Pro-life sidewalk activists are pushing back against a seven-minute “virtual reality” presentation by Planned Parenthood at this week’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

According to The Daily Signal, “In the video, pro-life protesters are heard calling women ‘whores,’ telling them to close their legs, referencing Bible verses, and asking ‘who’s going to stand up for the rights of the child?'”

“We have taken this really brand new technology of virtual reality with the age-old art of storytelling,” Kristen Tilley, an official at Planned Parenthood Action Fund, told The Daily Signal, “to share the experience of what far too many people go through just to access the basic reproductive health care, but really, especially abortion.”

Several pro-life advocates, however, told The Stream that such behavior is atypical of pro-life activists outside abortion clinics across America the country.

Pro-life activist Larry Cirignano insisted that “most people outside abortion mills peacefully pray or hold signs.” And Jonathan Darnel said, “Of course it has to be virtual reality. Real reality would not serve the narrative they are trying to build.”

Language is Important

Some of those the pro-abortion movement refer to as protesters the pro-life movement refers to as sidewalk counselors. From a guidebook written by Judith Fetrow and found at the website for Catholic television network EWTN:

The clinics present us with a tremendous opportunity to reach out to those people who will not come to our churches, and who seldom see God’s love. It was the sinners, those who had little to do with the religious leaders of the time, whom Jesus sought to reach. At the killing centers, one may find the radical left, those involved in the occult, the walking wounded from churches (in some cases), the homeless, the clinic workers, the abortionists, the mothers, the fathers, the AIDS victims, and those who simply need the Lord.

Jesus dined with the publicans and sinners. He said that it was the sick who need a doctor; that situation has not changed. … What better place to show life and peace than a place of death and despair? Just as Jesus reached out to the thief on the cross, we should feel compelled to reach out to the abortion-bound mom …

The top three qualities the guidebook lists as essential for a good sidewalk counselor are empathy, sincerity and unconditional acceptance.

“Bad Apples” Seen in Planned Parenthood Virtual Reality

Cirignano conceded that not every sidewalk counselor or clinic protester lives up to this standard. “Some people get emotional when confronting Planned Parenthood escorts who are taunting them,” he said, and “some people scream to be heard because of barriers placed between the pro-life advocates who are offering alternatives and the Planned Parenthood advocates who are looking for profits.”

Lauren Handy, a sidewalk advocate, post-abortive counselor and full-time activist who regularly holds graphic images of abortion victims, conceded that “there are bad apples in every basket” and that what she saw in the Planned Parenthood virtual reality video “were the bruised and moldy ones.”

“I saw well-meaning people make costly mistakes,” she said. “We are dealing with a situation where someone is about to be killed for profit, and the lack of training/understanding of crisis intervention displayed by those in the video will do more harm than good.”

Like Handy, Cirignano did not downplay those portrayed in the video. However, he said, “They are the exceptions, not the rule.” He said that “the virtual reality we need to show is the Silent Scream or a modern 4-D version from the baby’s perspective of feeling pain.”

Handy said that “demonizing” those pro-life activists who have taken a mean and angry approach in the past “would be a disservice to the movement. We need to reach out to them/offer them training and encouragement to become more effective.”

In her guidebook for sidewalk counselors, Faltrow says that the work is emotionally draining and that burnout is a common danger. But like Handy, she insists it’s all worth it.