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 so long as they have the option to ignore them.
For all those die hard pro-lifers who were hoping and praying that these videos would soften the hearts of a callous nation, I am truly sorry. I hate to admit that I, for one, am not surprised. My hope however, is that the need becomes even more clear to support public imagery of abortion that can’t be ignored or trivialized. We want to stop this horrifying slaughter of innocent human lives. We want the holocaust to end. For that to happen, the reality has to be looked at dead on. Signs waiting for you at a stoplight can’t be clicked away from, can’t be scrolled past. We can do our best to ignore them, to pretend not to see them. But the drivers are all keenly aware that they are there and that they are crying out to be seen and justice is begging to take place. Despite all the good and power of social media, real life confrontation and witness still offers the most effective way to combat abortion.