Principles: do the media’s work for them, brand or
be branded, make your actions both concrete and communicative
New principle: Spend your energy wisely
Planned Parenthood as an
organization is split into two parts; they both provide health services for
women, including abortion, and advocate for women’s rights and health care
issues. Because of the work that Planned Parenthood does, in particular
providing abortion services, they have become the target of many socially
conservative organizations. These organizations actively seek to “defund”
Planned Parenthood. There is a lot of confusion as to what this actually means.
Defunding Planned Parenthood refers to when legislators pass laws that prohibit
Medicaid users from using their coverage at Planned Parenthood facilities. In
doing so, Planned Parenthood loses a large amount of funding, as much of their
revenue comes in the form of government reimbursement for Medicaid patients. In
order to organize against such action, Planned Parenthood relies first on fact
checking information and second on disengaging with organizations that are
uninterested in providing accurate information.
In the past few years, conservative
groups have been actively attempting to defund Planned Parenthood. As Planned
Parenthood approached their 100th year anniversary in October of
2016, they decided to host massive events over the course of the year to draw
attention to their organization and their story. The goal of this year-long
parade of festivities was to take the power back into their own hands and
control their narrative. For too long, conservative groups across the nation
had too much influence and control over how the public views Planned Parenthood
and interprets the work that they do. Planned Parenthood locations around the
nation hosted events and conducted information campaigns in what Whitney
Philips, a strategic communicator for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky
Mountains, called “total advocacy.” This year long initiative was created
though the total devotion to campaigns correcting the rampant misinformation
that existed in the public consciousness about Planned Parenthood.
In Colorado, this centennial
celebration was especially significant as the events and information campaigns coincided
with an effort from Colorado lobbyists to introduce legislation to defund (or
deny Medicaid patients access to) Planned Parenthood. Because Planned
Parenthood organizers had done such a good job organizing their supporters and
creating pervasive information campaigns they were able to galvanize the
population to support this organization against hostile legislation. By
focusing their energy, they were able to communicate their efforts to the
legislature to make them understand how unpopular the bill was. They targeted
people who did not already have their mind made up, and persuaded them to
support the organization. In the end, the bill was not even voted on because of
how successful Planned Parenthood had been in their mission.
Because of the fierce opposition
Planned Parenthood inspires, there is a huge body of misinformation that exists
about them. To combat this, Planned Parenthood relies first on a constant
preparedness to fact check. Strategic communicators, like Whitney Philips, and
other employees make themselves available to journalists and others seeking
information. The goal of Planned Parenthood in this arena is to provide that
information and correct false assumptions firmly, but politely. Although it is
important to fact check responsible journalists, it can be unproductive and
unhelpful to waste time attempting to correct misconceptions from larger,
right-wing media organizations. They often do not seek the correct or factual
information and may be resistant to attempts to provide verifiable facts. It is
often a waste of time and energy to engage with such groups.
