider Minnesota. In 2023, Governor Tim Walz signed the Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act, allowing abortion at any stage of pregnancy and enshrining the so-called “right” to abortion access. Only a few months later, Walz took the next step and did away with the protections for babies born alive after failed abortions. He also made sure to end the requirement to report to the state the deaths of aborted unborn babies 20 weeks’ gestation or more. Walz enabled the suffering and slow death of babies born alive after attempted abortions and did away with the reporting requirements to cover his tracks.
We’re working to make sure that there are no more states like Minnesota, but we are up against powerful, pro-abortion forces that have deep pockets. Out-of-state money is pouring into every one of those states where pro-abortion legislation is on the ballot. Every one of these campaigns is designed to create and spread ads that manipulate and stoke fear.
Let’s look at Florida’s Amendment 4. If passed in November, Amendment 4 would add the following language to the state’s constitution:
“Except as provided in Article X, Section 22, no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.”
What does this really mean? If you watched the pro-abortion Vote Yes on 4 ad by Floridians Protecting Freedom, you wouldn’t know. The 30-second ad displayed on their homepage does nothing to explain what Amendment 4 would actually do. Instead, it attacks the current heartbeat ban with descriptors like “Dangerous and cruel” and “Heartbreaking.” It focuses on a hypothetical sexual assault scenario, prompting the viewer to imagine if their daughter were to be assaulted and impregnated. It’s emotional manipulation, not a presentation of the facts.
Of course, this is because the pro-abortion lobby is trying to cover up how extreme Amendment 4 actually is. After it passes is too late: the truth has to be put out there now.
To counter this fear-mongering, the campaign for “Vote No On 4 Florida” produced an ad that goes over the actual language of the amendment, focusing on the facts – all of which the amendment’s language attempts to avoid.
Amendment 4 would remove all existing protections for mothers and their unborn children. On the ballot, there will be no definitions for crucial terms like “health,” “healthcare provider,” or “viability.” Moreover, the amendment would make abortion the only medical procedure that a minor could undergo without the consent of a parent. The language is deliberately vague and designed to allow late-term abortions up to birth throughout the state.
The next step? Passing this amendment would also open the door for pro-abortion lawyers to sue the state and force taxpayers to fund abortion.
Vote No On 4 Florida is working to get the truth to voters and cut through the emotional manipulation of the pro-abortion movement. The Population Research Institute is doing all it can to assist in these efforts with our own nationwide campaign. We are also currently collaborating with Life Ministries to blanket Florida in particular with a series of videoson Amendment 4 by Father Steven Imbarrato.
Until midnight on November 5th, we will be fighting to fight the pro-abortion propaganda with the truth about these amendments The pro-abortion movement’s emotional manipulation cannot prevail against the truth. It is up to us to make sure that fear does not win out at the end of the day.
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To learn more about a particular state or support the campaign, visit this link: https://www.pop.org/ways-to-stop-abortion-in-the-states/
