RIGHTGRRL! Press Office
Contact: Stephanie Herman
stephanie@free-market.net
http://www.rightgrrl.comRIGHTGRRL! RESPONDS TO N.O.W.'S CHALLENGE
January 23, 1999
On the 26th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision, NOW challenged pro-life leaders to denounce anti-abortion violence. Rightgrrl! co-founders Carolyn Gargaro and Stephanie Herman are answering the challenge, reiterating our strong condemnation of any act of violence committed in the name of the pro-life movement.
We believe that while abortion remains a subject of heated controversy and radical differences of opinion, those opinions should be meted out in the arena of ideas and debate, and not acted out in physically destructive, reactionary acts of terrorism. On October 26, 1998, Rightgrrl! made a public condemnation of the murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian. It can be found at the following internet URL: http://www.rightgrrl.com/noviolence.html .... Rightgrrl! is also a supporting organization of Pro-Lifers Against Clinic Violence, which can be found at the following internet URL: http://members.tripod.com/~lifepeace/ ....
RIGHTGRRL! PROTESTS N.O.W.'S IMPLICATION...
Rightgrrl! must also strongly protest NOW's attempt to implicate-by-association nationally respected pro-life leaders as accomplices to abortion violence.
In her January 22 open letter to pro-life leaders, NOW president Patricia Ireland urges pro-life leaders to stop the behavior of the small faction of violent extremists "among you." Ireland's comment foists the notion that violent factions are a subset of the mainstream, nonviolent pro-life movement, while they clearly are not. Ireland also falsely implies that mainstream, nonviolent pro-life leaders possess the power and authority to stop the behavior of these separate factions.
The vast majority of the pro-life movement is nonviolent, and Rightgrrl! feels that Patricia Ireland and the National Organization for Women are being disingenuous to suggest otherwise.
AND RIGHTGRRL! ISSUES A CHALLENGE OF ITS OWN!
On the 26th anniversary of the legalization of abortion, Rightgrrl! hereby issues a challenge to the National Organization for Women, calling on its members to join with Rightgrrl in condemning the needless abortion-related deaths of young women like Tamika Dowdy, who died December 2, 1998 at an unlicensed Brooklyn clinic.
As proponents of "safe, legal, and rare" abortions, the membership of NOW has a moral obligation to call upon abortion practitioners to improve their health and safety procedures. Before the legalization in 1973, pro-choice activists had argued that unless abortion was LEGAL it wouldn't be SAFE. After 26 years of legalalized abortion, shouldn't it be safe BY NOW?
We hope NOW will join us in bringing abortion mortality to the attention of our media and our nation.
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Rightgrrl! is a political website for women, co-founded by Carolyn Gargaro and Stephanie Herman in 1997 to promote non-religious pro-life arguments and conservative political philosophies.