When this article was originally written eight years ago, I don’t think I quite realized just how much time would be spent responding to fallacious arguments of the murder lobby. Looking at the majority of our content, it seems we’ve centered ourselves around a sort of pro-life apologetics. While I’ll admit our side isn’t always the best at providing reasoned arguments — a big part of our content has been helping rectify that — the murder lobby seems to continually try to outdo itself.
Rather than learn from its interactions with pro-lifers and attempt to adapt, they’ve seemingly decided to double-down and compete with each other on who can make the more depraved and fallacious arguments. Then again, this should come as no surprise to those who are advocating for the right to murder babies in the womb.
This edit isn’t going to be an entire rewrite. I think there is value in seeing how we’ve — how I — have progressed in my ability to present arguments. Rather, I’m going to shore it up, add a little more depth to it, and hopefully allow it to continue to be a resource for us going into the future.
The Original Beginning
It should come as no surprise, the so-called ‘pro-choice’ supporters have built an army of pro-life strawmen. One could argue there is an ignorance involved, that they don’t know better. Yet, knowledge of what we actually believe is readily available should they put any effort to learn. So any ignorance they have is, to some degree, willful in nature. Keep that in mind.
However, another key element is that of the information they do have, it is derived from carefully shaped propaganda from a multibillion dollar abortion industry. Typically, we wouldn’t accept health facts about smoking from the tobacco industry. Yet, conveniently, those who wish to dismiss the atrocity of abortion gleefully embrace the information Planned Parenthood disseminates about the lack of humanity in the womb. Conflict of interest much?
Inoculation: Preventing dissent by preemptive deception
It’s a dirty but effective move. Attack the other side with arguments like “They don’t care about women” or “They think women deserve to be raped.”
Straw Man
The abortion lobby is hoping their followers will have the same response as you or I: “That’s terrible! I don’t want to be associated with those kind of people!” Many will not investigate whether this information is true. It’s called a straw man argument which is a fallacy. A straw man can be defined as,
Substituting a person’s actual position or argument with a distorted, exaggerated, or misrepresented version of the position of the argument.
Obviously, no decent person would support neglecting women or agree with the sentiments that anyone deserves to be raped—we certainly don’t.
Reason
The purpose is to stop people who are on the fence from further considering contradictory information. They don’t want you to think about the facts, they want you to think about the misrepresented argument. That is, if you’re doubting your pro-choice views they are hoping you’ll think, “Oh wait, they don’t care about women,” or “They don’t take care of people already born.” Those on the fence shutdown their reasoning and take the shortcut: “At least pro-choicers care about women and taking care of the poor and…” Ha. It’s a persuasive technique that politicians use all the time. I should know. I’m a Communication major. I’ve spent years learning how people communicate and how messages can be crafted to manipulate their audience. This isn’t secret conspiracy theory information. It’s basic persuasion. Planned Parenthood and the rest of the abortion lobby are using it to its full effect—and they don’t care who they mislead or hurt along the way.
Good Intentions
This is a shocking statement that many abortion supporters won’t expect coming from an “extremist” like me: I don’t think all or even most who are in favor of abortion are bad people or have bad intentions. In fact, I’m certain most abortion supporters are supporting and defending what they believe is a good thing. Certainly, few would support a position they thought was wrong or harmful. They are being misled by a multimillion dollar lobby who stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year should abortion be de-legalized. There is a lot of money being tossed around to keep the public in the dark and misinformed. You have an industry that’s personalized and idealized abortion to the point of it bearing a remarkable resemblance to religious fanaticism.
Follow the Money
Take a look at Planned Parenthood’s revenue,
Planned Parenthood reports that 45 percent of their revenue is from the government. In 2012-2013, it received $540.6 million in taxpayer funding, while reporting more than $1.3 billion in net assets.
Let’s take it a step further, according to the Susan B. Anthony List (using PP’s own financial report,)
In 2012, abortions made up 93.8% [327,166] of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy services
In addition to the $1.3 billion in net assets, the Susan B. Anthony List goes on to report,
Planned Parenthood reported $58.2 million in excess revenue
Buy Our Product
Like any “good” business, they need people to buy their service. Abortion is their service. They don’t exist to help women, they exist to make money. Like many corporations, they will do everything in their power to protect and lobby for their dominant source of income—in this case, abortions. Even if it means lying. They don’t care how their service affects women. They don’t care they are killing human beings. They want you to think their service is for the good of humanity and will take all steps to make sure you don’t see the bloody and disturbing truth of their main product.
Certainly, a business wouldn’t mislead the public—would it? You know, like that time when Philip-Morris advertised they were helping the world and not producing cancer sticks. In any other setting, people would be suspect of health information from a massive corporation claiming their is nothing dangerous about their product. Yet with abortion, many people throw this skepticism out the door.
We’re Dirt Poor
In comparison, the vast majority of pro-life organizations are dirt poor. In fact, we’re fighting for a day where we’ll go bankrupt. If we can bring an end to abortion there will be no need for us. Many of us don’t receive government funding. Most of us rely solely on donations. Nullify Abortion currently operates on something like $10 a month in revenue. The rest of our expenses come out of our own pockets. (Consider donating!)
Life affirming crisis pregnancy centers aren’t much different. I’ve volunteered and toured several and know many people who are intimately involved in them. These organizations are struggling just to keep their doors open. They provide low-cost and/or free health services along with material support to women. They don’t make a profit and few (if any) are able to pay their employees competitively. They rely almost exclusively on charity and volunteers. If you want to compare motivation and intentions consider that.
We sacrifice much and volunteer our time to oppose something we know is wrong and, if we’re successful, will eliminate the need for our organizations. We want to shut our doors—as long as its because there is no need for us. A multimillion dollar behemoth that receives millions in taxpayer funds and walks away with millions of each year in excess revenue is afraid of a bunch of nonprofits and volunteers—ask yourself, why?
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