NOW: Elevating Shrillness to an Art Form
ShareCHAPTER 63 — NOW: ELEVATING SHRILLNESS TO AN ART FROM
American Life League
NOW has become an embarrassment to reasonable feminists. If anything, you'd think the initials stand for Nagging, Overreacting and Whining.
Self-described feminist Debra J. Saunders of the Los Angeles Daily News.[1]
Anti-Life Philosophy.
The National Organization for Women is a mainstream lobbying group whose only goal is to insure equality for women in the workplace and in society in general. As such, we represent the views of the vast majority of women in this country.
The only women who do not agree with NOW's agenda are timid little house-mice who have been brutalized by this patriarchal society into accepting the male as their role models.
History of NOW.
A liberal is a person whose interests aren't at stake at the moment.
American author Willis Player.[2]
The National Organization for Women (NOW) represents the very essence of the Neofeminist movement. It is not as extreme as some groups, whose very obnoxiousness renders them ineffective. It is also not as 'laid back' as most women's groups. NOW seems to have approached the proper mix of political action and radicalism that ensures a maximum probability of success in its wide range of ventures.
Because it appears to occupy the middle of the gender-feminist spectrum, NOW can be used as a relatively accurate barometer of the range of demands and progress of the Neofeminist movement as a whole.
NOW was founded on June 29, 1966 by 28 women meeting at the Third National Conference of State Commissions on the Status of Women. Betty Friedan was elected its first president, and NOW immediately declared its support of abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment on November 18, 1967. It lost almost a third of its fledgling membership in the ensuing battle over fair representation of 'alternative viewpoints.'
Shortly thereafter (in 1971), NOW took up the cause for so-called "lesbian rights."[3]
These early resolutions show that NOW was not one of the many women's groups that were taken over by Neofeminists and subverted; NOW (sometimes uncharitably referred to as "The NOW Sows") was unusual in that it was corrupt from its very inception.
General Philosophy of NOW.
'We should have day nurseries,' Mrs. Friedan announced yesterday, 'to take care of the children.' Mrs. Friedan noted that this is working out just swell in some European countries. The ones that came to mind were Russia, Romania, and Latvia ...
Joe Cassidy, New York Daily News.[4]
NOW's far-ranging political and social agenda goes much farther that any other major Neofeminist group. In addition to standard feminist concerns such as economic rights for woman-headed households, homemaker's rights, and older women's rights, NOW is pushing for more women ministers in every denomination (including the Catholic Church), forced funding for all abortions, rights for sexual deviants, and other extreme positions that are described in the remainder of this chapter.
Former NOW president Ellie Smeal's campaign platform, distributed at the 1985 NOW National Convention, was a masterpiece of hysteria. Excerpts from this document sum up the organization's agenda succinctly; "The Right Wing's disgraceful use of the tragedy of AIDS has caused unquestionable harm ... We must join the effort to repeal state sodomy statutes which classify lesbians and gay men as criminals in 25 states ... Lesbian mother's rights to their children are under increased attack. NOW must be in the forefront of defending these mother's families ... I will help build a strong alliance between NOW and the peace movement. As a member of the SANE board and Nuclear Freeze Voter, I understand these issues and their crucial importance to eliminating the feminization of poverty and sexism in the world."
The following paragraphs give details on the radical aspects of NOW's far-left agenda, which are summarized below and explained in the corresponding numbered paragraphs.
(1) NOW supports forced abortions;
(2) NOW supports sex-selection abortions;
(3) NOW supports destruction of the family;
(4) NOW supports the elimination of adoption;
(5) NOW supports lawlessness; and
(6) NOW supports sexual perversions.
(1) NOW Supports Forced Abortions.
The Abortion Platform.
NOW completed its radical platform during its July 19-21, 1985 New Orleans National Convention. The extracts from this platform dealing with abortion are shown below.
NOW'S 1985 PRO-ABORTION PLATFORM
"3. Refocus the abortion debate by:
b. Linking the anti-abortion movement to death and starvation in the Third
World, especially Africa; and
c. Organizing 'Vatican Embassy Days of Outrage' to protest the Pope's
continual interference in our political arena and the Catholic Church
Hierarchy's work to outlaw abortions and birth control;
6. Continue the highly successful clinic escorts and clinic vigil actions as
needed."
Yard's Support for Forced Abortions.
In addition to supporting abortion rights in general, NOW has stridently defended China's forced-abortion program ever since it was exposed by Steven Mosher and other researchers. Former NOW President Molly Yard has said that
We are going to have to face as China has faced the policy of controlling the size of families, and to assume that we can go on without facing the responsibility is totally irresponsible ... I consider the Chinese government's policy among the most intelligent in the world ... It is a policy limited to the heavily overpopulated areas and it is an attempt to feed the people of China. I find it very intelligent.[5]
Yard also said in an April 7, 1989 press conference that criticism of China's family planning program comes "... from a lot of people who don't know what they're talking about." She elaborated that "China's population is so enormous that if they didn't control it, they wouldn't be able to feed their people. The Chinese government doesn't coerce people. They use education. It's very clear when you're there. You can't miss it. Even if you can't read the language, you can't miss it."[6]
Despite mounting criticism and hard evidence of Chinese forced abortions, Yard stuck to her guns to the bitter end. During her keynote speech at the 1990 NOW National Convention, she asked "What is moral about denying family planning funds to China, which is what the United States has done, because the Chinese have a policy of allowing abortions and encouraging a one-child family? What is moral about insisting that our point of view should be adopted by the Chinese when the only responsible policy they can have is to control family planning?"
