by Ellie Peck | Oct 27, 2015 | Uncategorized |
If you’ve been following this blog at all for the past year, you will find several posts that hit on the importance of words—choosing the right language is critical in framing the pro-life debate. Words have the power to shape culture… and vice versa. And aside from the obvious deceptions like “reproductive choice”, “fetal tissue” or “product of conception”, there are several other much more mundane phrases in our vocabulary that well meaning people use all the time. Some of these ought to be reconsidered… 1. “Mommy-to-Be” We all hear this applied to pregnant women and it seems cute and benign, but the reality is different. Motherhood does not begin at birth. If we believe that life begins at conception, we have to believe that this ‘life’ has a mother; when a woman becomes pregnant, she becomes a mother. Getting used to the word mother applied to pregnant women, the truth is inherently pointed out that a child, (not just a “non-person until birth”) is inside of her. 2. “Got Pregnant” I really think this is a crass way to describe expecting a child. One “gets” things like the chicken pox, the flu or pneumonia. Pregnancy shouldn’t be implied as something one ‘catches.’ The underlying sentiment is negative. A woman doesn’t get pregnant, a woman becomes pregnant, i.e., enters a new state of being. Even worse than got pregnant is got her pregnant. This derision reinforces the pitiful idea that pregnancy is a woman’s problem and that men have very little to do with it other than to supply the sperm. Fatherhood is under attack enough already and to write him off...
by Ellie Peck | Oct 13, 2015 | Uncategorized |
When it comes to criticism of the pro-life movement’s image and presentation, John F. Brick is spot on. Pro-life protesters run the risk of becoming either a boring joke or a non-credible force in our world. Our rhetoric needs a facelift in a jaded culture. The signs we hold, the messages we give have to appeal to the culture we are in. His three action points at the end of his article are highly valuable in the demonstration world: Be Aware of Cultural Context, Stay on Point, and Better Signs and Slogans. One might ask how the ACP’s signs fit into all this given that they run the risk of being tuned out or inflammatory. But the truth of the matter is something the Brick may have not elaborated on long enough: abortion is inflammatory. We can’t get away from that and I’m not convinced that it’s reasonable to expect every person to tune in and be engaged with our message. Can photos of abortion be seen as commodifying the dead? I think in some contexts, yes. I think it’s unhelpful and damaging to cry “Killer!” to people walking into clinics while holding bloody signs. So one thing I appreciate about the Anti-Choice Project is the actual wording used on their signs. It’s the only word needed to make people think: “Choice.” They aren’t there to scream at women about being murderers of babies or to wave swastika symbols over the pictures of dead children. There is nothing in the message but a call to thinking. I think that in using graphic images, this distinction and this discretion is...
by Ellie Peck | Oct 7, 2015 | Uncategorized |
When a child is conceived and two people rejoice, images and hopes of what life will be like begin to blossom in their minds. And if, tragically, the pregnancy isn’t viable and the child is lost, the parents mourn. In America, our culture still seems unsure on how to mourn or indeed how to even acknowledge miscarriage. Women may be embattled with feelings of how much grieving is “appropriate” or wonder why they can’t seem to move on. It’s a strange phenomenon really. The privacy that generally clouds miscarriages is something that I theorize to be an ironic blend of early Victorian sensibilities and the modern attitudes toward abortion. Don’t talk about it. Don’t make people uncomfortable. Was it really an actual child of yours anyway? This is just my theory but I wonder what society would be like if we felt comfortable talking about miscarriage and maybe how that might impact the abortion industry. So many people are very touchy about miscarriage and others are awkwardly open about them that it makes it difficult to find a delicate, respectful balance on how to bring this discussion to light. The truth is, just as you probably know a woman who has had an abortion (whether you realize it or not) you certainly know or are a woman who has had a miscarriage also. If we are able to acknowledge the unique, unrepeatable lives of miscarried babies, would the dialogue change on intentionally destroyed “products of conception” as well? Would people start to wonder why we mourn the lives of early lost children who were wanted… but not the lives...
