Correspondence With NARAL
Last week NARAL sent me an “action alert” asking me to help support real sex education rather than abstinence programs.
I’ve written several times about NARAL’s failure to stand up for choice, and wrote them an immediate response.
Posted To: CAN
Conversation: Get REAL about “abstinence-only” programs
Subject: Re: Get REAL about “abstinence-only” programsI’m not doing one single thing for NARAL until you drop your endorsement of Joe Lieberman and endorse the REAL pro-choice candidate, Ned Lamont. You also have to drop Specterm, Snowe, Chaffee, and the rest of the people who voted to confirm Samuel Alito.
Truth is, you guys haven’t been there when you were needed, and you’re still sitting on a pile of money.
Drop Lieberman: then we can talk about donations, letter-writing, and petition signatures.
Former NARAL member,
Brendan Skwire
I got the standard form letter response:
Dear Mr. Skwire,
Thank you for contacting us about the Senate race in Connecticut.As you know, NARAL Pro-Choice America has endorsed Sen. Lieberman in that race. As a nonpartisan organization, we support pro-choice elected officials, regardless of party affiliation. Therefore, our endorsement stands, regardless of Sen. Lieberman’s party registration. We responded similarly when pro-choice Sen. Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party to become an Independent.
We recognize that some of our members are avid party activists as well as pro-choice stalwarts, and understand that not everyone will agree with each of our endorsement decisions. However, we hope you will continue to stand with us. Our only chance of defending a woman’s right to choose is by focusing our energies on our real opponents: George Bush and his anti-choice congressional allies.
Thank you again for getting in touch. Please feel free to do so at any time with additional questions or comments.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth J. Shipp
Political Director
NARAL Pro-Choice America
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202)530-4179
Well, since you INVITED me to respond:
Happy to get back in touch Elizabeth.
Your response, by the way, is a steaming pile of empty rhetoric (and the same form letter you’ve sent to others). Mr. Lieberman is now the de facto GOP candidate for Connecticut: he has received phone calls of support from Karl Rove, both the President and the RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman have declined to endorse the Republican candidate, and Lieberman himself is attacking Connecticut Democrats as al Quaeda sympathizers.
But the geniuses as NARAL don’t see a problem with this. You don’t have a problem with a man who believes that hospitals in Connecticut should have the right to refuse EC to rape victims, a man who voted for cloture on Alito, a man who undermined National health Care during the Clinton adminsitration.
“Our only chance of defending a woman’s right to choose is by focusing our energies on our real opponents: George Bush and his anti-choice congressional allies.
You’re right about that, which is why you should support NED LAMONT.
However, we hope you will continue to stand with us.
No. You failed to stand up and be counted, and now you endorse a man who undermines you and everything you claim to stand for. I will not lift a finger to help NARAL until you drop these abominable incumbents, people like Lieberman, Chaffee, Specter, Snowe, Collins, and the many many more who give reproductive
rights lip service and do nothing at all when it comes to actually doing something.
Come to think of it, that’s a lot like NARAL.
Please be aware Ms. Shipp, that I have cc-ed this email to several prominent bloggers and will be posting our correspondence on my own blog, which reaches approximately 270 people each day.
When you drop the liebermans et al, then we can talk about donations, letter writing campaigns, and other ways to support your organization. But until you wake up and smell the coffee, you little ladies are on your own.
Brendan Skwire
Former NARAL supporter.
Note: I used “little ladies” on purpose. The way I figure, if NARAL has no respect for its members (never mind their members’ intelligence), I have no reponsibility to be respectful to them.
One Response to “Correspondence With NARAL”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
August 15th, 2006 at 11:20 pm
I got a call from them for money once and the caller kept referring to the anti-choice crowd as pro-life, I had to correct her 3 times, explaning that if they were pro-life and we were the opposite, that made us anti-life. NARAL has become nothing more than a self-serving, money hugry PAC.