The hidden camera videos showing Planned Parenthood officials negotiating prices for the sale of aborted fetal tissue has "altered the (abortion) script" for Republicans on the campaign trail, according to
The New York Times.
The controversial footage, covertly shot by pro-life group The Center for Medical Progress, has breathed new life into the abortion debate and social conservatives are capitalizing on the opportunity to put abortion proponents on the defense.
The undercover videos portray two officials indifferently discussing the sale of aborted fetal tissue.
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards has characterized the "sensationalized videos" as attempts "to try to impugn and smear the name of Planned Parenthood."
The videos, however, have helped Republicans change their tack, using the footage as a way to "shift the debate away from the 'war on women' paradigm that has proved so harmful to their party’s image," according to The Times.
"The out-of-sight, out-of-mind mantra that propelled the pro-choice movement for decades is forever gone," Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway told the Times. Conway helps conservative candidates, anti-abortion groups and the Republican National Committee "sharpen their message on the issue."
She advises a softer approach — including male candidates discussing their recollections of seeing ultrasound images for the first time — a strategy she refers to as "shock the conscience, warm the heart."
Pro-choice advocates, according to the Times, are prepared for a "sustained, sophisticated and coordinated effort to force a debate on the uncomfortable moral and ethical questions that abortion raises."
It’s a surprising role reversal. For years, Republicans have played defense in the abortion debate, carefully crafting their words to avoid seeming too "extreme," writes Ian Tuttle, a William F. Buckley Fellow in political journalism at the
National Review Institute.
"No longer," Tuttle says. "Partial-birth abortions, abortion-by-dismemberment, Kermit Gosnell, now the Planned Parenthood organ-harvesting side business: The rot at the root of the abortion industry is evident, and Republicans are finally seeing that they can, and should, go on offense.
"The strategy is simple: No Republican politician should answer a question about abortion without first demanding that Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer and Hillary Clinton answer for their positions. And putting Democrats on the defensive is not just good politics; it makes it that much more likely that the abortion industry can, finally, be crushed."
Watch the videos here.
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