Uncommon Ground: RH Reality Check

RH Reality Check, a project of Ted Turner’s United Nations Foundation, is a website “committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights” – the RH standing for “reproductive health.” It “is a proudly progressive, pro-choice, pro-education, pro-information sharing community,” “guided by the issues and recommendations identified in the Program of Action agreed on at the [United Nations] International Conference on Population and Development at Cairo in 1994. [www.rhrealitycheck.org] That means world population reduction through family planning education and liberal access to abortion and contraception.

One section on the website is called “On Common Ground.” Supposedly, it invites contributors from all points of view about abortion to discuss their opinions, with an eye to the “elusive search for common ground on abortion.” Posts are “carefully selected by section moderator Cristina Page to highlight ideas and foster dialogue among individuals and organizations involved in the search for common ground.”

That “common ground,” however, has nothing to do with a search and, according to their mission statement, everything to do with support for the Obama administration’s “abortion reduction” policy. The folks at RH Reality Check already know what they’re looking for.

One of the inaugural posts discusses an October 2008 survey commissioned by Faith in Public Life that “found that a majority of Americans believe political leaders can work to find common ground on abortion while staying true to their core beliefs. Even among the religious constituencies most opposed to abortion, such as white Evangelicals and Black Protestants, pluralities believe common ground is possible…. Encouraged by these kinds of conversations and poll results, Faith in Public Life decided to try out a common ground message on abortion on Christian radio. Calling on Democrats and Republicans to come together around ‘real solutions’ such as expanding adoption, increasing pre- and post-natal healthcare, and preventing unintended pregnancies, the ads ran in 11 states the week before the 2008 election.”

The people behind RH Reality Check are as ideologically homogenous as they come. The editor, Scott Swenson, was formerly the Executive Director of Death with Dignity National Center. Ellen Marshall, a consultant, served on US delegations to the International Conference on Population and Development, the Fourth World Conference on Women, and the World Summit on Social Development. Amie Newman, managing editor, implemented a nationwide “Destigmatizing Abortion” campaign that included creating the book, I Had an Abortion, used in many abortion clinics around the country. Emily Douglas, assistant editor for content, has worked in direct service legal advocacy at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in Boston.

RH Reality Check’s partnerships are equally and uncompromisingly pro-abortion. SIECUS, The Media Consortium, DDB Advocacy – which produces web-based seminars for professional reproductive and sexual health advocates to share research, and Choice USA are a few.

The list of its supporters is equally telling, both for who is on it – Krista Jacob, editor of Abortion Under Attack; Gloria Feldt, former Planned Parenthood president; Frances Kissling, former president of Catholics for a Free Choice; Bill Smith of SIECUS; Naina Dinghra, Global Fund for HIV/AIDS; Jon O'Brien, current president of Catholics for a Free Choice; Tamar Abrams of Population Action International – and all the pro-lifers who aren’t.

So, what do these “common grounders” do besides promote progressive, pro-choice propaganda? Well, for one, they have a bull’s-eye on pro-lifers. One section of the website is devoted to profiles of the major groups opposing abortion. Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life is particularly calumniated: “Despite claims of being opposed to violent tactics such as bombing of clinics or murdering doctors, Pavone has long had ties to some of the most extreme anti-abortion activists who sanction such activities.”

There is a subtle anti-Catholic component to this, as well, such as in Kathleen Reese’s gratuitous comment – one of many – “Indeed, the Catholic hierarchy’s distance from the experiences of American Catholics is exacerbated by the Catholic Church’s specific version of patriarchy. How does it feel as a woman (or as a man) to have a celibate man tell you about sexuality?” (Kathleen Reese, “Contraception and Catholics: Quiet Disobedience”).

The only common ground here is what lies under our shoes.

Stephanie Block is the editor of the New Mexico-based Los Pequenos newspaper and co-founder of the Catholic Media Coalition.