Yard is speaking the truth from her perverted point of view. No woman is physically forced into having an abortion. They are hunted down and forced to sit at attention while cadre members browbeat them mercilessly. In most cases, they are not allowed to wash and are given little or no food. Sleep is almost nonexistent. The poor pregnant women have to endure this brainwashing for weeks, or as long as it takes to break their wills and get them to agree to abort their children just to stop the torture.
Then, weeping, they are led to the slaughter.
The Implications.
This means that, in spite of being confronted with a mountain of evidence that convinced even Congress that China's population plan used coercion, Yard is trying to defend it!
The Chinese program also includes forced sterilization of mentally handicapped men and women, women with one child, and even young girls in some outlying areas.
For more detailed information on China's forced-abortion policy, see Chapter 50, "Forced Abortions."
In the United States, such sterilization abuse is directed solely at the poor women and 'women of color' that NOW sheds so many crocodile tears over. Can you imagine White women being forced or conned into having themselves neutered against their will or without their knowledge?
NOW's Racism.
Even Marxist theorists recognize the obviously racist nature of the population controllers, including NOW. Alexander Cockburn, one of the Left's few articulate writers, says that "The not-so-concealed theme of some major figures in NARAL and NOW was that abortion should be legal because the most prolific breeders were welfare mothers from the dangerous classes ... the leader of NARAL in New York lobbied against the provisions to protect poor minority women from involuntary sterilization, and so did Planned Parenthood."[7]
(2) NOW Supports Sex-Selection Abortions.
Comical remarks from pro-abortion groups trying to 'have it both ways' have provided continuing entertainment for pro-life activists. For example, Francoise Jacobsohn, president of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women, has asserted that "I think sex-selection abortion is a horrifying symptom that women are still being ignored and disregarded as human beings in virtually every society in the world. The real issue in question here is not abortion, but the treatment of women."[8]
Notice how "the real issue is not abortion." Of course not! It never is. Jacobsohn's 'logic' is like saying that "The real issue is not rape, but men's sexual rights." To admit that the real issue is abortion would be psychic death to pro-abortionists.
It is interesting to note that Jacobsohn had nothing at all to say about the more than 750,000 preborn women who die every year in this country at the hands of abortionists and that many of these baby-killers are themselves female!
The practical result of NOW's stand, as outlined above, is that they support all abortions even sex-selection abortions. To do otherwise would put a crack in their monolithic facade of consistency, so dear to the cold, dark Neofeminist 'heart.'
(3) NOW Wants to Destroy the Family.
Introduction.
The curious Neofeminist outlook sees the nuclear family as 'oppressive to women.' As such, the family must be destroyed and replaced with a kind of free-floating amoebic societal mass made up of tenuous omnisexual relationships. Children and commitment have no place in this arena, unless they are useful as tools to further the liberation or the physical pleasure of women.
NOW's Attitude.
The uniform NOW attitude towards the family and children was best summed up by member Sheila Cronan at the 1988 Houston Conference for Women, sponsored by NOW; "Since marriage constitutes slavery for women, it is clear that the women's movement must concentrate on attacking this institution. Freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage."
Gloria Steinem, active in the early days of NOW, has said that "Marriage makes you legally half a person, and what man wants to live with half a person? ... I can't mate in captivity."[9]
And a Neofeminist author in the screed anthology Sisterhood is Powerful goes beyond attacking motherhood and claims that staying at home and raising children should not even be an allowable choice in the brave new Neofeminist world;
A woman who stays at home, caring for children and the house, leads an extremely sterile existence. This kind of woman leads a parasitic existence that can aptly be described as "legalized prostitution" ... The time has not only come, it is past due, when marriage and motherhood as a life's goal should be cut out of the training of the female child ... The day has come when motherhood should be the lot and privilege of a select minority.[10]
Neofeminist author Vivian Gornick echoed this view as she insisted in the April 25, 1981 University of Illinois Daily Illini that "Being a housewife is an illegitimate profession ... the choice to serve and be protected and plan towards being a family-maker is a choice that shouldn't be. The heart of radical feminism is to change that."[11]
The psychology of this loathing of commitment and family is obvious. NOW and fellow Neofeminists are incapable of true love, commitment, or caring. They fail miserably in child rearing and cannot endure a routine they see as unfulfilling. Therefore, they must abandon these roles and, since this causes a deep-seated guilt and longing in them, they must attack normal families and try to create sad and insufficient substitutes for themselves.
(4) NOW Condemns Adoption.
