By Patrick McGee

Editor's note. This is the third of an ongoing series by Mr. McGee to show pro-lifers how to use information technology to aid the pro-life cause.

We live in a technological world. It is a world where the Internet has become not just a curiosity, or a place to play games, or a way to idly peruse online catalogs.

The Internet and the technological advances that are being developed on an almost daily basis have become a way of life. Even if someone wanted to, they could not hide from it or ignore it.

But those who are unnecessarily made nervous by the new technologies miss a hugely important truth. With just a minimal investment of time, pro-lifers can learn to utilize the virtually unlimited potential of the new technology to advance the cause of unborn babies. As evidence of how the other side is already busily so doing, we need look only at the last election cycle.

Pro-abortion President Barack Obama is justly famous for the brilliance with which he utilized the web, particularly what are known as "social networks," such as Facebook, Twitter, and many others. Entire campaigns rose (and fell) based on the level of their Internet savvy.

Special interest groups bloomed, literally overnight, based entirely on the ingenuity of their web designers. Seen properly, this is an informational train, and the pro-life movement is already beginning to move quickly to get on board.

National Right to Life, its state affiliates, and local chapters are integrating use of the new technologies into their everyday outreach. But the beauty of the new information technologies is that they empower every single individual with a PC or a Mac.

To be "in the loop," pro-lifers of every age should be encouraged to join social network web sites as well as become, at the very least, knowledgeable in the language of the Internet. So let's talk about YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. (Hint: they are not difficult to master!)

These social networking sites allow us to communicate with pro-lifers all over the United States, indeed the world. A message that formerly might have taken weeks to get out and cost a great deal can now be disseminated almost instantly for virtually nothing.

Pro-lifers at every level should learn and realize that these sites are tools not only to get "the word out," but as a way of recruiting volunteers, the lifeblood of our Movement. As you will see, there are already many examples of pro-lifers using these tools to great advantage.

YouTube is a video sharing web site where users can upload, view, and share video clips. This is also a free service that only requires an e-mail address to sign up. Millions of individuals and groups create and post brief videos to share with all. President Obama has a YouTube channel, i.e., a group of videos posted by www.barackobama.com. One post (January 13, 2009) had been watched by 800,000 people as of February 2. Pre-Election Day videos reached over a million viewings.

MySpace is probably the oldest and the best known of the aforementioned sites. It allows us to set up an account where we can post pro-life facts, pictures, and videos, and update it with limitless frequency.

The more you use MySpace the better you become at setting up pages and posting articles and links. Pro-lifers can join and create other pro-life forums for like-minded people. MySpace is very user friendly and there are always people who can help you with setting it up.

Facebook is another social networking site that is much simpler to use. (No knowledge of what is known as Hyper-Text Mark-up Language--HTML--is needed.) Because of its utter simplicity, the site itself is growing by leaps and bounds.

What Facebook does is allow you to connect with other like-minded pro-lifers, to join forums, and to post your thoughts, re-post articles, and videos to your network of friends and forums.

Just as with MySpace, there is no cost to sign up. All that you need is an active e-mail address.

Twitter is the newest of these sites. It allows you to have as many "friends" or contacts as possible.

The primary difference is that it is geared to very, very brief messages--the most that you can post on it at any given time is 140 characters.

This is ideal for legislative alerts. In fact it can be used similarly to the old "phone tree" that we in the pro-life movement are so familiar with.

Florida is a gigantic state. This past year, a Floridian was running out of time and needed volunteers to distribute pro-life literature.

He started looking in his MySpace and Facebook accounts.

He tells the story of how he remembered a man in Miami that was a member of a forum who would frequently post pro-life articles.

He contacted the gentleman and began an extensive three-day online conversation with him.

The importance of what they were doing was explained to him and how they needed help in distributing the pro-life literature in a heavily populated neighborhood in Miami. The gentleman, once instructed in the how-tos, agreed to coordinate that area and helped distribute literature.

With another need, this time in Central Florida, he again turned to the Internet. This time he went to his Facebook account where he had been trading pro-life articles with a central Florida college student.

The student agreed to take on the task and, using his Twitter account, sent out a message to his friends stating that he needed help pronto! Scores of his friends responded and they were able to distribute tens of thousands of pieces of literature.

As pro-life advocates we have in the past used every tool given us to get the word out, from telephone trees to slide presentations. Now we have to adapt, get on this life train of information and use power points and Internet social networking to our advantage. The possibilities are endless.

Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com.

Part One: Catching Up
Part Two: "A Proposal With Something to Irritate Everyone."