Human Rights Campaign is one of my favorite organizations. One of the largest and most effective human rights nonprofits, HRC works to support LGBTQA rights, in addition to women’s, immigrant, muslim, and other minority rights.
One of my least favorite organizations, on the other hand, is the Pro-Life Action League. The advocacy group makes excellent use of logical and emotional appeals to prevent women from receiving abortions and create legislation criminalizing the procedure.
The Pro-Life Action League does most of its organizing online, where members can donate to the cause and read facts and arguments related to the issue of abortion. The website cleverly uses the word “baby” instead of “fetus,” which has been proven to evoke a stronger response from neutral parties. By creating a user-friendly website that simply lays out the arguments of the pro-life cause, people who are sorting out their opinions on the matter have clean and clear access to the half of the story that would sway them to pro-life advocacy.
In addition to supporting their own argument, the Pro-Life Action League establishes itself as the opponent of Planned Parenthood. By criminalizing the leaders of Planned Parenthood and claiming to be open and honest with prospective members, the Pro-Life Action League gains access to many people who are not fond of the pro-choice organization, regardless of how they actually feel about abortion.
Finally, the pro-life organization actively mobilizes its members to prevent abortions. On the “take action” page of the website, the Pro-Life Action League urges members to picket abortion clinics, to pray outside of women’s health facilities, and to initiate “sidewalk counseling” to convince women not to abort their pregnancies. By confronting these women in person, the members of PLAL are extremely effective in creating second thoughts for women entering abortion clinics.
I disagree with almost every point that the Pro-Life Action League argues, but they are arguably effective at promoting their platform and stopping abortions. I can learn from the organization in my advocacy project by using the logical approaches that the pro-life group does, and hopefully use their tactics to, ironically, oppose their message.