In their mad rush to eliminate all choices except abortion, NOW has relentlessly attacked even adoption! For example, Molly Yard has claimed that "With 35,000 children already waiting in foster homes for adoptive parents, adoption is not the answer for women with unwanted pregnancies."[12]
This is a typical pro-abortion half-truth. What Yard did not say is that none of these children was placed in a foster home at birth! They had almost all been removed from their homes because of neglect or abuse.
Every one of the annual 50,000 babies put up for adoption at birth handicapped or not is immediately placed with a family. There are more than two million couples on the adoption waiting list. These include minority babies, those with AIDS, and Down Syndrome, and spina bifida according to William Pierce, president of the National Committee for Adoption.[12]
Nobody at NOW seems to remember that adoption agencies easily handled the load before Roe v. Wade, and could just as easily gear up for the increased number of adoptions if abortion once again became illegal. In such a case, the 2,000 licensed adoption agencies would easily be able to take on the estimated additional 105,000 children placed for adoption per year an average of only 60 children per agency.
This figure is 10 percent of the current 1.5 million abortions, minus a standard 30 percent miscarriage rate. About 10 percent of all women with unwanted pregnancies who carry their babies to term choose adoption.
NOW is certainly not the only Neofeminist organization that would like to eliminate adoption. In her book Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood, Kristin Luker claims to speak for all so-called 'pro-choice' people when she says that "Having a baby and giving it up for adoption, as pro-life people advocate, is not seen by most pro-choice people as a moral solution to the abortion problem. To transform a fetus into a baby and then send it out into a world where the parents can have no assurance that it will be well-loved and cared for is, for pro-choice people, the height of moral irresponsibility."
For further information on adoption as it relates to the abortion issue, see Chapter 35.
(5) NOW Supports Lawlessness.
NOW's "State of Emergency."
NOW has given us some of the more outrageously comical examples of hypocrisy and double-standard thinking that we could ever hope for. These examples are very useful as potent weapons against the Neofeminists.
For example, NOW squawks endlessly about Operation Rescue's lawbreaking activities, and applauds vigorously when rescuers are beaten up by police or jailed for long periods (NOW is not really for all women, because it supported with its studious silence the brutal sexual molestation and beatings of female Operation Rescue participants in Pittsburgh in 1988).
But when it comes to NOW respecting the law itself, it's a different story, of course.
When former NOW president Molly Yard heard that the Supreme Court would review Roe v. Wade in its Webster case, she said on January 8, 1989 that; "We are now declaring a state of emergency for the women of America. We will not go back to illegal abortions. We aren't going to obey the law."[13]
So don't feel too bad when NOW condemns rescuers and other pro-lifers for breaking the law; After all, it approves of and encourage lawless action itself!
Support for Ginny Foat.
One interesting and deadly string of incidents involved Ginny Foat, president of the California chapter of NOW, who sought election as NOW national vice-president in October of 1982.
The professional barmaid did not quite make the grade. She was picked up on a fugitive warrant for bludgeoned Argentine businessman Moises Chayo to death with a tire iron outside a bar in 1965. In the same year, she also murdered San Francisco hotel employee Donald Fitting after picking him up in a bar, a crime for which she spent four years in prison.
Shortly after her arrest, Foat sniveled that "A political climate of violence and degradation of women is in a test stage, with me as its first victim."[14]
This attitude is quite typical of Neofeminists. In Foat's case, she was sent arrested and sent to prison for murdering two men and then whined that she was the "victim!"
One interesting part of the entire episode was the reaction of her fellow high-ranking members of NOW. Not a single Neofeminist condemned her; instead, she became the focus of a stomach-turning outpouring of sympathy and, incredibly, an increase in statements of hatred directed against men!
For more information on numerous illegal and violent pro-abortion activities, see Chapters 18 and 19 of Volume I, "Anti-Life Illegal Activities," and "Anti-Life Violence."
In light of its promotion of lawlessness and the flouting of laws that it does not like, NOW provides us with a continuous stream of statements that are so hypocritical that they are funny. For example, after the Supreme Court's Rust v. Sullivan decision, NOW formally accused the "Rehnquist Five" (who voted pro-life) of the "crime" of "high treason" and failure to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America."[15]
Remember that this is the same organization that ignores any law (including Constitutional law) that does not suit it. Perhaps the leaders of NOW will eventually be placed on trial for "high treason" and "crimes against humanity."
There would certainly be no shortage of evidence to support such charges!
(6) NOW Supports Sexual Perversions.
As described in the first few paragraphs of this chapter, NOW has made it perfectly clear that its drive for so-called 'reproductive rights' includes a demand for a sort of omnisexuality, or the right to have sex with anyone (or anything) that one wishes. This, of course, includes lesbianism.
NOW not only supports this perversion, but unflinchingly demands that all of its members support it as well (this demonstrates how much latitude in thought NOW allows its rank-and-file members).
