NARAL Speakers' Series: Kelli Conlin
NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri’s 40th Anniversary Speakers’ Series Presents Kelli Conlin
For Immediate Release: April 16, 2009 For More Information Contact: Pamela Sumners at 314-531-8616 or 312-213-1725 (cell)
As part of its 40th anniversary celebration, NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri’s Speakers Series is pleased to present Kelli Conlin, President of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, a national foundation based in New York City. Conlin’s Institute, through its Winning Message Action Fund, won a prestigious Pollie Award for its election-year “How Much Time Should She Do?” mug shot advertisement, beating out 6,000 entries—including those prepared by both Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s media team as well as Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection. The Pollies, awarded by the Association of Political and Public Affairs Professionals, are the highest possible honor for political messaging work. Ms. Conlin will speak Wednesday, April 22, at 7:00 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church of St. Louis, 5007 Waterman Blvd. Kelli Conlin and the Institute began wondering about the way abortion was being portrayed in the political arena and why so many polarizing, frightening, and poorly informed terms were being used to describe it. Conlin and the Institute developed The Messaging Project to offer a different frame for talking about abortion, one that puts anti-abortion forces on the defensive and seeks to reverse their rhetorical victory of the last 20 years. The result of Conlin’s and the Institute’s vision, extensive polling, focus groups, and market research is political dynamite that has driven women to the polls in states as diverse as Iowa, Wisconsin, Colorado, Ohio, and Missouri, among other states. The visionary “How Much Time Should She Do?” campaign poses just that question to those who contend that abortion is a crime. In doing so, says Pamela Sumners, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri, the Institute “exposes the real agenda of the anti-abortion movement in America. They don’t believe a woman has the wherewithal to make decisions for herself, so they’d rather punish doctors than the women who have decided to have an abortion—and they’d rather just make abortion about impossible to obtain by continually restricting access to it.” Kelli Conlin, through visionary work like the “How Much Time Should She Do?” campaign, has established herself as one of the foremost messaging authorities in American politics. Conlin will discuss the research and polling data underlying the Institute’s messaging campaign and demonstrate why she is a force to be reckoned with in American politics. Ms. Conlin is available for media interviews. Contact: Pamela L. Sumners, Esq. Executive Director 314.531.8616/312.213.1725 (cell) ###
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