Abortion Task Force in cahoots with Ballot Initiative Group
NARAL PRO-CHOICE MISSOURI UNCOVERS MORE “SMOKING-GUN” EVIDENCE OF MATT BLUNT’S ABORTION TASK FORCE’S COLLABORATION WITH THE BALLOT INITIATIVE TO BAN ABORTIONS IN MISSOURI For Immediate Release: For more info contact: January 14, 2008 Pamela Sumners at 314-531-8616 NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri, the largest statewide advocacy group for reproductive choice, has uncovered written evidence substantiating its suspicion that the Governor’s Task Force on the Impact of Abortion on Women intends to work hand-in-glove with representatives from the Elliot Institute, the Illinois group seeking to place a measure banning most abortions in Missouri on the November 2008 ballot. Pursuant to a Sunshine Law request, NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri obtained documents that highlight the lack of coincidence between a ballot initiative effectively banning abortion and the Governor’s Task Force. An October 26, 2007 email from Task Force member Connie Eller to Blunt staffer Jay Barnes states, “[P]lease do include Paula Talley of Operation Outcry in task force discussions.” When the ballot initiative was first filed November 5, 2007, David Reardon, director of the Elliot Institute, identified Paula Talley in the filing as “the primary contact person of record” for the ballot initiative. It was Paula Talley who was notified by the Secretary of State’s Office on November 19 that the petition had been accepted for filing. At its December 3, 2007 meeting, a meeting at which task force members indicated their intent to incorporate discredited theories into their official findings, a task force member also announced that David Reardon was expected to attend. NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri was the first organization to point out the probable link between the governor’s assembling a task force on abortion and the
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