Former NOW president Molly Yard has decisively linked homosexuality and abortion in the Neofeminist movement. On one occasion, she said that "Lesbians have always been on the front line of the abortion issue because a woman's right to choose ultimately includes not only reproductive freedom, but the right to choose one's sexuality."[16]
And a memo from her organization said that "Every woman must be willing to be identified as a lesbian to be fully feminist ... no woman is free to be a woman until every lesbian is free to be a lesbian."[17]
NOW Is Not 'Pro-Choice.'
Congress should vote to take away all federal funds from [ERA] unratified states. Government contracts and water projects should also be taken away.
A NOW spokescreature.[18]
Introduction.
Every pro-abortion group whines that it is not pro-abortion, but instead 'pro-choice.' In the case of the National Organization for Women, there can be no doubt that the label 'pro-choice' is a misnomer.
NOW Censorship.
There is ample proof that NOW wants to stamp out every choice except abortion, even here in the United States. For example, trash rocker Madonna released a pro-life hit single, "Papa Don't Preach," in 1985. The song included the following lyrics;
"Papa don't preach, I'm in trouble deep,
Papa don't preach, I've been losing sleep.
But I made up my mind, I'm keeping my baby,
I'm gonna keep my baby, mmmmm ..."
Incredibly, Neofeminist attorney Gloria Allred, speaking for NOW and other pro-abort groups, demanded that Madonna immediately "... make a public statement noting that kids have other choices, including abortion. Or, if she doesn't want to make a statement, then she has the responsibility to make another record supporting the opposite point of view. This song has me very concerned ..."
NOW vigilantly monitors the airwaves for any song that they do not like. The group succeeded in getting Seals and Crofts' song "Unborn Baby" banned from a number of radio stations because of its overt pro-life message, and also protested Paul Anka's song "Having My Baby," which was rated Number 1 in the United States and Number 2 in Canada for a number of weeks.
NOW bestowed one of their sarcastic little prizes on these songs: This one was entitled the annual "Keep Her in Her Place" award.[19]
Elsewhere, Human Life of Washington (the state Right to Life affiliate) placed a series of ads on Washington Transit Authority busses. These ads consisted of a photograph of a 17-week old unborn baby swimming in its mother's womb with the caption "ENJOY LIFE. GOOD THINGS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES." The objective of the ads was not even to stop abortions, but to warn the public about the effects of alcohol and substance abuse, and diet on fetal development.
The Reproductive Rights Task Force of the Seattle Chapter of NOW immediately initiated a telephone campaign directed against Washington Transit, claiming that the photos and ads were, in NOW's lofty opinion, "too graphic."[20] The Washington Transit Authority quickly broke its contract with Human Life and obediently pulled the ads.
A NOW spokeswoman explained that "NOW works to promote and protect the human rights of women. It is in keeping with the work that we do that we protest advertising the intent of which is harmful to the health and well-being of women, and which deprives women of their full rights as human beings."[21]
When asked how the advertising was "harmful to the health and well-being of women," and how it "deprives women of their full rights as human beings," the NOW people refused to answer.
In other words, NOW does not even want the public to know the most basic facts about human reproduction, because the sight of a healthy unborn baby might make some women change their minds about abortion!
Apparently, NOW simply does not care about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), which is not only the leading cause of infant mental retardation in the United States, but also causes about 8,000 babies to be born annually with serious physical handicaps.[22]
NOW is Anti-Choice.
NOW condemns pro-lifers for "not caring for women," while simultaneously trying to sabotage or destroy pro-life Crisis Pregnancy Centers and shelter homes. NOW is obviously ashamed of not helping the women enough themselves, and so it wants to make sure that nobody else can help them either.
For example, in Pensacola, Florida, the local NOW demanded a local ordinance that would ban picketing outside homes, places of business, and abortuaries, while simultaneously picketing Our Father's House, a shelter home for pregnant women.[23] This incident also demonstrates that NOW wants only its own speech to be protected, while trying its best to stamp out all speech that opposes them.
Not surprisingly, NOW's anti-choice activism extends far beyond abortion into all of its other areas of agitation, to the detriment of society in general.
This was vividly demonstrated in Detroit in 1991, when NOW aggressively attacked a special school program for ghetto youth. Detroit's dropout rate for inner-city Black boys was 54 percent, and the rate for Black girls was less than half that. In an attempt to remedy this inequality, Detroit's board of education set up three special schools for ghetto boys to help equip them with the tools necessary to get out of their situation and better their lives.
The National Organization for Women and the American Civil Liberties Union sued the City of Detroit and won in Federal Court, and the City, unwilling to spend one million dollars in its own defense, closed down the schools. NOW and ACLU never once set foot in the afflicted neighborhoods to talk with the parents or see what impacts their actions were having. After the judge handed down his decision, 300 parents protested outside the courthouse. One mother said, "If you have money you can go to whatever kind of school you want. But the average Black guy can't go to special schools."[24]
CDRR's Lies and Deceptions.
There are many examples of the lies and deception that NOW uses in its attempts to destroy all choices except the one they desire so passionately: Abortion. One perfect example of the incredibly underhanded tactics it uses to drive even Crisis Pregnancy Centers out of business is described below.
