from the President's desk

Hearts and Minds

by Ellen Smith

The 6th grader in my family just finished reading a book about Roe v. Wade - one of a series of books about landmark Supreme Court decisions that he found in his school library. He told me with amazement that the book said that in 1969 80% of Americans supported abortion rights. Based on what he sees and hears, he figured that the percentages now would be reversed, with only about 20% supporting choice and 80% opposed. (Actually, polls typically show that half or more of Americans are pro-choice. However, the percentage has declined recently, probably as a result of the anti-choice "partial-birth abortion" campaign.)

I worry that my son's perception is a symptom of a larger phenomenon. Although Roe v. Wade may be the law of the land and most Americans may still support a woman's right to choose, the anti-choice movement seems to be having a lot of success in the battle for the hearts and minds of the public.

Anti-choice rhetoric gains much of its power simply by calling embryos and fetuses "babies." Once people accept that equation, it is not difficult for anti-choice evangelists to get them to accept the anti-choice depiction of abortion (and even contraception) as "killing babies." It also makes it easy for them to capture the attention of teenagers by telling them their "generation is being systematically slaughtered by abortion," which "kills 4,400 kids every day"(statements reported in the April 18 Washington Post Magazine).

In the past several months, we have been reminded once again that this kind of rhetoric can cause misguided people to conclude that murder is justifiable when the victims are doctors who perform abortions.

Pro-choice people can and should make our own appeal to hearts and minds. As Bob Stone says elsewhere in this issue of The Choice Advocate, we need to pay attention to what anti-choice groups are saying, so we can respond to their claims with our own solid information and logic.

To reach people's hearts as well as their minds, supporters of reproductive choice also need to communicate on an emotional level. It seems to me that one of the best ways is to do this is by telling and re-telling -- to one another, to our children and grandchildren, and to the world at large -- the stories of women and girls denied access to abortion.

The stories we tell need not come from personal experience. My son thought "Jane Roe's" story was compelling. Then there is the story of Michelle Lee, the heart patient (described elsewhere in this issue) who was denied a life-saving abortion because doctors concluded that she might be able to survive her pregnancy.

NARAL (the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) has collected a dozen more "Stories of Choice" to be told and retold (I found them on the Internet at http://www.naral.org/choice/stories/index.html ). They include the story of Becky Bell, the Indiana teenager who rejected the option of a legal abortion because it would require the consent of the loving parents she didn't want to disappoint, and who died after secretly obtaining an illegal abortion. Another is the story of Lynn Kahn, who nearly died as a result of the illegal abortion she obtained following a rape in 1964. And there is the story of Elizabeth Furse, who is now a member of the U.S. Congress. Almost 40 years ago, in 1961, she was forced to choose a hysterectomy -- giving up her hopes for more children -- in order to terminate her pregnancy after learning that the fetus was seriously defective because of illness she suffered early in pregnancy.

Let's keep on telling stories -- we can reach those hearts and minds...

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