Framing the debate: saving women's lives.

ABORTION RIGHTS AND ACCESS TO CONtraceptives won public acceptance in the 1970s in part because supporters managed to frame the debate. Our spokespeople asked Americans to support decisions about abortion and family planning to be made by each woman along with her doctor, partner or family members, not by the government. Thus, "Who Decides?" became the frame, rather than those of morality, fairness or when life begins. And, through a careful media strategy, journalists picked up that formulation. The question resonated with women and men nationwide, and "freedom of choice" became the term under discussion--that was clearly something women wanted and deserved.

The outcome might have been very different if opponents had managed to frame the issue in the terms they are still trying to impose--that the right to abortion is the right to kill. After Roe v. Wade, many Americans believed the issue was resolved and many prochoice activists believed that there was solid support for the right to choose, including legal abortion. Many activists went on to focus on other pieces of the rights agenda. But the radical opposition was relentless in hammering on the media to alter the language they used. The stark emotional revulsion evoked by "baby killers" has steadily chipped away at public opinion, not on the question of who decides, but rather on the what, where, when, how and why questions. Most recently, Congress defined the "when" as late term and the "what" as partial birth abortions. Supporters of abortion rights around the world are on the defensive, and the radical right is openly confident that Roe v. Wade will soon be overturned.

In fact, they have opened a new and ominous front, trying to equate all of "reproductive rights" and even "women's health" with unlimited access to abortion at any time during a pregnancy. At every international gathering, US government delegates move to withdraw US support for "reproductive rights," arguing it is code for abortion. It is no such thing--reproductive rights include education, basic health care, HIV/AIDS prevention and counseling, family planning, contraceptives and skilled care for women before, during and after pregnancy and delivery. Reproductive rights practitioners save the lives of millions of women and children every year. But the assault reveals the right wing's true agenda--ending "abortion rights" is just a prelude to ending family planning and contraceptive use as well.

This cannot be allowed to happen. The abortion rights movement must better understand the values discussion happening across America. We must reassert the language of choice while expanding the debate around values of responsible parenthood and family self-sufficiency, of fairness, of women's health and child survival and of family well-being. We must insist that journalists report the stakes correctly. This will require a disciplined media strategy of coordinated messages delivered consistently by our spokespeople in constant contacts with writers and reporters--just as our opponents are doing. Increased infertility rates are also playing mind games with couples desperate to conceive and oblivious to the conversation about terminating a pregnancy. Women must again step to the microphones in a language of values and attitudes of advocacy, and firmness, outlining what is at stake in this battle in terms as stark as those used by the opponents.

Abortion rights is an issue of freedom of choice about when and whether to bear children and about moral decision making by women themselves. Reproductive health is much broader and even more crucial to women's lives around the world. As humans we have evolved so that the purpose of sex is no longer solely for pro creation. But the conflict over sex, equality and rights is far from simple, and truth alone will not be enough to prevail, nor will slogans on buttons and banners. If we do not manage to regain control of the debate over sexual and reproductive rights in the near future, we stand to lose. We are talking here about saving women's lives worldwide and about saving precious rights for future generations.

KATHY BONK is the executive director of the Communications Consortium Media Center, which helps nonprofit organizations use media and new telecommunications technologies as tools for public education and policy change. www.ccmc.org