On March 6, 1986, the Committee to Defend Reproductive Rights (CDRR), which was affiliated with NOW, brought suit against a San Francisco CPC, the Free Pregnancy Center, for so-called "deceptive advertising." NOW's allegations included that women were virtually prisoners of the CPC and were literally "forced" into watching various presentations.
The CDRR admitted basing much of their information on the testimony of a "set-up," but purposely did not include her as a witness so that she could not be cross-examined.
This suit had been prepared in advance and only needed the name of a plaintiff to fill in. It didn't take long for NOW to find someone willing to fill the bill. On January 23, 1986, Carla Abbotts, who had had three abortions and worked in a pornographic bookstore called Last Gasp Comics, began to watch a slide show offered by the CPC. After five minutes, she began to scream at that her rights were being trampled.
The Kangaroo Kourt was soon in session.
At the CPC trial, NOW and the CDRR demanded that they have complete editorial control over all the contents of CPC slide shows, interviews, and videos; that the CPC pay $2,500 for each person who saw their original "deceptive and misleading" ad in the Yellow Pages (if only ten percent of San Francisco's population glanced at it, that would be a fine of 500 million dollars), and various other ridiculous demands.
At the trial, plaintiffs presented an incredible attorney's bill of more than a third of a million dollars, which was denied by presiding Judge Dandurand, primarily because the District Attorney's office had done almost all of the work in the prosecution. This shows quite plainly that NOW and its ilk have no regard for fairness or justice, but just to smash the opposition. But the judge denied little else, granting almost all points of the requested injunction.[25]
NOW Master of Hypocrisy.
The entire basis of this lawsuit, of course, was deceptive advertising. Yet NOW, master of hypocrisy, feels perfectly free to deceive the public itself.
For example, NOW's function is listed in the 1989 Combined Federal Campaign guidebook as; "NOW fights sex discrimination in education, employment and the legal system, opening opportunities for women. Projects include referral service, employment and family law, education rights."
Notice that NOW statement of purpose mentions nothing about destruction of the family, nothing about supporting abortion, and nothing about supporting lesbianism. NOW knows that it must remain carefully neutral on these issues when representing itself to the average CFC contributor, or it will not get many contributions.
NOW, who's being deceptive?
Pro-Life Women Need Not Apply.
Another indication of how extreme NOW gets in its support of baby-killing is its response to a New York law requiring liquor shops to post signs about possible harm to unborn babies through Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). The New York chapter of NOW released a statement saying that "We are most uneasy about the step this legislation takes toward protecting the unborn at the expense of women's freedom."
Naturally, NOW's primary focus is on the most radical aspects of feminism, and anyone who does not toe the line is not welcome. Feminists for Life of America was formed when NOW told pro-life feminists that they were not welcome in the organization, and then ejected them. And, even though Representative Mary Rose Oakar (D.-Oh), has a formidable record of supporting feminist issues like comparable worth and child care, she was not allowed to address an NOW convention because she is pro-life.[26]
So Much for the 'Majority.'
NOW demands that the public believe that they are the majority voice in the United States. But common sense tells us otherwise. How many people support sex-selection abortions, "lesbian rights," forced abortions, breaking the law, and the total destruction of the family? How many people does current NOW president Patricia Ireland represent the person who revealed in early 1992 that she was committing adultery with a lesbian 'lover?'
Perhaps one percent.
A September 2, 1983 Los Angeles Times poll showed that only 28% of American women thought that NOW and the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC) speak for a majority of American women, while 56% said that these groups represent a "small minority."[27] Predictably, this was the last poll performed along this vein: The results were not what the Neoliberals wanted to hear.
It is quite obvious that NOW is a much smaller minority than the "anti-choice fanatics" that they so loudly condemn. For example, the conservative group Concerned Women for America has a participating membership four times larger than NOW.
But Nobody is All Bad ...
... Or Are They?
Of course, like anything else, NOW is not all bad. For example, it continues to mindlessly push the Equal Rights Amendment, rather like a wired mouse pushing a level for repeated cortical stimulation, thus exhausting themselves and tiring the American public with their shopworn rhetoric, which itself provides a handy focal point for pro-life forces.
Additionally, NOW has advanced the idea of creating a separate Neofeminist political party. Many pro-lifers are holding their breaths and crossing their fingers, hoping that NOW believes its own press releases enough to proceed with their plan. Such a political party would be a magnet for the most extreme radicals, causing the Neofeminists to squander their resources as their party isolates itself, pulls support from the Democrats, and makes itself look like clowns in the public eye. Of course, the antics such a political party would engage it would conclusively demonstrate that the Neofeminist agenda is far outside the "mainstream."
Thank You, Gerry!
And, of course, NOW also boasted of "being instrumental" in the selection of Geraldine Ferraro as Walter Mondale's 1984 vice-presidential running mate. This brought Ferraro's hypocrisy as a "good pro-abortion Catholic" to the forefront, and pro-lifers dogged her continuously. The issue was before the public as never before, and the defeat of the rabidly pro-abortion Democrats gave NOW and others a black eye that is still smarting. Every pro-life activist owes NOW a heartfelt vote of thanks for this extraordinarily valuable service to the pro-life movement.
