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Pro-Abortion Law Firm Threatens LifeNews.com Over Secret Memo Story (Also C-Fam Story)
LifeNews.com ^ | December 12, 2003 | Paul Nowak/

Posted on 12/12/2003 12:46:49 PM PST by nickcarraway

Helena, MT (LifeNews.com) -- The Center for Reproductive Rights, a pro-abortion law firm, has sent a letter to LifeNews.com threatening legal action against it. The letter complains about a LifeNews.com story regarding a pro-life organization that received internal documents written by the firm detailing its strategy to develop international pro-abortion laws that can be imposed and enforced throughout the world.

The Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (CFAM), a pro-life group that lobbies at the United Nations, announced earlier this month that an anonymous source sent it a copy of a 60-page document summarizing the conclusions of strategic planning meetings held by CRR in late October.

In a story published by LifeNews.com, an independent news agency specifically devoted to reporting news that affects the pro-life community, the documents were called a "smoking gun" belying the tactics pro-abortion groups have denied for years.

The story prompted CRR President Nancy Northup to fire off a cease and desist letter to LifeNews.com asking the pro-life news outlet to return copies of the internal memos and to pull the story from the www.LifeNews.com web site.

"[T]he Center demands that you immediately ... cease and desist from any further dissemination, by whatever means, including written, email, fax, oral, or electronic, of the CRR Confidential Documents, or any information derived from, or in any way based on, the CRR Confidential Documents," Northup's letter said.

Steven Ertelt, Editor and CEO of LifeNews.com, says the news service has no intention of complying.

"At the heart of the first amendment right to free speech is the ability of the media to report the truth," Ertelt said. "It's about time that the radial pro-abortion, anti-woman agenda of groups like this be exposed and brought to light. It's not our problem if abortion advocates are embarrassed by their words or actions."

Northup claims the distribution of the memos by CFAM and LifeNews.com's story on them "has caused, and further disclosure will cause, CRR irreparable harm."

The pro-abortion firm's memo also asks LifeNews.com to disclose its entire list of subscribers to its email news services that received the story.

"This pro-abortion group will not have access to our subscriber lists at any time or for any reason," Ertelt explained. "For more than 10 years we have provided the strictest confidentiality to our subscribers to prevent them from receiving unwanted emails. We have never loaned our email lists to anyone -- including pro-life organizations -- and that privacy policy will always remain in place."

The internal documents state that CRR’s "overarching goal is to ensure that governments worldwide guarantee reproductive rights out of an understanding that they are bound to do so."

CRR lobbies diplomats to include phrases such as "reproductive health" in treaties and other international documents. Later they define such innocuous phrase to include an unfettered right to abortion.

In the documents, CRR states that this technique is preferred because "There is a stealth quality to the work: we are achieving incremental recognition of values without a huge amount of scrutiny from the opposition."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; US: Montana; US: New York
KEYWORDS: abortion; cfam
Volume 6, Number 51
SECOND OF A THREE PART SERIES
CRR Threatens Legal Action/Documents Read into Congressional Record

In an effort to stop further dissemination of its top-secret strategy to produce an international right to abortion-on-demand, the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) has threatened legal action against the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM), which broke the story of this international law strategy in its December 5 Friday Fax.

In a letter faxed to C-FAM’s New York office, Nancy Northup, president of CRR, claims that “disclosure of this material has caused, and further disclosure will cause, CRR irreparable harm.” Therefore, Northup makes a number of “demands” upon C-FAM, including that C-FAM must return all copies of the memos, must “cease and desist from any further dissemination, by whatever means, including written, email, fax, oral, or electronic, of the Center’s internal memos,” and even that C-FAM must “identify to the Center all persons and organizations, including email addresses, to whom C-FAM disseminated the Center’s proprietary information.”

However, no legal maneuvering against C-FAM can now protect this strategy from further public scrutiny, since the internal CRR memos, which describe the strategy were this week introduced into the permanent US Congressional Record by Congressman Christopher Smith (R-NJ).

In a statement explaining his submission of the documents into the Congressional Record, Smith said that “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….These documents are important for the public to see because they expose the wolf donning sheep’s clothing in an attempt to sanitize violence against children. These papers reveal a Trojan Horse of deceit. In their own words, these documents demonstrate how abortion promotion groups are planning to push abortion…not by direct argument, but by twisting words and definitions.”

Smith appeared particularly troubled by some of the admissions made in the memos, such as the CRR statement that “…there is a stealth quality to the work: we are achieving incremental recognition of values without a huge amount of scrutiny from the opposition. These lower profile victories will gradually put us in a strong position to assert a broad consensus around our assertions.” Smith also highlighted a statement from a CRR trustee, who asserted that “We have to fight harder, be a little dirtier.”

Through this “stealth” campaign to produce new international laws, another trustee hopes that CRR will become the “midwife to the global choice movement.”

[The Friday Fax is reported and written by Douglas A. Sylva, C-FAM Vice-President.]

1 posted on 12/12/2003 12:46:49 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway
“disclosure of this material has caused, and further disclosure will cause, CRR irreparable harm.”