by Ellie Peck | Sep 19, 2015 | Uncategorized |
There is a lot of leftover buzz from the Planned Parenthood videos still. The 10th video was recently released and popular bloggers like Matt Walsh are despairing over the lack of attention the videos are getting. His anger is justified; it’s frustrating beyond compare to have such a damning, clear-cut case against the public funding of Planned Parenthood pass by with little more than a flutter on social media. Sure the conservatives are doing their part: urging action and prayer and protests. But they too, have lost steam, since the first video came out. Who can blame them? You can only throw pearls before swine for so long before you lose heart and realize your efforts are in vain. I think the more pressing issue we can take from this is that this whole experience proves something obvious that seems to be overlooked: people aren’t changing their opinion on Planned Parenthood because people are choosing not to watch the videos. It’s much easier to scroll right past anything that might challenge their beloved, iron-clad faith in the abortion industry and in the “good” that Planned Parenthood does (which has largely been debunked too, but hey, who’s paying attention to facts these days?). We wonder why people are ignoring what happened but the answer is crystal clear that they are ignoring it because they can. Social media is a powerful weapon but it comes with a an equally powerful defense mechanism called the delete button, the scroll down, and the ‘unfollow’ option. In short, you can look away and turn it off. People will continue to be apathetic toward abortion exposés...
by Cheri Mallahan | Aug 21, 2015 | Uncategorized |
It’s been 5 weeks since the Planned Parenthood video investigation scandal first broke. My heart is heavy and I’ve been spending much of this past month trying to collect my thoughts. I feel a mix of disgust and anger and horror and relief. Relief that this darkness is being brought to light. It’s quite a bit to process: I feel like we are standing inside one of those pivotal moments in history and yet I feel completely inadequate and inert. I think part of my problem is that I’m overwhelmed by all of the nonstop information about the investigation. Every time I open any social media account there’s a new article, a fresh angle, a new video, and on and on and on. I check out blogs or open the newspaper and there are new talking points and viewpoints and opinion polls and infographics and hash tags. And everyone is trying to say all the things that need to be said. And I’ve got nothing new to say. I just can’t keep up with all the zings and truth bombs and clever memes and creative analogies and smart arguments and all the words. It’s moving so fast and the conversation keeps shifting and to be honest it leaves me numb and paralyzed. Not because I am apathetic but because I care so much. And because I’m scared. This battle has really just begun. Is something really going to change? It has to. It just has to. But then I read the words of pro-choicers and fence-sitters and it feels like the same old volleying back and forth of attacks and...
by Ellie Peck | Aug 15, 2015 | Uncategorized |
I don’t love the Anti-Choice Project. It makes me uncomfortable. I can’t look at the images and not feel sick to my stomach. I hurt for the abortion victims shown. I hurt for the women driving by the signs who’ve had abortions or experienced miscarriages. And I hurt most of all for the children who see these pictures and unwillingly experience a slight loss to their childhood. The world isn’t all smiley faces and butterflies after all… and I ache for their innocence lost. When asked to write for this group, I hesitated. In junior college, I stood by the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform with pride. I felt confident that the signs we were displaying on college campuses were good and right; the audience was perfect and children were not exposed. But ACP was different. They were out there out on street corners — in public places. This was just outside of my comfort level. So I consulted a few close friends. I was worried about associating myself with a group that I wasn’t sure I supported 100%. I wondered if it somehow made me inconsistent with my ethical code and questioned whether or not I’d be embarrassed to link to articles I’ve written. Obviously, I concluded that writing for the group would be okay. They simply asked me not to say anything disparaging regarding graphic imagery in posts while otherwise giving me free reign. I could handle that. Still, I didn’t expect my personal feelings on the matter to change. But they have. And yours should too. I don’t believe all pro-lifers need to cheer for or...
