Shrewdness 101: How to Legislatively Battle Abortion

Elisha Todd August 1, 2013

224 13 minutes read

If there truly is a moral Conservative majority in this country, why do we lose political battle after battle? We have facts, history, statistics, and personal experience on our side. Yet, especially when it comes to social issues such as abortion, gay marriage, education and voter ID, we seem to be constantly on the losing end. How do we continue to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? We lose because we are playing two different games. We are playing according to Robert’s Rules of Order while the Left is playing by Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. The outcome is roughly equivalent to a team of ballerinas going up against a team of mixed martial arts experts. The ballerinas may put on a more artistic show – for a few seconds, but the end is a foregone bloody conclusion.

Jesus Himself observed, “For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.” (Luke 16:8). He didn’t say we are dumb or incapable of succeeding, but He did say we are not naturally as shrewd. Evil can be evil in ways that good can just not fully comprehend or anticipate because it is so far removed from our nature. Good people would never conceive of tactics such as taking jars of urine and feces into a legislature to “protest,” but for those who are evil, it’s just another day at the office. The cards (aka containers of bodily waste) are obviously stacked against us before we even begin. However, there is a loophole. Jesus went further in stating, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16) Shrewd people are able to see the big picture, focus on what they want to accomplish, and know how to neutralize those who would thwart their ambitions. The battle is between two obviously unequal teams. They are Liberal wolves, we are Conservative sheep. For them, there is no right or wrong, there is no moral compass, and the ends justify the means. We are limited by morality and are ultimately answerable to a Higher Authority. We are literally battling with one arm tied behind our backs as we are constrained within the restrictions of remaining innocent as doves. We are forbidden to act like snakes, but there is one characteristic of a snake we are not just advised but commanded to adopt, and that is shrewdness.

So how do we master shrewdness yet remain innocent, that is, centered in the Good? The current battle going on in my home state of North Carolina over the issue of abortion provides a perfect opportunity to hone these skills. The North Carolina state government is under Republican control for the first time in over a century and attempting to fulfill campaign promises despite hostile local media , public demonstrations billed as Moral Mondays where the NAACP ships in out of state protestors to disrupt legislative proceedings then get arrested and run up our state court costs, and being the target of a George Soros “Blueprint” plan to paralyze the Legislature.

One abortion bill that has finally passed provides provisions such as: requiring a doctor to be on hand during the procedure, requiring abortion facilities to meet the same surgical standards as any other outpatient medical facility; protecting health care providers who refuse to participate in such procedures; does not allow county, city, state or “Obamacare” type insurance to cover abortions (except for rape, incest, or the life of the mother); prohibits sex-selective abortions; and allows family members to join in lawsuits against abortion providers. The pro-abortion lobby, predictably, cried bloody murder. Not literally, of course, since that would be too ironic even for them. And in all fairness, the pro-abortionists here in Raleigh also did not chant “Hail Satan” as their compadres in Texas did recently.

Though it may appear to be a small victory, even this bill ended up being a very watered down version of its original self. So begins the first lesson in Shrewdness 101. If insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different outcome, what should our elected officials do differently? The key is to put our adversaries on the defensive and keep them there. The battle is already halfway won by the side that gets the jump on the opposition. An overwhelming opening volley is nearly impossible to recover from. That is because so many of our fellow citizens reach an immediate emotional decision and then never take the time to investigate further or question their initial impulse. We have to realize this and use it to our advantage. We can win any debate, but sadly, most people want to decide first and then think about it later, if ever. Therefore we must learn to shrewdly redirect the dynamics of our positions. We must master these techniques that Liberals already have:

1.     A catchy slogan is more powerful than the wisest argument.

Liberals love alliterative linguistics (War on Women), empty positive phrases (Every Child a Wanted Child), empowering but misleading slogans (A Woman’s Right to Choose), strong militant mottos (Empowering Women), derisive mantras (such as chanting ‘Shame”), and deceptive banners that ignore the real issue (Women’s Health and Safety). That is because Liberals know how people respond emotionally to certain words and phrases and they are masters at the perfect focus group tested ones. To combat this we must co-opt the powerful words used by the Left and repurpose them to further our own message. At the same time, we must stop using terms the Left employs to downplay the real issue. We especially must abandon the cold antiseptic word “fetus” and begin using emotionally connected concrete terms and phrases such as “the baby in the womb.”

2.     Pictures and objects speak louder than words.

What would a pro-abortion rally be without a coat hanger? The abortion lobby uses such props to induce the same feelings of revulsion and horror any decent human being would feel when contemplating a medieval torture device. The Left must employ such a hideous symbol to neutralize the beauty of the object they seek to obliterate – the unborn child. We must act shrewdly by choosing symbols that redirect the focus of the argument. When they come at us with coat hangers, we must counter them with awe-inspiring sonograms, baby shoes, teddy bears, or clothing. We should build on past successful campaigns such as the powerful antislavery message “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?’ with a question such as “Am I Not a Child and a Human Being?” framing a beautiful sonogram of a babe in the womb. We must choose symbols that convey the tragedy that whatever the object employed in the murder, be it a coat hanger, a suction vac, saline solution, or “the morning after pill,” the outcome is the same – at least one of the people that enters the abortion clinic door is never coming out alive. And the one that does come out alive will never be the same again.

