Memos Outlining Abortion Strategy Land in Congressional Record
By: Administrative Account | Source: CNSNews.com
December 12, 2003 11:06AM EST

By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief
December 12, 2003

(CNSNews.com) - Abortion rights activists tried - but failed - to stop a pro-life group from publicizing memos outlining its controversial strategies. The documents are now part of the Congressional Record.

The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) reportedly has threatened legal action against the New York-based Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM).

C-FAM announced last Friday that it had obtained copies of internal CRR memos, which revealed CRR's agenda for promoting abortion worldwide. It outlined some points of the documents, and promised to release more in the coming weeks.

On the same morning, C-FAM president Austin Ruse said, the institute received a fax from CRR president Nancy Northup, demanding that C-FAM return all copies of the memos and stop disseminating the information.

"Disclosure of this material has caused, and further disclosure will cause, CRR irreparable harm," Northup reportedly said, demanding that C-FAM identify all those individuals and organizations to whom it had sent the information.

But any possible attempt by CRR to stop the information from becoming more widely available has been stymied through the actions of Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.).

In the House of Representatives on Monday, the pro-life lawmaker introduced the CRR documents, unedited, into the Congressional Record, the official record of the proceedings and debates of the U.S. Congress.

Now that it forms part of the permanent record, C-FAM said "no legal maneuvering" can prevent "further public scrutiny" of CRR's strategies.

Ruse said late Thursday C-FAM had heard nothing from CRR since its "threatening letter." CRR has not responded to queries emailed by CNSNews.com.

In introducing the documents, Smith told the House it was important for policy-makers to be made aware of the "deceptive practices" used by abortion rights groups.

"It is critical that both the American and foreign public are made aware of these documents because they shed new light on the schemes of those who want to promote abortion here and abroad," he said.

'A little dirtier'

The memos evidently report on CRR strategizing workshops and internal interviews, held over recent months.

They provide a glimpse of campaigners' strategies to use the United Nations and other international bodies, including the International Criminal Court, in the drive to have "reproductive rights" legally recognized worldwide.

One memo says the "overarching goal [of the CRR's international legal program] is to ensure that governments worldwide guarantee reproductive rights out of an understanding that they are bound to do so."

It refers to "a stealth quality to the work: we are achieving incremental recognition of values without a huge amount of scrutiny from the [pro-life] opposition. These lower profile victories will gradually put us in a strong position to assert a broad consensus around our assertions."

The documents clearly were not meant for public consumption, and they include some forthright views.

During a series of "strategic planning interviews," one CRR trustee is quoted as saying: "We're not vocal enough. People pay attention to the loud voices. We have to fight harder, be a little dirtier."

Another participant says the CRR should reach out to members of the clergy "so that there are religious voices for choice -- so that we are not called 'barbaric, irreligious immoral' -- we need to have the ethical leaders of our society with us at press conferences."

Pro-life forces are labeled "the opposition," "the antis," and "the Conservative Right," and there is also a reference to "such reactionary yet influential international actors as the United States and the Holy See."

Discussing what it calls "misleading information" spread by pro-lifers -- for example, claims of a link between abortion and breast cancer - a memo says pro-lifers have been successful in this regard, and suggests that "outing the antis as liars would undermine their credibility."

The memos also include some frank self-assessment. For instance, the fact the Center is "comprised largely of economically advantaged white women" is seen as undermining its credibility when it comes to dealing with issues specific to "women of color."

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