WASHINGTON, DC—Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in the U.S., has faced many challenges since its founding more than a century ago. "We've always been the center of controversy," explains Chief Strategist Tom Subak. "It's just something that comes with the work we do." The opposition the organization faces is usually in the form of protests and criticism from religious groups and voices on the political right. "It's normal that we get questions about our funding, and of course every now and then some story gets drummed up about a medical situation when one of our procedures doesn't go quite the way it's supposed to, but these are just part of the job."
One way that the organization has tried to battle such controversy is by changing the way society views its services. Subak says, "Our number one opposition is in the idea that abortion is morally wrong, so we have been working hard to try and change that narrative." Planned Parenthood spends nearly one fourth of its yearly budget in public relations campaigns which aim to fight the stigma of a human willingly dismembering another human.
The general public still frowns upon the act of methodically removing a living human being's limbs from its torso. A 2016 survey found that 87% of people either "agreed somewhat" or "strongly agreed" with the statement, "Death caused by the removal of each limb would be unpleasant." This sentiment makes the work of Planned Parenthood's 650 locations in the U.S. challenging.
"Our hope here," Subak explains, "is that we can change the public's mind about what we do. We know that there will always be fringe religious groups who just refer to sections of their Bible or whatever that [state] tearing a human into smaller pieces makes God angry, but for the less-extreme, moderate Americans out there, we want to make the notion more palatable."
One Planned Parenthood patient, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told us of her experience that morning, after seeking pregnancy care in the clinic closest to her. "I knew I was pregnant, but I wasn't quite sure what comes next. This was my first time. So, I came to the clinic here and said, 'What happens now?' Well, they told me that they could make it so I wasn't pregnant. I said, 'How does that work?' They told me they pull the baby out one piece at a time until it's not in there any more. I must have g[iven] them this look, 'cause then they said, 'Oh, don't worry about it, there's nothing wrong with that.' I wasn't sure, so I asked, 'Well, it can't feel nothing [sic], right?' They sort of looked around and then changed the subject, and said, 'Everyone else is doing it,' so..."
Subak says that he believes their message is resonating with the youth of America, and hopes that some day a person who has power over another will be able to just hack off a leg, or rip an arm out of a shoulder, without so much as a word of protest from passersby.
"This is all about choice. That's what we promote here," says Subak. "If a woman wants to allow another human to grow and develop as nature intended, then we support that. But if she's not quite at a place in her life where months of nausea and weight gain sound appealing, then we strongly believe that she has every right to let a stranger probe inside of her with some instruments and pull that little human being to shreds."
Subak acknowledges that it is an uphill battle, given the prevalence of messages that are contrary to his organization's. "For so many years, people have been taught in their churches and families that violence is not the answer. We hope to change that."