(This article courtesy of the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)
WASHINGTON, DC — As members of the U.S. Senate returned to Washington
Tuesday, there was a little something extra in their mailboxes, and it
rattled.
More than two-dozen pro-family and pro-life organizations have joined
together to create the “Shake the Nation Back to Life” campaign. The
signature of the campaign is a baby rattle, with a card attached for
senators. The card states:
“Dear Senator, Please vote to confirm pro-life justices to the U.S.
Supreme Court, and do everything within your power to protect children
from all the brutal methods of abortion.”
More than 20,000 of the rattles were mailed or delivered to senators'
offices Tuesday in anticipation of a scheduled meeting of the Senate
Judiciary, Administrative Oversight, and the Courts subcommittee entitled,
“The Senate's Role in the Nomination and Confirmation Process: Whose
Burden?”
The Florida pro-family group Center for Reclaiming America is spearheading
the campaign. Janet Folger, the Center's director and former legislative
director of Ohio Right to Life, says the rattles are just the first step
in a comprehensive effort that includes television commercials.
“The launch, the kickoff, and the first media buy, was over $2.2 million,
and the first buy will run in the Washington, D.C. market,” Folger said.
“That portion is over $70,000, which will take us through mid-October.”
The first commercial features numerous infants, holding rattles and
pro-life placards, super-imposed into video of the National Mall and other
landmark locations in Washington, D.C. The children are laughing and
smiling until a gavel drops and viewers see a mock newspaper headline
reading, “Supreme Court Okays Abortion.” The infants then begin crying,
and the commercial shows their rattles and posters dropping to the ground,
as the children disappear from the screen. The commercial ends with a
voiceover announcer stating, “Tell your Senator to Shake the Nation Back
to Life.”
Folger believes the positive nature of the commercials, and the large
number of groups supporting the campaign will influence both President
Bush and members of the Senate.
“This is more than an ad campaign,” according to Folger, “there are now 24
national groups – virtually the 'Who's Who' of the pro-life and pro-family
movement that have, for the first time in history, joined together to see
children protected again in our lifetime.”
Folger says the campaign, particularly its television advertising
component, is not targeted just at President Bush and senators.
“We also need to bring a message to the American people, and let the
American people know the truth regarding abortion,” she says. “We know …
that the more the American people know about abortion, the more pro-life
they become.”
Kristi Hamrick, a spokesperson for Shake the Nation, acknowledges that the
current climate of the Senate may not be the most conducive to securing
confirmations for pro-life justices, but she says it can be done.
“Republicans have not been in control of the Senate during many other past
nominations that have gone through. Scalia is a good example,” Hamrick
recalls. “Democrats were in control of the Senate when he did go through.”
While there is no vacancy on the court, three justices — Chief Justice
William H. Rehnquist and Justices John Paul Stevens and Sandra Day
O'Connor — are over 70. Many court watchers expect at least one
retirement within the next few years.
The Shake the Nation television commercial is currently airing on the CNN,
FOX, and MSNBC cable outlets, and on local ABC and CBS television
affiliates in the Washington, D.C. market. Folger says a nationwide
purchase of advertising time is one of the options under consideration by
the Shake the Nation coalition.
Heartbeat International, an association of pregnancy resource centers, has
arranged for at least one collection point in each state, to insure that,
after the rattles have been used to make their political point, they are
ultimately given to newborn babies.