First Hitler, and NOW ...
Hitler's mad, wasteful antics eventually destroyed the Nazis. NOW will be just as invaluable in eventually destroying the pro-abortion movement. This fact is known even by the most fervent Leftists in our culture. Even the Communist magazine Proletarian Revolution recognizes that
NOW does not represent the majority of women, who are working class. [Their tactics are] entirely consistent with NOW's upper- and middle-class base ... In the past, the typical pro-choice activist has been a professional career woman. In contrast, pro-life women come mainly from a lower section of the middle class. As long as NOW is allowed to parade as the heavyweight champion of women, it will continue to attract flocks of new young supporters who will then become disillusioned with its dead-end strategy.[7]
References: National Organization for Women.
[1] Debra J. Saunders. "NOW's Shrillness Becomes Embarrassment to Feminism." Los Angeles Daily News, July 7, 1989, page A14.
[2] American author Willis Player, quoted in Jonathon Green. The Cynic's Lexicon. New York: St. Martin's Press. 1984, 220 pages.
[3] National Organization for Women pamphlet. "NOW Origins A Chronology of NOW 1966-1985."
[4] Joe Cassidy, New York Daily News. November 1966. As reported in The Review of the NEWS, June 8, 1977, pages 29 and 30.
[5] Molly Yard, on the July 6, 1989 "Oprah Winfrey Show." Quoted in The Wanderer, August 3 1989, page 5.
[6] Mary Meehan. "Women as Guinea Pigs." National Catholic Register, April 30, 1989, page 4.
[7] For an atypically lucid and accurate far-Left assessment of NOW's damage to the Neofeminist movement, see the article written by Alexander Cockburn in the Fall 1989 Proletarian Revolution, pages 26 to 28 and 32.
[8] Eve Glicksman. "Breeding for Gender Encourages 'Shopping Mentality.'" The Oregonian, June 18, 1991, page B7. Also see R. Rao. "Move to Stop Sex-Test Abortion." Nature Magazine. November 20-26, 1986, page 202.
[9] Gloria Steinem, quoted in 1971 and 1984 Newsweek Magazine interviews. Summarized in Douglas Johnson. "Rep. Chris Smith Targeted By Planned Parenthood, Steinem." National Right to Life News, April 10, 1986, page 6.
[10] Robin Morgan (editor). Sisterhood is Powerful. New York: Vintage Books, 1970, page 246.
[11] Vivian Gornick, quoted in David Kupelian and Mark Masters. "The New McCarthyism." New Dimensions Magazine, July 1, 1990, page 22.
[12] Todd Ackerman. "The Campaign Against Adoption." National Catholic Register, July 23, 1989, pages 1 and 6.
[13] Molly Yard, President of the National Organization for Women, quoted in "Reproductive Rights: Not a Single-Issue Struggle." People's Daily World, March 29, 1990, page 12.
[14] "Political Rivalry Cited in Feminist's Arrest." Pittsburgh [Pennsylvania] Post-Gazette, January 20, 1983.
[15] NOW resolution of July 1991 entitled "Impeach the Rehnquist Five."
[16] Molly Yard, President of the National Organization for Women, at the National NOW Conference, July 21-23, 1989, held in Cincinnati, Ohio. Quoted in the homosexual newspaper The Lavender Network, September 1989, page 64.
[17] NOW memo quoted in the September 6, 1989 Washington Times.
[18] NOW spokesperson, quoted in The Review of the NEWS, June 8, 1977, pages 29 and 30.
[19] Vital Signs. "Keeping the NOW Persons Busy." National Right to Life News, October 1974, page 15.
[20] "Pro-Life Ad Pulled From Seattle Buses." Portland, Oregon Catholic Sentinel. November 3, 1989, page 22.
[21] Living World, Volume 5, Number 2, page 28.
[22] Angela Hornsby. "Drinking Warnings Required." The Oregonian, Tuesday, June 25, 1991, page A10.
[23] ALL News, July 12, 1985.
[24] "NOW Says Never in Detroit." The Wall Street Journal, November 11, 1991, page A12.
[25] Thomas W. Case. "Freedom of Choice, San Francisco Style." Fidelity Magazine, July/August 1988, pages 8 to 10.
[26] Robert J. Hutchinson. "Pro-Life Democrats." Catholic Twin Circle, August 13, 1989, pages 12 and 13.
[27] Dr. and Mrs. John C. Willke. Abortion: Questions and Answers. 1990, 315 pages. Order from most Right to Life chapters or from the Right to Life Educational Foundation or from the Hayes Publishing Company, 6304 Hamilton Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45224. This poll on NOW is described on page 292.
Further Reading: National Organization for Women and Neofeminism.
Samuel L. Blumenfeld. The Retreat From Motherhood.
