{"id":7930,"date":"2011-11-10T23:55:32","date_gmt":"2011-11-11T04:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/liveaction.org\/blog\/?p=7930"},"modified":"2013-04-02T02:11:26","modified_gmt":"2013-04-02T06:11:26","slug":"the-mississippi-personhood-fight-wasnt-a-total-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-mississippi-personhood-fight-wasnt-a-total-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mississippi personhood fight wasn&#8217;t a total loss"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/news\/breaking-mississippi-fails-to-pass-personhood-amendment\">failure of the Mississippi personhood amendment<\/a> is disappointing but not surprising\u2014the <a href=\"http:\/\/pollingreport.com\/abortion.htm\">public&#8217;s general confusion on abortion<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/news\/mississippi-governor-votes-in-favor-of-personhood-amendment-historic-vote-t\">mixed messages from MI Governor Haley Barbour<\/a>, and even <a href=\"..\/why-personhood-failed-in-mississippi\/\">division within the pro-life movement<\/a> about the amendment\u2019s strategic wisdom formed a perfect storm of antipathy among moderate voters and ambivalence among pro-life ones. But despite Mississippi\u2019s 16-point decision not to protect the unborn, the initiative was not a wasted effort. \u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-7934\" style=\"margin: 25px;\" title=\"mississippi\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/liveaction.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/mississippi.jpg\" width=\"149\" height=\"149\" \/>There are two basic tendencies in politics that work to pro-lifers\u2019 detriment: first, the belief that abortion is a mere \u201csocial issue\u201d of secondary importance to things like the nation\u2019s economic health or fiscal solvency; and second, politicians\u2019 natural tendency to let polls dictate what they talk about.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, politicians and mainstream commentators rarely discuss abortion, and when they do, it\u2019s only in response to some tangential controversy, like Planned Parenthood\u2019s misbehavior or abortion funding in healthcare reform. With voters not rethinking abortion because nobody mentions it and nobody mentioning it because voters don\u2019t want to change it, abortion\u2019s political intractability becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.<\/p>\n<p>By waiting for public opinion to catch up rather than actively guiding it in the right direction, we\u2019ve fallen into the habit of holding the line rather than capturing new territory. Victories on the tangential controversies are supposed to be stepping stones toward the destination, but too often we leave the impression that they <em>are<\/em> the destination. During the healthcare debate we heard that Americans shouldn\u2019t be forced to fund procedures they consider immoral, but not the bigger point\u2014why it\u2019s <em>right<\/em> to consider abortion immoral. In condemning Planned Parenthood, we sometimes fail to remind people that even if they weren\u2019t lying about heartbeats or ignoring statutory rape, their business would still be monstrous and un-American.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re simply missing too many opportunities to move the conversation beyond ultrasounds or tax dollars and toward making the central pro-life argument\u2014the preborn are living, individual humans with unalienable rights of their own which government must protect.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s where pro-life initiatives prove their worth, even when they fail. Just getting them on the ballot guarantees a lengthy public debate on the right to life, with politicians opining, activists speaking out, free publicity in the news coverage, etc.\u2014<em>none<\/em> of which usually happens without either an election or a scandal to act as a catalyst. Even when the likelihood of defeat at the polls is known going in, such campaigns create brand-new platforms from which to call attention to the pro-life argument and nudge public opinion, bit by bit, in the right direction.<\/p>\n<p>Tempting though it may be, pro-lifers shouldn\u2019t succumb to despair this week. We may not have saved the unborn in Mississippi, but we drew Mississippi\u2019s\u2014and the rest of the nation\u2019s\u2014attention to why the unborn need saving. Time will tell just how many hearts and minds were reached in the process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The failure of the Mississippi personhood amendment is disappointing but not surprising\u2014the public&#8217;s general confusion on abortion, mixed messages from MI Governor Haley Barbour, and even division within the pro-life movement about the amendment\u2019s strategic wisdom formed a perfect storm of antipathy among moderate voters and ambivalence among pro-life ones. But despite Mississippi\u2019s 16-point decision [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15,3],"tags":[19,1150,885,220,31,173,34,545,408],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Mississippi personhood fight wasn&#039;t a total loss - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-mississippi-personhood-fight-wasnt-a-total-loss\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Mississippi personhood fight wasn&#039;t a total loss - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The failure of the Mississippi personhood amendment is disappointing but not surprising\u2014the public&#8217;s general confusion on abortion, mixed messages from MI Governor Haley Barbour, and even division within the pro-life movement about the amendment\u2019s strategic wisdom formed a perfect storm of antipathy among moderate voters and ambivalence among pro-life ones. But despite Mississippi\u2019s 16-point decision [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-mississippi-personhood-fight-wasnt-a-total-loss\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-11T04:55:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-04-02T06:11:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/liveaction.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/mississippi.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Calvin Freiburger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Calvin Freiburger\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-mississippi-personhood-fight-wasnt-a-total-loss\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-mississippi-personhood-fight-wasnt-a-total-loss\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Calvin Freiburger\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/6eb2bf94c8064b71953ba137bf413c4d\"},\"headline\":\"The Mississippi personhood fight wasn&#8217;t a total loss\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-11T04:55:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-02T06:11:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-mississippi-personhood-fight-wasnt-a-total-loss\/\"},\"wordCount\":500,\"commentCount\":18,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"abortion\",\"messaging\",\"Mississippi\",\"Personhood\",\"politics\",\"polls\",\"Pro-Life\",\"public opinion\",\"strategy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Analysis\",\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-mississippi-personhood-fight-wasnt-a-total-loss\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-mississippi-personhood-fight-wasnt-a-total-loss\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-mississippi-personhood-fight-wasnt-a-total-loss\/\",\"name\":\"The Mississippi personhood fight wasn't a total loss - Live Action News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-11T04:55:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-02T06:11:26+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-mississippi-personhood-fight-wasnt-a-total-loss\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-mississippi-personhood-fight-wasnt-a-total-loss\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-mississippi-personhood-fight-wasnt-a-total-loss\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Mississippi personhood fight wasn&#8217;t a total loss\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; 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Calvin is an editor and administrator for TheFederalistPapers.org, and his work has appeared on NewsRealBlog.com, PatriotUpdate.com, LifeNews.com, LifeSiteNews.com, RightWisconsin.com, AmericanThinker.com, Stream.org, AmericanClarion.org, and more. Please check out his official website, ConservativeStandards.com. 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