Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s social-media campaign asking for a one-word description of its work so far hasn’t turned out exactly as planned.
Not unless responses like “deceitful,” “barbarous, “villainous,” and “scandal-ridden” were what organizers had in mind.
After calling Thursday on its Twitter account for “one word you would use to describe PP,” Planned Parenthood Action Fund received hundreds of responses, the vast majority of which were critical—sometimes virulently so, as several commenters noted.
“[G]oing through the replies on twitter, I don’t think this was the best idea,” said a comment from Sergeant Sid on @ppact.
Emma H. Ehrlich gave a positive comment—”vital”—but added that, “y’all need to rethink your social media strategy, this is bait for loons.”
A word cloud created by commenter Jonathan Staab showed that the most popular replies were “murderous,” “evil,” “butchers,” and “Lamborghini,” a description used by a Planned Parenthood doctor to describe an affiliate’s fetal-tissue procurement program in a hidden-camera video.
Planned Parenthood has swung back with a forceful public-relations campaign since the release starting in July of 11 hidden-camera videos by the pro-life Center for Medical Progress, which launched a national debate over whether the organization is profiting from fetal-tissue acquired from abortions.
The videos have also sparked federal and state efforts to defund the organization. prompting Planned Parenthood to counter by emphasizing its role in what it describes as the delivery of “vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of women, men, and young people worldwide.”
This latest effort to boost Planned Parenthood’s image, however, went “very, very poorly,” as the Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway put it.