New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House. 1975, 222 pages, hardback. This interesting book by a pro-abortion former editor and sociologist attempts to pin down the roots of Neofeminism and does a pretty good, if rather disjointed job. Although he is definitely anti-life, Blumenfeld has strung together a large quantity of evidence that shows the influence of the population controllers and media in the mass turning away from childbearing to abortion and contraception. Blumenfeld feels that there is really no hope for us, and that we will eventually exterminate ourselves (but he neglects the role of religion, as well).
Ronda Chervin. Feminine, Free, and Faithful.
143 pages. Order from Ignatius Press, 15 Oakland Avenue, Harrison, New York 10528. Chervin shows that freedom and femininity are not mutually exclusive terms, but necessary elements for a woman to achieve her full potential as a Christian.
G.K. Chesterton. What's Wrong With the World: The Superstition of Divorce, Eugenics, and Other Evils, and Other Essays.
450 pages, sewn hardcover, sewn softcover. Order from Ignatius Press, 15 Oakland Avenue, Harrison, New York 10528. Although nearly a century old, these economic and sociologic writings by one of the most prolific and respected Christian writers of all time show conclusively that the anti-life mentality has been with us for many years. Chesterton shows that lax moral standards will lead to eugenics, divorce, artificial contraception, abortion, and ultimately the dehumanization of man, the loss of respect for human life, and the destruction of the family. A 'must read' for Christian historical scholars.
Mary Lewis Coakley. Long Liberated Ladies.
260 pages. Order from: Ignatius Press, 15 Oakland Avenue, Harrison, New York 10528, telephone: 1-800-528-0559. A favorite Neofeminist myth is that the Catholic Church institutionally and systematically oppresses women as a class. This book outlines the lives of women who accomplished spectacular spiritual and material feats instead of whining about how terribly they were "oppressed." Stories include the lives of Catherine of Siena, Joan of Arc, Amelia Earhart, Isabella of Castille, and Florence Nightingale.
Nicholas Davidson. The Failure of Feminism.
Prometheus Books, 700 East Amherst Street, Department E, Buffalo, New York 14215. 1987, 392 pages. Reviewed by Joseph Sobran on page 54 of the December 18, 1987 issue of National Review. An incisive examination of the slogans, buzzwords, and idiocies of the Neofeminist movement. This book covers the deleterious effects of the Neofeminists on childraising, marriage, sex, politics, and every other aspect of American life since the late 1960s. Curiously, the author is pro-abortion, and fails to see the critical place that baby-killing takes in the murky Neofeminist 'ethos.'
Maggie Gallagher. Enemies of Eros: How the Sexual Revolution is Killing Family, Marriage, and Sex, and What We Can Do About It.
Bonus Books, 1989. 283 pages. Reviewed by Ellen Wilson Fielding on pages 41 to 43 of the December 8, 1989 issue of National Review and by Fern Schumer Chapman on pages 49 to 51 in the June 1990 issue of Reason. An examination of the forces that destroy normal human sexuality even as they claim to reinforce them. The many topics covered in this book include surrogate mothering, no-fault divorce and the resulting "feminization of poverty," abortion, feminism and social engineering. The book also covers generally the repressive impacts of the 'new androgyny.' Gallagher shows how the demands of Neofeminism have vastly impoverished women in almost every way, while directly playing into the hands of exploitative men.
Carol Gilligan. In a Different Voice.
Harvard University Press, 1982. 174 pages. Reviewed by Wanda Franz, Ph.D., on page 11 of the November 24, 1983 issue of National Right to Life News. The pro-abortion author argues that women have a different psychological composition than men, then goes on to undercut her theory of superiority by excusing women to commit various acts (including abortion) for immature reasons.
Weldon M. Hardenbrook. Missing from Action: Vanishing Manhood in America.
Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1987. 192 pages. Reviewed by James Bruen in the December 1987 Fidelity Magazine. Any Neofeminist who reads this book will die of apoplexy. The book surveys the feminization of American culture and the extreme confusion and the resulting lack of direction in our society. It is now men, not women, who are alienated from many aspects of the Catholic Church and the mainline Protestant Churches that have allowed themselves to be deceived and seduced by the Neofeminists. The author presents an array of solutions to the phenomenon of women's leadership by default: avoid government programs that are biased towards women; adjust social programs to reflect the differences between boys and girls; and get men to accept their responsibilities as spiritual and moral heads of their families.
Judith Hole and Ellen Levine. Rebirth of Feminism.
Quadrangle Books: New York, 1971. This book tells the reader everything he or she wants to know about the early (1950 to 1970) feminist movement and usually much more. It includes incredible detail. An excellent history of the Equal Rights Amendment to mid-1971 can be found on pages 54 to 77.
Mary Joyce. Women and Choice: New Beginning.
Order from LifeCom Publishers, Post Office Box 1832, St. Cloud, Minnesota 56302, or from Trinity Communications, Post Office Box 3610, Manassas, Virginia 22110, telephone: (703) 369-2429. 1986, 178 pages. Reviewed by Nancy Koster in the May 1, 1986 National Right to Life News. Mrs. Joyce shows how the new vehicle of Neofeminism is a totally inadequate tool for women to attain true equality. By rejecting the easy paths of the 'rights to choose,' women can lead the way to a truly benign society, where everyone's needs are met. Mrs. Joyce spends a lot of time in a revealing discussion of the differences between men and women and how important they are in the pro/anti-life battle.
