Anti-abortion group's 'white paper' uses sly tactics to deceive
Heartbeat International published a white paper purporting to detail “the many changes in abortion since the Dobbs decision which overturned Roe v. Wade.”
Last week, anti-abortion center behemoth Heartbeat International (HI) published a white paper purporting to detail “the many changes in abortion since the Dobbs decision which overturned Roe v. Wade.” The release of the report was announced through Heartbeat International’s media mouthpiece Pregnancy Help News (PNI). PNI’s announcement claims that “[t]he reality of abortion is vastly different than what is portrayed in the media” and that “abortion proponents have worked… to push abortion, quite often illicitly and at the expense of women’s safety.” The paper focuses on medication abortion and utilizes ‘women-protective’ justifications for restricting access to medication abortion.
In the white paper, Heartbeat International employs several sly tactics of persuasion that the average lay person may not recognize and may be influenced by, tactics which are worth exploring. These tactics include, but are not limited to, the following.
🟢 The paper uses fear-inducing words and phrases, such as “the poisoning of women,” “active or passive infanticide,” and “chemical abortion” (the anti-abortion movement’s scary-sounding agitprop term for medication abortion).
🟢 In the paper, Heartbeat International advantageously exploits the consequences of abortion bans - for example, the increase in people obtaining the medication abortion drug regimen through the internet or “from [off] ‘the street’” following the Dobbs decision - for its own benefit by positioning women as endangered and the anti-abortion cause as women-protective. In other words, problems created by the anti-abortion abortion movement are being used to benefit the anti-abortion movement.
🟢 The paper relies upon - and presents as authoritative - politicized research and information produced by anti-abortion lobbying groups CLI and AAPLOG that churn out biased studies, as well as information from groups that are owned and operated by Heartbeat International. The authors of the research, however, either lack medical and pharmaceutical expertise, have admitted in court to being poor researchers, are known for employing shoddy research methods and misinterpreting results, or have had prior research debunked or retracted.
🟢 The paper misrepresents study findings and it contains blatantly false accusations against reputable organizations. For example, the white paper claims that “some health organizations are promoting chemical abortion even into advanced stages,” and it specifically names the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). However, the information that the white paper copied and pasted from ACOG’s website as proof is from a question-and-answer page and is located in a brief description of the methods by which medication is administered to the patient in a second trimester Labor Induction abortion (i.e. through an intravenous line, injection, etc.).— It is not about the medication abortion regimen, which is only approved for use up to 10 weeks of pregnancy.
🟢 The white paper includes in-text links which lead the reader to irrelevant information or news reports published far outside the time frame of the paper. For example, to support the claim that the continued availability of medication abortion following the Dobbs decision has led to a “rise in coercion, violence, and the poisoning of women,” the paper links to news reports from 2007, 2008, 2013, 2014, etc. At least one in-text link leads to an article about an incident that occurred outside of the United States. (Reminder: Abortion bans harm victims of abuse.) In a section criticizing the FDA’s regulations of mifepristone, one of the drugs used in a two-drug regimen for medication abortion, an in-text link leads not to information about mifepristone, but to an anti-contraception article published at Heartbeat International’s media mouthpiece Pregnancy Help News. (Heartbeat International is adamantly against the use of contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancies.)
🟢 Throughout the white paper, Heartbeat International infantilizes women while positioning itself as a concerned advocate for women’s safety and well-being. (Yet, Heartbeat International celebrated the defeat of a proposed life-of-the-mother exception to El Salvador’s barbaric, deadly, absolute abortion ban, exclaiming “life prevails!”)
While Heartbeat International’s white paper is just another example of anti-abortion agitprop, it’s important for recognizing deceptive tactics and flawed research when we see it. I encourage you to read through the white paper to familiarize yourself with the tactics listed above, and look for other tactics not listed. Open the links and check the paper’s claims. Get to know the checkered history of the research authors and groups. Remember: Knowledge is power.
P.S. If you have not yet read the book “How to Lie with Statistics,” you should.
This is insanity. They must lie?
To those of us who have made a career in science and medicine these tactics are glaring. I can spot them on first glance very easily. The only way to stop the destruction these organizations are causing is to SUE them out of existence. These are quack operations and the legitimate and elite medical organizations and societies should not tolerate their shyster tactics ever. Keep up your good work in this arena. We need more truth and sleuth finders!