In 2011, Republicans gained control of the U. S. House of Representatives and on February 17th at 8:57pm Representative Mike Pence from Indiana proposed an amendment to “prohibit the use of funds for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc” (The Library of Congress, 2011). This amendment passed on February 18th at 2:13pm with a vote of 240-185 (The Library of Congress, 2011). This bold acceptance to eliminate federal funding of Planned Parenthood is just one of the attacks on Planned Parenthood in recent days. In addition to this legislative attempt to cut funding, a campaign was launched to “Expose Planned Parenthood” in a series of sex trafficking issues (http://exposeplannedparenthood.net/), and a group called Live Action (http://liveaction.org/) also sought to target Planned Parenthood for its role in “covering up child sex trafficking”, and another campaign called 40 Days for Life (http://www.40daysforlife.com/index.cfm) organized protests outside Planned Parenthood centers around the country. Overall, it seems that 2011 has brought with it a concerted effort to bring down Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood was a bit slow to creating an organized campaign response to these attacks. In fact, before Planned Parenthood officially launched its own campaign in response to these attacks MoveOn.org Political Action began a campaign to stand up for the issues that Planned Parenthood addresses. In a 30 second political ad MoveOn.org Political Action uses Lisa Edelstein to ask why the Republican Party is pushing bills to limit access to vital services and is trying to send women back to the back ally (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zCJigrTb9Q). This ad seems to be the only ad to date to come out in defense of Planned Parenthood and against the GOP policy proposals (if I am wrong, please leave a comment and direct me to where I can find other ads).
Planned Parenthood has still yet to produce its own advertising campaign. It was just recently that Planned Parenthood Action began an online campaign in response to the above mentioned recent attacks. As one example, on its website if you go to its policy positions and click on “Opposing Attacks on Women’s Health” you can begin to follow its response effort (http://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/positions/opposing-attacks-womens-health-785.htm). This online campaign allows you to share your stories, contact representatives, view celebrities that stand with Planned Parenthood, and of course donate your money. Planned Parenthood has also created another web awareness campaign called “Raise Your Hand” (http://www.raiseyourhand.org/).
Although I am sure that what is presented here is a far cry from exemplifying the expansiveness of Planned Parenthood's campaign efforts, one thing is certain: Planned Parenthood has yet to create a political campaign advertisement as part of its efforts to defend itself against these policy and sensationalist attacks, to condemn those who are threatening it, and to raise awareness about the role that Planned Parenthood plays in health care, disease prevention, and other vital health and women’s services.
In an effort to study what is going on in the Planned Parenthood debate, I am interested in taking a snap shot approach. For example, I am about to embark on a study that will examine the campaign for and against Planned Parenthood within a very short period of time. I will conclude this piece by letting you know that first- I am still working out the details of this project and there will be more to come, and second- I am most interested in the response efforts by MoveOn.org Political Action and Planned Parenthood Action; therefore, here are some questions I will leave you with that are floating around in my brain:
How are these organizations working to counteract the policy moves & campaigns against Planned Parenthood? What types of campaign communication are they engaging in? How does the one advertisement by MoveOn.org play into these efforts? What are the rhetorical components of this ad? For example, what is the message/what are the messages? What role is the rhetor (both the actor and the organization) within this ad and within the campaign context? What argument(s) is presented in the ad? Considering the political climate/environment should Planned Parenthood Action have also created an ad in a timely manner? What are the advantages and disadvantages to running primarily online campaigns against policy & multiple adversarial campaigns?
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