Contact: Cat Clark
National Office Coordinator
For Immediate Release
September 15, 2004

Documentary Misrepresents Feminists for Life

On Tuesday, September 14, 2004, movie-based television network AMC aired “Rated R: Republicans in Hollywood,” a documentary project by filmmaker and former Democratic speechwriter Jesse Moss, that contained factual error and misrepresentation. In a segment about Feminists for Life's Honorary Chair Patricia Heaton, Moss erroneously identified Heaton as FFL's founder and implicitly mischaracterized FFL as a partisan organization.

“People try to separate everyone into different corners,” said FFL president Serrin Foster. “But Feminists for Life is both a feminist organization and a pro-life organization—and very consciously nonpartisan. We continue the tradition of more than two hundred years of pro-life feminism, because women deserve better than abortion. We affirm the basic tenets of feminism: nonviolence, nondiscrimination and justice for all. Abortion violates all three.”

Like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and other early American feminists who opposed abortion, Feminists for Life works to systematically eliminate the coercive factors that drive women to abortion by facilitating practical solutions.

Feminists for Life was founded in 1972 by Cathy Callahan and Pat Goltz—two women who thought that abortion advocates were hijacking the women's movement. Pat Goltz was later ejected from a NOW meeting in Ohio for distributing pro-life literature. Patricia Heaton has served as Honorary Chair since 1999, her first official role with the organization.

FFL is a nonsectarian, nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to empowering women through progressive, nonviolent choices for themselves and their children. Feminists for Life welcomes all members and supporters regardless of political or religious affiliation. Information about FFL's founding and nonpartisan nature is readily available on its website (www.feministsforlife.org) and in numerous printed materials.

Feminists for Life members who see articles and reports repeating the documentary's errors are encouraged to use this opportunity to write timely letters to editors explaining FFL's true history and mission. Please use the information above and resources from www.feministsforlife.org as a guide.
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