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Pro-Abortion Group Repackages Its Name,
Agenda By Michael L. Betsch CNSNews.com Staff Writer January 08, 2003 (CNSNews.com) - The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) is softening its pro-abortion identity by promoting 'choice' as part of its new name. Thirty years after the Supreme Court legalized abortion, NARAL now fears that the Republican-dominated White House and Congress are plotting to roll back Roe v. Wade. In response, the pro-abortion group has plotted a massive mobilization campaign and added the words "Pro-Choice America" to the end of its name. The group now refers to itself as NARAL Pro-Choice America. "'Pro Choice America' ... is a statement of what we are and what we must ensure that anti-choice politicians do not take away," said NARAL-PCA president Kate Michelman. "NARAL Pro-Choice America's mobilization will awaken the pro-choice majority, educate them about the threats from the White House, Congress as well as their state capitals, and enlist them all in the fight to protect our rights," she said in a statement. NARAL-PCA intends to mobilize its aging pro-abortion "citizens' army" by enlisting a new generation of young women who have never known an America without the "right to choose." NARAL-PCA has targeted key battleground states for an intensive grassroots campaign that includes taking its agenda door-to-door. Pro-abortion activists in more than 15 states will knock on doors in an attempt to sign up 2 million new NARAL-PCA members and add "tens of thousands" of names to a petition supporting Roe v. Wade. The mobilization also will include millions of dollars in radio and television ads to educate Americans about what the group sees as threats to "reproductive rights." The ads, according to NARAL, will "persuade" Americans "to act on their pro-choice beliefs." "The most important social changes in our nation's history have come from outside Washington," said Michelman. "Civil rights, workers' rights, and women's suffrage were all achieved when Americans organized community by community, ultimately bringing their views and their values to Washington, forcing elected officials to take heed." 'Automatic news slant' Wendy Wright, senior policy director with Concerned Women for America, said NARAL-PCA's name change is significant because it signals to pro-lifers that abortion is a polarizing issue for NARAL. "Groups generally pick names that they think present what they do in a way that is positive for them," agreed Jim Naureckas, a spokesman for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. Naureckas said both pro-life groups and pro-abortion groups attempt to define the abortion debate in a way they believe will promote their agenda. "People generally do have the right to name their organization or their party or their country what they want to be called," Naureckas said. "People do pick names that spin their cause." David J. Garrow, a legal historian at Emory University who studies abortion law, told the New York Times that NARAL-PCA's new name automatically inserts a pro-abortion slant into news copy. "It's a free way of getting 'pro-choice' into a news story, even if editors don't allow the words to be used in the reporter's voice," Garrow said. Wright said it is typical of pro-abortion groups to dictate abortion terminology and which euphemisms are acceptable for use in the media. "You see that all the time whenever partial birth abortion is mentioned in a news item," Wright said. "The New York Times will often say 'so-called' partial birth abortion; or they'll put it in quotes; or they'll say 'as abortion opponents prefer to call' partial birth abortion." Average Americans key to NARAL's survival A Zogby poll conducted after the 2002 mid-term elections indicates that NARAL-PCA has its work cut out for it. The poll showed that more than one-fifth of the Americans surveyed have a less favorable opinion of abortion today than they did one decade ago. The poll further noted that pro-life support nearly doubled, compared with the number of people who more closely identify with the pro-abortion agenda. Concerned Women for America's Wendy Wright said the mid-term elections proved to NARAL-PCA it can no longer neglect America's voters if it wishes to preserve Roe v. Wade. "The only way the pro-abortion movement has been able to get their agenda passed is through the courts," Wright said. "It's not been through a democratic avenue; it's not through a majority vote either of representatives or of the people themselves. "They've pretty much ignored or haven't needed the average person out there," Wright said. "They're realizing that that neglected group is pretty important, because they're the ones who vote." According to Wright, NARAL-PCA is pitching its pro-abortion message to America's youth - using scare tactics to attract the support of people born after Roe v. Wade by telling tales of a bygone era when abortion was illegal in America. But Wright countered that growing up in an age of legal abortion has been far more harmful to America's youth. "They've seen their peers get abortions and they've seen the effects on their peers," Wright said. "A lot of them recognize that they're missing siblings, they're missing friends who were aborted before they got a chance to know them." Wright said NARAL-PCA might be misguided in its efforts to target an audience that has already experienced the emotional hardships of abortion. "While NARAL is focusing on rights, the [younger] generation sees the implications of a rather selfish approach to the issue," Wright said. "The implication is that even though this is maybe a decision the woman made for herself, that decision has a ripple effect on all those around her, particularly her family."
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