Confirming the arguments of many pro-choice activists, a recent report issued by Political Research Associates analyzes the tactics and membership of the antiabortion movement, concluding that it has attacked “nothing less than women’s autonomy.” The article notes that the antiabortion movement is largely made up of conservative Christians, as well as members of the politically influential “Christian Right,” and mentions various groups, including Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition, Operation Rescue, and the National Right to Life Committee. Antiabortion activists have successfully framed the abortion debate, the report confirms, with manipulative language and images, presenting abortion as an issue of morality and often equating it with murder. Using the term “baby” rather than “fetus” is an example of their misleading tactics. The report also acknowledges the antiabortion movement’s race-based distinctions: when focusing on reproductive freedom in a broad sense, the antiabortion movement stresses that white, upper-class women should bear children and stay home, while lower-class women and women of color should work outside the home and limit childbearing.
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