3.     Money is the bottom line for most people.

Whenever the Left wants to demonize an industry they use the adjective “Big” and then tout the amount of money said industry hauls in. Planned Parenthood, the biggest baddest abortion mill of them all, estimates the average cost of an abortion is between $400-$3000 depending on how far a woman is into her pregnancy. Since over one million abortions are performed in the US each year, the abortion industry takes in well over $800 million in profits yearly. Add to that the $337 million (or more) Planned Parenthood receives in yearly government grants and contracts, the abortion industry rakes in well over one billion dollars each and every year. This means the abortion industry is a $3,000,000 (that’s million with an M) a day enterprise. No wonder proponents such as NRAL and Planned Parenthood don’t want their industry regulated or infringed upon. There’s a lot of money to be made in baby eliminating.

4.     Numbers must be “real” so that people can visualize them.

Why does the public not pay attention to our outrageous national debt? Because the word “trillion” makes your eyes glaze over. There’s no effective way to present such an astronomical amount. No one has ever seen a trillion of anything; therefore the number doesn’t seem real. Because a woman’s womb is not transparent, when a description such as ‘twenty weeks’ is used, most people are unable to form a concrete image. At best they think of the twenty week unborn child as just a messy mass of tissue. However, simple math shows that twenty weeks equals five months, which is a much more real and useful number. By the time a woman is five months into her pregnancy her condition is obvious, so using months instead of weeks or trimesters forces the public to make a stronger emotional connection. When the more relatable description of five months is used, a familiar image immediately comes to mind. Five months is also more than halfway to the finish line. Abortion at this stage is harder to sell to the general public.

5.   The statistics are always in our favor.

Founder of NRAL and repentant abortionist Dr. Bernard Nathanson confessed how pro-abortionists twist the numbers – and outright lie in an ends justifies the means game of baby life and death.

“It was always “5,000 to 10,000 deaths a year.” I confess that I knew the figures were totally false, and I suppose the others did too if they stopped to think of it. But in the “morality” of our revolution, it was a useful figure, widely accepted, so why go out of our way to correct it with honest statistics? The overriding concern was to get the laws [against abortion] eliminated, and anything within reason that had to be done was permissible.”

It places our side at a severe disadvantage when we cannot remain innocent and lie to counteract the lies of the other side. But, thankfully, there is no need to lie when statistics are an equal opportunity weapon for the shrewd. Statistics exist to emphasize positive information and downplay the negative. The abortion rate for North Carolina is nearly 20%   – that’s 1 out of every 5 pregnancies! In one year alone 33,140 abortions were performed in my state. That’s the equivalent of my hometown population here in Salisbury, NC. We must gather the statistical evidence and then convert it to an easily digestible form to weigh on and sway public opinion.

6.     Target groups work for us as well.

The Left excels in playing the SVG (Special Victims Group) cards. Any minority group, social class, or gender will do for their purposes. “Choose’em and use’em” is their mantra. Well, two had better play at that game if we plan to shrewdly achieve our agenda. We must make effective appeals to groups that are targeted in the controversy without pandering by presenting the cold hard facts such as the racist statements of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, the continuing racist targeting of Planned Parenthood today, and the virtual genocide being carried out through the disproportionate number of blacks and other minority babies that are aborted.

7.     Eyewitness accounts are the most compelling evidence.

No one knows about an issue like one who has been through it herself. Because the unborn children cannot speak for themselves, we must find voices to speak for them. The victims of the abortion industry must be given a prominent role in this ongoing debate. The personal testimonies of women such as Star Parker or actress Jennifer O’Neill are eye-opening, heartbreaking, inspiring, and unforgettable. The names of women such as Gianna Jessen, who literally survived being aborted should be as well known to the public as Planned Parenthood. There are literally dozens of groups at the local and national level such as Life Redeemed, Hope After Abortion, and Coalition for Life which provide an abundance of resources from those who have experienced abortion. And Then There Were None reaches out to the more easily forgotten victims – workers who are still trapped within the abortion industry and shares the stories of those who have managed to escape.

8.   There is great power in a name.

Abortion advocates insist abortion is safer for a woman than actually giving birth. Really? So how many women die from abortions each year? Though the CDC’s Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System attempts to keep tabs, information from abortion clinics is voluntary rather than mandatory. This is akin to asking a serial killer to make quarterly reports of his victims. In 2008, the CDC reported that out of 48 responding districts (out of 52 total) 12 women died as a result from complications from legally induced abortions. There were no reported deaths from illegally induced abortions. Abortion clinics only voluntarily report deaths that occur during the abortion procedure itself, that is, almost instantaneous death. Most women killed through abortion die from complications in the hours or days after the procedure (after they have already been quickly shipped home) and thus it requires quite a bit of detective work through death certificate searches to identify them. (A partial list of women killed by legal abortions can be found at http://www.priestsforlife.org/brochures/maternaldeaths.html.)

One such woman whose name appears on this list is from my home state of North Carolina. Her name was Kendra McLeod and she was a single mother of two when she underwent an abortion at a clinic in Chapel Hill on June 12, 1998. Afterwards, she continued to bleed heavily. The day after the abortion, she had fainted three times by the time she arrived at the ER. Doctors at the hospital transfused Kendra with nine units of blood and performed surgery to try to save her life, but to no avail. She died on June 30, at the age of 22. North Carolina’s abortion bill bore the unappealing name HB 695. How much more powerful would the bill have been had its name served as a memorial to the victims of this procedure? Kendra McLeod’s gravestone in Lafayette Memorial Park in Fayetteville, NC bears the poignant inscription, “Too Well Loved to Ever Be Forgotten.” The Kendra McLeod Memorial Women’s Health Bill would have personalized this debate and helped take a powerful step in making sure that Kendra and other such victims of abortion would never be forgotten.   (The photo attached is abortion Victim Kendra McLeod’s Gravestone.)