Abortion Clinics: the American Death Camps a Content Analysis

Page | 1 Introduction:

Ever since the internet was created, countless amounts of information have been available at our fingertips. The information online today ranges from entertainment and news to social networking and belief sites. The Life Dynamics website, American Death Camps, http://www.ldi.org/deathcamps/DeathCamps.cfm, is just one of the many belief sites that frame abortion as a “battle.” The site’s purpose is to track the organization’s progress in the battle to close all of the “death camps” (abortion/ women’s clinics) in the United States. It also educates viewers about the methods and tools used within the clinics, and it compares these clinics to the death camps of the Holocaust.

Research Objective:

The purpose of my research is to gain an understanding of how the Life Dynamics organization views abortion clinics and their practices within the United States. By analyzing their website, I hope to learn how this organization uses the American Death Camp website to attract and inform followers in this cause.

Methodology:

The methodology used in this research is that of content analysis. This method is unobtrusive and allows the researcher to be a complete observer. It allows for no responder bias and is efficient and economical. I focused on the “clinics”, “instruments”, and “killing methods” pages for this content analysis.

Page | 2 Results:

At first glance at the website, http://www.ldi.org/deathcamps/DeathCamps.cfm, you will most likely notice the background and title before anything else. The background image consists of what seems to be a fence to a Nazi concentration camp with the phrases “Planned

Parenthood” and “National Abortion Federation” on the fence. With the

exception of the front right corner, the image is almost entirely black and blue. The front right corner has a splattered red appearance that represents the blood of aborted fetuses.

The home page is entitled “clinics”. It is a relatively simple layout that consists of a larger than normal side bar and a content area with a scrolling menu. The side bar consists of three sections: I will call them the States, Proclamation, and Contact Information area. The states area consists of a scroll menu of all of the fifty states. The proclamation area consists of what I feel is the mission statement of the organization and the contact area is that of the name. At the top of these three areas is the sentence “Remaining death camps: 758.” This gives the viewer of this website a firm opinion of what Life Dynamic’s believes about abortion/women’s clinics.

Within the states area, viewers are able to choose a state and get the contact information to all the “death camps” in that particular state. This could be a clearly informative source, but I feel that the creator intended it to be a resource for people who wanted to protest outside the said death camps.

Under the state’s area is the proclamation area. This area reads:

Page | 3 “There used to be over 2000 abortion clinics in America. Today, there are 758. Clearly,

the pro-lifers are winning this battle. This page lists every abortion clinic in America, so

that you can be encouraged as we countdown toward victory. Rest assured, Life

Dynamics will not stop until every one of these death camps is closed and the American

holocaust is over.” (http://www.ldi.org/deathcamps/DeathCamps.cfm)

This area clearly frames the mission, goals and attitudes of the people behind it. Their mission is to end the notion of the American Holocaust. The goals within this mission are to close every one of the remaining 758 abortion clinics. Their attitudes are clearly those of radical pro-lifers and this is best seen explicitly through the phrases “the pro-lifers” and “winning the battle” and

“Life Dynamics will not stop.”

I chose the label radical pro-lifer for a few reasons. The term radical is defined as thoroughgoing or extreme, especially as regards change from accepted or traditional forms

(Dictionary.com). Life Dynamic’s website is extreme and is against the traditional choice of letting people have an abortion. They are framing the abortion issue as a battle, inferring that there is an intense war going on between pro-lifers and pro-choice people. There is no proof on the website that there is a violent war going on between these two groups. This shows how extreme they are and making it appropriate for the label of radical.

The contact area is under the proclamation area and serves as a way of communication between website viewers and creators. Viewers are encouraged to let them know any problems with the site, opening and closings of the death camps, and if any of the current death camps have moved.

Page | 4 Another page on the site is the killing methods page. This page has a sidebar with the topics: The First Trimester, The Second Trimester, and The Third Trimester. It also consists of an introduction to this section of the website. The introduction is clearly framed to evoke sadness and/or rage in a pro-lifers’ heart. It uses the terms

“killing the unborn child” and “most effective way to kill it” in regards to the process of aborting a fetus, thus giving the fetus the status of a child and framing abortion as killing. They use the term unborn child instead of the medically common term fetus, to frame the abortion as a murder of a live person. This is critical in evoking the response they want from the site’s viewers. With this framing, viewers can easily link the word killing to murder and be further saddened and/or angry.