Lawrence Lader. Abortion II, Making the Revolution.
Boston: Beacon Press, 1973. The definitive work on early (1960-1970) pro-abortion strategy by the king of the abortion propagandists. Lader was a close friend of the 'leading lights' of the early pro-abortion movement, including Betty Friedan and Dr. Bernard Nathanson.
Kathleen McDonnell. Not An Easy Choice: A Feminist Reexamines Abortion.
Boston: South End Press, 1984. 157 pages. Reviewed by Patricia Soenen in the October 24, 1985 National Right to Life News. This book is a frightening look at true Neofeminism. The author can't really 'reexamine' abortion honestly, because she begins by asserting that it is a "woman's right." However, this author is not entirely ignorant: she acknowledges that women must confront the fact that the unborn are human beings, i.e., they must "let the fetus in." What is frightening is that, even though McDonnell acknowledges the humanity of the unborn, she still thinks it is all right to kill them. This is one step further than even the Nazis took at least they tried to dehumanize their victims. in other words, McDonnell is baldly stating that it is all right to kill a human being who is an inconvenience to you! This book shows how pro-abortionists are sinking ever deeper into self-delusion and Newspeak.
Father Vincent P. Miceli. Women Priests and Other Fantasies.
Order from Keep the Faith, 810 Belmont Avenue, Post Office Box 8261, North Haledon, New Jersey 07508, telephone: (201) 423-5395. The author examines the pandemonium that results in the Christian Church (particularly the Catholic Church) when the senses of the sacred and supernatural are lost. The instant that Holy Scripture is judged by secular standards, the message of Christianity is hopelessly compromised and lost.
Robin Morgan (editor). Sisterhood is Powerful.
New York: Vintage Books, 1970. The collection of radical Neofeminist essays that is sometimes used by Neofeminists instead of the Bible as they swear themselves into office. This gives some idea of just how much the Neofeminist movement owes to this book, which is an excellent collection of essays that illustrate vividly the character of the Neofeminist 'soul.'
Father William Oddie. What Will Happen to God?: Feminism and the Reconstruction of Christian Belief.
180 pages. Order from: Ignatius Press, 15 Oakland Avenue, Harrison, New York 10528, telephone: 1-800-528-0559. The Neofeminists are now striving to eliminate from all church documents and prayers what they consider to be "sexist" language. Father Oddie exposes the fallacies of this goal, and shows what will happen if we allow radical feminism to continue to dictate to the Church. The elimination of so-called "sexist" language is only the beginning!
Valerie Riches. "A Radical Feminist Charter." Feminism v. Mankind.
Family Publications: Wicken, Milton Keynes, Britain, 1990.
Rosemary Radford Reuther. Womanguides: Readings Toward a Feminist Theology.
Beacon Press, 1985.
Margaret Sanger. Woman and the New Race.
Reprinted in 1969 by permission of the Sanger Estate by the Maxwell Reprint Company, Fairview Park, Elmsford, New York 10523. Any pro-life activist who wants to become familiar with the real attitudes and philosophy of the anti-life movement and Neofeminism in general should read this book. It is an utterly fascinating treatise by one of the original Neofeminists.
Betty Steele. The Feminist Takeover: Patriarchy to Matriarchy in Two Decades.
Published by Human Life International, 7845-E Airpark Road, Gaithersbury, Maryland 20879. 1989. The origins of the Neofeminist movement and its contrasts to true feminism. This book outlines how a few influential women who hate men have contributed to the destruction of family life and of civilized society, and gives the word "Feminazi" new and compelling meaning.
Gail Grenier Sweet, editor. Pro-Life Feminism: Different Voices.
1985. Order from Life Cycle Books, Post Office Box 792, Lewiston, New York 14092-0792. Telephone: (416) 690-5860. Reviewed by Leslie Bond in the October 24, 1985 National Right to Life News. This book is an anthology of articles that outline what it really means to be a feminist: to be dedicated to advancing the causes of all women including unborn women! It also thoroughly debunks the ingrained notion that a feminist stand must include abortion. The book discusses the Equal Rights Amendment and its pervasive connection to abortion, and compares and examines the differences between the National Organization for Women and Feminists for Life of America.
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Joseph Ratzinger, Walter Kasper, et.al. The Church and Women: A Compendium.
280 pages. Order from: Ignatius Press, 15 Oakland Avenue, Harrison, New York 10528, telephone: 1-800-528-0559. A collection of articles by leading Church scholars on the role of women in the Catholic Church today and contemporary issues regarding feminism, including the ordination of women and the role and importance of the family. The role of women is developed in a context faithful to Scripture, tradition, and the Magisterium of the Church.
© American Life League BBS — 1-703-659-7111
This is a chapter of the Pro-Life Activist's Encyclopedia Published by American Life League.
