How to Respond to the Opposition
- Repeating opposition language or focusing on a specific point in pregnancy.
- Talking about specific “weeks,” “trimesters,” or “later abortion.” Focusing on % or numbers of abortions in first trimester
- Focusing on fetal diagnosis as the only reason for abortion later in pregnancy.
- Saying abortion should be “safe, rare and legal.”
- Referencing coathangers, back alley abortions, etc.
- Comparing abortion bans to other atrocities or their response to other movements. (e.g.: This will create an ‘Underground Railroad,’ or ‘Do we want to take advice from the ‘Texas Taliban’?)
- Call it an “abortion ban” that takes decisions away from Nebraskans and their medical providers.
- Health decisions “throughout a pregnancy” or “at different points in pregnancy” or “as the pregnancy progresses.” “Barriers make it harder for someone to get an abortion as soon as they decide.”
- Talk about the barriers to care and the impact of forcing someone to stay pregnant.
- Emphasize that abortion is a medical procedure and that health needs should drive decisions.
- Say that abortion is safe and that it must stay legal, What is risky and wrong is the criminalization of people who have abortions.
- Stay focused on key messages.
- Avoid reinforcing the opposition’s messaging and instead focus on the pregnant person.
- Focusing on weeks and trimesters leads to people thinking more about babies and less about the pregnant person or the impact of forcing someone to stay pregnant. Focusing on statistics doesn’t answer people’s questions about why a person may need an abortion… it implies fewer is better, which can be stigmatizing.
- Don’t position some reasons as “better” than others. It does not reflect the complex reality of why people have abortions later in pregnancy.
- Saying abortions should be rare can be stigmatizing, implying that abortion is not something that should be happening, thus it should be rare and reduced.
- We do not want to undermine the availability and safety of abortion now or in a future with more restrictive laws.
- Minimizes the experience and history of Black Americans. Language like “Texas Taliban” is xenophobic and Islamophobic.