Under each section heading stated above, the website gives detailed methods of how the abortions take place, including pictures of fetuses at that particular stage of development. I believe the pictures are used as informative visuals, but I also believe they are there to further the rage talked about earlier. No one wants to see a child being killed, and these pictures, though the fetuses are still living, put a face to the victims of the “crime” this site is advocating against. The killing methods are very detailed and include terminology that would evoke more feelings conducive to get viewers to feel rage and join their mission. Phrases included, “suck the baby out of the uterus,” “surgical forceps which basically act like a pair of pliers,” “harpooning the whale,” and “babies being killed,” are used throughout the three trimesters to describe what is going on. Many of these phrases have been altered from the actual terminology to further foster feelings within the viewers. “Harpooning the whale” is the method of aborting the fetus by injecting drugs into it with a needle.

Page | 5 The next page is that of the “instruments” used in abortions. I originally had thought that this page would be the most informational with the least amount of framing related to the mission of the website’s creators, but I was mistaken. This page consists of four different instruments that are commonly used within the abortion process, including the cannula (pictured to the right), the curette, the forceps, and the syringe with spinal needle. Each of these tools has a page with a short description of how they are used during the abortion procedures. The introduction to this section includes the note: “In addition to 360-degree views of these abortion tools, you also have the option to view each abortion tool in actual size by clicking the caption below the photo.” I believe they did this to create a feeling of logic within this area of the website. They are informing people of the instruments used in the practice, but as we look deeper into the descriptions of these tools, Life Dynamic’s radical views come out as part of the framing.

In the section on the cannula the site describes it as a tool to “kill and dismember the baby.” This is another example of the way the site selects the words that will evoke the most feelings of sadness and/or anger from its viewers. In the section on the forceps, they are described as similar to “a pair of pliers.” This connects the process of abortion to the toolbox in one’s garage, explicitly conveying the message of dirty and dangerous. In the section on the syringe with spinal needle, they describe the outcome of the instrument as “make(ing) it easier to rip apart” in regards to the “baby” (fetus). This description is probably one of the most passion- evoking throughout the site and even makes me think for a few seconds. I feel that all of these descriptions serve the organization’s underlying factor to create a bad image in the minds of viewers and recruit members.

Conclusion:

Page | 6 Throughout the entire site, the terminology used was selected to evoke feelings of sadness and/or rage. It could be a very explicit way of recruiting for their mother organization,

Life Dynamics, as well as soliciting financial backers that have similar beliefs and money. Either way the terminology used could easily be stated in a more humane way with no skew towards the pro-life or the pro-choice agendas. The site did not share any sources where all their information was coming from, making it hard to verify a lot of what was being described.

The imagery on the site is minimal, but the background used is extreme. It never changes and definitely portrays the belief that Planned Parenthood is a death camp. The images of the tools are the real thing and there is no propaganda among these images. The images of the fetuses are also the real thing with no propaganda. I feel the limited use of extreme images was a method in creating a credible informational site for those interested in facts about abortion.

It is clear the website has the explicit feeling of a radical pro-life organization. I feel the creators tried to create the site to be an information resource for those interested in learning about abortion and where clinics are located, but the terminology used and lack of sources makes it an extremely unreliable source.

The imagery and text is proving to be a very effective method in framing this debate. As seen on the main page, over 1200 abortion clinics have already been closed in the United States alone. The way they have chosen to frame this debate has helped them gain support and cause these closings to happen. I don’t think they would have as much support if they framed this issue as a friendly dispute of choice. Framing the abortion issue as a battle with children’s lives at stake creates feelings of anger and sadness, which is what the organization needs people to feel in order to get more followers. This said, I feel that the pro-lifers are winning the “battle”

Page | 7 currently and will continue to in the future unless the pro-choice side chooses to fight back with verifiable facts that can evoke stronger feelings toward their side.

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