We left off yesterday with the insight that it is possible for the life-affirming industry to use the same strategies and tactics the abortion industry has used for decades to make abortion an attractive option to the majority of people in our culture.
As a proof point for just how effective the abortion industry has been at this endeavor, recall from our analysis in a previous article, (https://brettattebery.com/is-there-any-common-ground-between-right-to-choose-believers-and-right-to-life-believers/) that research reveals 93% of Americans do not believe in the core pro-life position that abortion is never an acceptable option.
Said another way, 93% of Americans want some kind of abortion option for women.
Based on that data point, it is clear that the abortion industry has done a very good job of establishing a foundation in our culture that supports abortion decisions.
And speaking of abortion decisions, today let’s focus on exactly who makes an abortion decision.
That shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.
Women who get abortions are the ones making the decisions.
Granted, they are influenced by others, often strongly so, but still women are the ones who make the final decision about what to do with their pregnancies, terminate early or carry to term.
Now from the perspective of influencing demand for abortion, since women are the ones making the decisions about getting abortions, it stands to reason that women should be the primary focus of any efforts to influence the demand for abortion.
Yes, of course, we can and should make efforts to influence a woman through other people in her inner circle who she trusts, but it seems logical that our first priority should be to go right after influencing the one who makes the abortion decision, the woman.
Going all-in on a strategy that influences how women demand abortion, or the flipside of that, how women demand choosing life, brings great clarity to what actions the life-affirming industry should take to influence demand.
The core principle in deciding to pursue a specific program or not can be put to a simple question: how strong is the evidence that such a program would decrease demand for abortion, or increase the demand for choosing life?
Can you imagine how many “restrict supply of abortion pills” initiatives would fall by the wayside in the face of that question?
Attempts to restrict the supply of abortion pills will not only ultimately prove to be ineffective as we discussed in previous articles (https://brettattebery.com/does-the-abortion-industry-have-a-silver-bullet/), but has nothing at all to do with influencing demand for abortion.
If anything, such efforts could possibly prove to be counterproductive to decreasing demand for abortion because “restrict supply of abortion pills” efforts could be perceived by women as an attack on their rights and freedom.
And that brings us to an important question in terms of influencing women’s demand for abortion.
Should we focus our efforts to influence demand more on decreasing demand for abortion, or on increasing the demand for choosing life, and is there even a difference between the two?
We will turn to that question tomorrow.
Regards,
Brett Attebery