The recent abortion-related referenda should give pro-lifers pause for thought. Abortion measures won in seven states, and Florida’s much-celebrated victory seems Pyrrhic; it failed only because of the 60% threshold, with 57% in support.[1] The results highlight the pro-life movement’s failure to persuade public opinion over an extended period of time. According to the Pew Research Center, support for legalized abortion has never significantly shifted. In 1995, support for legal abortion in all or most cases stood at 60%. In May 2024, that support rose to 63%.[2] Undoubtedly, the pro-life movement will recommit to educating the public by intensifying its familiar approaches of pro-life apologetics and expanding outreach. These approaches have been useful, and pro-life activists deserve our gratitude. However, repeating the same actions that have not achieved our objective will likely produce the same results.

 

The struggle for recognition of unborn children is comparable to the struggles of minority groups for civil rights. When comparing the pro-life movement to past successful civil rights movements, it becomes clear that pro-lifers mostly operate outside the cultural sphere, while other movements placed culture at the center of their struggle. The fact that the pro-life movement doesn’t replicate this tactic puts it at a disadvantage.

 

In the past, when minorities were marginalized, it was largely because they were invisible to the general public. Their concerns and experiences did not receive any significant attention in the media. The advent of mass media—especially television—helped change that. To be sure, mediatic representation of minority groups could be problematic and stereotyped; nevertheless, it created exposure and changed attitudes.[3] For example, when Nichelle Nichols played Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek; she had wanted to quit because she felt very marginalized in her role. However, she had a conversation with Martin Luther King Jr., and he encouraged her to remain, emphasizing that she played a non-stereotypical Black character. Star Trek’s audience did not watch the show for racial reasons, but they nevertheless assimilated the idea of African Americans as equals.[4]

 

Unborn children have suffered from that same invisibility that other minorities have experienced. One hundred years ago, fetal imagery was largely absent in the public sphere. For the pregnant woman, the embryo did not have a tangible existence.[5] Discussions about abortion were the affair of doctors, theologians, and lawyers.[6] Abortion laws were the product of this class of people. While the general public may have broadly agreed with these laws, they did not necessarily have all the arguments and information to justify their existence. When abortion activists began to challenge these laws in the mid-twentieth century, the general public was not educated enough to evaluate pro-abortion claims. To be sure, the advent of ultrasound and the internet have allowed for the circulation of information and imagery, outreach is often ad hoc, and people understand that when they engage on this matter the pro-life message does not have the authority of cultural sanction; important institutions such as medicine, law, and academia repudiate many of the data and values that pro-lifers are trying to advance. In the past, the media may have attempted to present a balanced approach on abortion and show both sides of the issue. Increasingly, this is no longer the case. The media do not present the pro-life case or reaction; medicine does not acknowledge the right to conscientious objection. The cultural message of our opponents, by design, is that opposition to abortion is something extreme and beyond the pale.

 

Pro-life outreach and apologetics will counter some of that. But many people recoil at direct engagement on the abortion issue. They might already have strong opinions and don’t want to hear the opposite side. Others fear the emotional turmoil and polarization surrounding the topic and don’t want to get involved. For this hardened segment of public opinion, exposure to the pro-life message must occur obliquely; not as an argument, but as a story or image that normalizes the humanity of the unborn and advocates for them.

 

Some of that cultural exposure has happened. Abby Johnson’s biopic Unplanned (2019) and the movie October Baby (2011) are examples of cultural expression of pro-life messaging. But it’s been a trickle, too few and far between to make an impact. The exposure has to be constant, not episodic. What does a cultural strategy look like? The pro-life movement needs a two-pronged strategy to be developed by centralized pro-life leadership.

 

First, it needs a dedicated research arm with a broader research agenda. There are think tanks devoted to abortion-related studies such as the Elliott Institute and the DeVeber Institute. But these institutes are committed to research that undoes abortion arguments. And that is all very necessary. But the pro-life movement can’t just be reactive, engaging in what is effectively counter-research. We have to be proactive and set the cultural agenda. We do that by taking an academic interest in unborn children and their advocacy in various fields: in history, literature, sociology, anthropology, and art history, that is, disciplines that are heavily reliant on narrative to transmit ideas. The pro-life movement also needs to encourage a more reflexive approach to the practice of being pro-life: in other words, asking questions such as what causes people to reject the humanity of the unborn? How does exposure to abortion victim photography change people’s minds about abortion? In short, we have to do much of the same analytical work for unborn children as has been done for minorities. Indeed, this research does not directly reach the wider public. However, the audience for this is academic scholarship

 

The second thing the pro-life movement needs to encourage cultural creation. We need to tell all kinds of stories surrounding the unborn, their parents, and all the actors involved in abortion and protecting the right to life. This cultural creation can include filmmaking, video creation, writing, and performance. Again, it need not present the argument against abortion. It need only present aspects of that question. This cultural creation, besides spreading the truth about abortion, also sends the message that unborn children genuinely are human beings and deserve the same attention as any other demographic.

 

This two-pronged strategy has to be the conscientious effort of right-to-life leaders, funded by pro-life groups and foundations. Just as pro-life groups make a point of reaching out to the public with apologetics, they should also make a point of engaging in the production and dissemination of new research and cultural products.

 

A cultural strategy might seem like a sidetrack from the emergency that abortion represents. Electoral activism and volunteering in pregnancy centers appear to be a faster route to stopping abortion. Past experience has shown that by itself, these cannot do it all. A cultural strategy will normalize pro-life messaging to make it more likely to enter influential institutions. Until the pro-life message gains wider cultural influence, it will be treated like a marginal message that does not merit consideration in the eyes of powerbrokers.

 

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[1] Tyler Arnold, "In Florida, Voters Defeat Abortion Amendment," Catholic News Agency, November 6, 2024, https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/260285/in-florida-voters-defeat-abortion-amendment.

[2] Pew Research Center, "Public Opinion on Abortion," Pew Research Center: Religion & Public Life, accessed November 12, 2024, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/.

[3] J. Fred MacDonald, Blacks and White TV: African Americans in Television Since 1948 (Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1992), xvii.

 [4] Nichelle Nichols, Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories (New York: Putnam, 1994) as quoted in Gregory Adamo, African Americans in Television: Behind the Scenes (New York: Peter Lang, 2010), 13.

[5] Jane Maienschein, Embryos under the Microscope (Harvard University Press, 2014), 24.

[6] Kristin Luker, Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood (University of California Press, 1984), 1.

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