BPAS’ cheap Mother’s Day provocation a masterclass in ‘rage-baiting’

The UK’s largest abortion provider decided over the weekend to muscle in on Mother’s Day’s turf, encouraging its followers over social media to show some love to those working in the abortion industry.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service – better known as BPAS – informed everyone over the weekend, rightly fearing that it was probably overshadowed by Mother’s Day, that it was in fact ‘Abortion Providers Appreciation Day’.

“We want to celebrate all the amazing people providing safe abortions every single day,” they wrote on social media, adding, “Join us in thanking them for supporting women who wish to end their own pregnancy”. The graphic they posted also featured the words, ‘Some heroes wear scrubs’ emblazoned across a big, blue heart.

It's Abortion Providers Appreciation Day. We want to celebrate all the amazing people providing safe abortions every single day.

Join us in thanking them for supporting women who wish to end their own pregnancy. #abortionprovidersappreciationday pic.twitter.com/2t5F2Byldh

— BPAS (@BPAS1968) March 10, 2024

Now, the irony of celebrating a practice that deprives women of their motherhood – cutting it off while their child is in utero – was not lost on those manning the culture war’s virtual frontlines. In what is always a bad sign for a poster, comments outnumbered likes, and the quote tweets were not in their favour. Hundreds descended upon the post to decry and condemn the “tone-deaf” post, as one user put it.

I happen to share the revulsion many commentators were expressing at BPAS’s hideous linking of Mother’s Day and abortion provision – a less suitable pairing can hardly be imagined – but I think on this occasion, as unfortunately on so many others, the outrage was counterproductive and misguided. 

As a result, BPAS received a bigger boost than it could possibly have achieved on its own. A short scroll through their recent posts reveals remarkably little engagement for an account boasting over 20 thousand followers. In their rush to condemn the post’s contents, those commenting propelled it onto my feed multiple times throughout the day. I’m sure it was the same for others.

As the saying goes, any publicity is good publicity. BPAS spends much of its time carrying out its dirty work in the dark, but, being a charity, getting its name out there is not just nice, it’s necessary. This is especially true in the case of organisations that have been around so long they’ve become a part of the furniture. What better way to drum up support than to create the impression that you’re an embattled outpost holding the line against repressive zealots who’d steal a woman’s ‘right to choose’, given half a chance? To those who believe abortion is an indispensable aspect of health service, that’s very much the impression a besieged post like this gives.

Am I saying that horrendous utterances, as this clearly was, ought to go unchecked? Of course not, but I am saying that identifying and disregarding obvious ‘rage-baiting’ is a skill that many would do well to learn, because engaging with it plays right into the hands of cynical profiteers.

A quick google of the term ‘rage-baiting’ or ‘rage-farming’ will return a consensus that it’s a common tactic of the omnipresent ‘far-right’, and perhaps it is. But it’s no less a tactic of those who seek to entrench the current social order and its concomitant practices.

Take for example, the ‘gay cake’ cases that pop up from time to time. The details vary but the essentials remain the same – a gay couple will approach a bakery they know to be opposed to gay marriage and ask them to bake a cake for their wedding, or sporting some message supportive of same-sex unions. When the bakery refuses to do it, they’re taken to court on discrimination grounds.

Of course, it is right and just to be outraged by such selective targeting in cases such as these, but the vicious cycle is that these cases whip up publicity like little else the activism-minded can do. While the bakeries rightly fight their corner, the accompanying media frenzy encourages copycat tactics, such as is the case with Masterpiece cakeshop owner, Jack Phillips, in Colorado, who has been harassed for over a decade now as a result of his refusal to go along with the demands of those frequenting his establishment with ill intent.

To reiterate, I am not recommending rolling over and accepting the often outrageous behaviour of those who employ manipulative tactics to further their ends. What I am recommending, though, is a moment’s pause before falling for deliberate provocation. As in any war, not every hill is worth dying on, and any attempt to fight every battle only plays into your adversary’s hands.

BPAS got what it wanted on this occasion with its cheap Mother’s Day ploy. In future, we’d be better off giving our attention to those doing the slow, steady and silent work that is actually laying the groundwork for the abortion industry’s undoing. They’ve chosen the better part.