Marisa George

Heroic Media tries to pull the heartstrings of women experiencing unplanned pregnancy
or others who have been in this situation with their ad on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child
Protection Act.
This ad shows a fetus in the palm of a hand with the phrase, "This child has no voice
which is why it depends on yours. Speak up." The significance of the fetus in this ad is to show
that a 20-week-old fetus is not a blob of tissue, but a fully formed human with no voice and no
rights. Seeing this type of image has an effect on its viewers. Imagine you were a mother of a
small child and you saw an ad displayed with a fetus as its central point. Your attention would
immediately be caught and your interest would be sparked.
The bottom of the ad then urges the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. It
pleads to all who support the protection of unborn life to speak up and reach out to their Senators
to encourage the passing of this act. It then says the phrase, "Stop the War on Children," to show
that this ad is about the children and protecting their unborn lives. This ad must have had a
lasting impression on those who saw it because the act was passed in 2003.

The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act was introduced on April 26, 2013 and
was passed on June 18, 2013. According to the act it prohibits any person from performing or
attempting to perform an abortion except in conformity with the acts requirements. The first is
that the age of the fetus must be determined by a physician before the abortion is performed. The
second is that abortion after 20 weeks is prohibited except for if longer pregnancy endangers the
women's life or the pregnancy was caused from rape or incest as long as the offense was reported
any time prior.
If this act is violated the offender will spend no more than 5 years in prison or fined. This
period of 20 weeks at which an abortion can no longer occur was established because this is the
age at which a fetus feels pain if not earlier in the pregnancy. The real question is why is an act
such as this being created now when abortion has been such a controversy for years? And why
werent the fetus pain receptors taken into consideration before this act?
There are many different answers to these questions but one of the answers that is the
most influential is the media and advertisement. The ad for this act is one that most people could
not ignore once they saw it, no matter what their view on abortion was. Looking at the fetus on
this ad and knowing that something that tiny and precious can feel the pain when its life is
ending is something that sticks with you. Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice you take a
second and think to yourself, is abortion murder?
As an organization fully behind ending abortion and using multimedia to reach women
experiencing an unplanned pregnancy with life-affirming resources, Heroic Media was trying to
pull that type of reaction out of people that viewed their ad. Heroic Media needed people to
understand the seriousness of this act so they would become the supporters of it. On their

website, they created a page titled, Be a Voice for the Voiceless, which displays the ad and gives
people the opportunity to sign the letter to urge legislators to protect the unborn. By getting this
support, it showed our legislators how serious people felt about this issue and how a change
needed to be made. Also there was a section that gave people the opportunity to show their
support by donating to the cause.
Heroic Media has two specific ways they try to reach their target audience. They do this
through the Attitude Change message and the Call for Help message which they used for the ad
for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. Through extensive research and testing
Heroic Media tries to produce advertisements that speak to the needs of women who are facing
an unplanned pregnancy with their primary target audience being women between the ages of 18
and 34. Being a woman that has just entered into this age range, I can see why an ad such as this
one was so effective and why so many other people were impacted by it.
By showing the ad with a fetus, it expresses to people, especially women, that they do
actually have a developed human inside of them at 20 weeks. If I were ever to be in a situation
where I had to choose whether or not to get an abortion and I was not against it, I would not
know what to do after I saw this ad. Knowing that a fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks makes you
really think about the fact whether you are killing an actual human being or not? It makes some
women take a step back from the situation they may be in consider the fact that yes, I might not
be ready to bring a child in to this word but that does not mean I have to end its life. Personally I
know seeing this ad would make me really consider the idea of adoption, which is what many
people who feel that they are not ready to be parents consider.

Heroic Media gives women/men going through this the chance to consider these different
options through a website they created to help women/men with their decisions and to prevent
people from getting abortions. On the website, www.optionline.org, women and men can chat
with a counselor, search for a nearby pregnancy center, and read factual information about
pregnancy, abortion, adoption, and more. In 2011, their internet campaigns generated over
100,000 visits to optionline.org and other life affirming websites. Heroic Medias superb internet
advertising skills was another attribute that led to the success of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child
Protection Act.
As persuasive as Heroic Media's techniques were, abortion is always going to be a
controversy in this country no matter what laws or acts are passed. The effect this ad took on
people was a step in the right direction for pro-life groups such as Heroic Media but what about
all the people who were offended by this ad and feel that abortions are right? Most ads you see,
such as this one, that are towards abortion all deal with this type of concept of protecting unborn
children and preventing people from getting abortions. However, if you think about it, these ads
only relate to a portion of the population and only reflect a portion of the populations opinion.
Being completely pro-life, I tend to think about the people who do not share the same
opinion as me and how their opinion is a lot of the time not heard, shut down, or even rejected by
most people because of the great effects of ads such as this one. For someone to think that
abortion is the right choice that is their opinion and they have just as much as a right to express it
as Heroic Media did with this ad on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

Sources

https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/1797
https://heroicmedia.org/20weeks
http://www.optionline.org/