I would hope to shout! And rightly so

2 posted on 12/12/2003 12:51:24 PM PST by LiteKeeper
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To: nickcarraway
Bttt...
3 posted on 12/12/2003 12:51:45 PM PST by Chad Fairbanks (Author of Children's books, including "Plastic Bag Space Helmet and Other Fun Activities")
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To: nickcarraway
- Northup claims the distribution of the memos by CFAM and LifeNews.com's story on them "has caused, and further disclosure will cause, CRR irreparable harm." -

Sounds like an argument that Saddam's legal team would have made. Oh yeah and the Taliban too! ROTFLMAO at the amount of subversion and corruption in this country.
4 posted on 12/12/2003 12:53:40 PM PST by AppauledAtAppeasementConservat (An educated fool, in the end, is still a fool.)
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To: nickcarraway
It's not a secret, of course, but they hate to have any evidence published. The UN Cairo meeting and the followup Beijing meeting, at which Hillary was the Queen Bee, were steps along the way toward defining abortion as a recognized human right. Then anyone who opposes abortion is guilty in terms of international law of violating human rights.

This plan was derailed by a coalition of third world nations led by the Pope and (ironically) the Muslims. But they only delayed it. The NWO folks are still eager to push it through. Thank God at least our own UN delegation is now opposed. Bush made some excellent appointments there. Under clinton, our UN delegation led the way, along with China and the Euroswine.
5 posted on 12/12/2003 1:00:48 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: nickcarraway
"[T]he Center demands that you immediately ... cease and desist from any further dissemination, by whatever means, including written, email, fax, oral, or electronic, of the CRR Confidential Documents, or any information derived from, or in any way based on, the CRR Confidential Documents," Northup's letter said.

Facist litigaton. "You WILL be silenced! You WILL accept the laws we force on you!"

6 posted on 12/12/2003 1:05:45 PM PST by concerned about politics ( "Satire". It's Just "Satire.".......So it is.)
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To: nickcarraway
"It's about time that the radial pro-abortion, anti-woman agenda of groups like this be exposed and brought to light. It's not our problem if abortion advocates are embarrassed by their words or actions."

Amen....when the light comes on the slime always seems to be a little more qrotesque...thus the abortion debate...as long as the light is off..these people seem to be able to fool themselves into believeing abortion is right...
7 posted on 12/12/2003 1:07:17 PM PST by PaulaB (Supreme Court-They are utterly & completely worthless to the cause of freedom)
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To: PaulaB
bttt
8 posted on 12/12/2003 1:19:46 PM PST by tang-soo
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To: nickcarraway
Northup claims the distribution of the memos by CFAM and LifeNews.com's story on them "has caused, and further disclosure will cause, CRR irreparable harm."

Good. That's the point.

I'm sure Northup agrees too that Daniel Elsberg should have returned The Pentagon Papers to the Defense Dept.

9 posted on 12/12/2003 1:29:20 PM PST by onedoug
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To: nickcarraway
The roaches always prefer the dark, and scurry for cover (and threaten litigation) when the light is switched on.


10 posted on 12/12/2003 1:47:14 PM PST by Skooz (We keep you alive to serve this ship. Row well, and live.)
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To: nickcarraway
“…there is a stealth quality to the work: we are achieving incremental recognition of values without a huge amount of scrutiny from the opposition. These lower profile victories will gradually put us in a strong position to assert a broad consensus around our assertions.” Smith also highlighted a statement from a CRR trustee, who asserted that “We have to fight harder, be a little dirtier.”

The forces working to impose gay marriage are using exactly the same tactics. Marx and Lenin would be proud.

11 posted on 12/12/2003 2:10:56 PM PST by Unam Sanctam
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To: nickcarraway
"At the heart of the first amendment right to free speech is the ability of the media to report the truth," Ertelt said.

I thought the point of the latest decision from the Supremes was that the amendment now protects only profanity and naked dancing . . . and specifically prohibits abortion foes from speaking up.

12 posted on 12/12/2003 3:05:01 PM PST by madprof98
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To: 2nd amendment mama; A2J; Agitate; Alouette; aposiopetic; attagirl; axel f; Balto_Boy; ...
ProLife Ping!

If anyone wants on or off my ProLife Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.

13 posted on 12/12/2003 6:58:16 PM PST by Mr. Silverback (Pre-empt the third murder attempt-- Pray for Terry Schiavo!)
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To: nickcarraway; american colleen; sinkspur; Lady In Blue; Salvation; Polycarp; narses; ...
The Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (CFAM), a pro-life group that lobbies at the United Nations, announced earlier this month that an anonymous source sent it a copy of a 60-page document summarizing the conclusions of strategic planning meetings held by CRR in late October.

Here are the memos:

Secret Memos Reveal Worldwide Pro-Abortion Legal Strategy

CRR Threatens Legal Action/Documents Read into Congressional Record

Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list


14 posted on 12/13/2003 5:14:32 AM PST by NYer (Keep CHRIST in Christmas!)
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To: nickcarraway
I sent them an e-mail telling them to come and get me if they're so upset.
15 posted on 12/13/2003 2:10:58 PM PST by litany_of_lies
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