NARAL Prez to Elle: ‘We Really Do Live in a Pro-Choice Country’

Sometimes, all you can say is, “Keep telling yourself that.” 

Elle’s Rachael Combe recently honored NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue as one of the “10 Most Powerful Women in D.C [1].” For Combe’s piece, Hogue told Elle [2] that, “Even though states adopted 53 antichoice measures last year,” Americans “really do live in a pro-choice country.” Fortunately, the polls disagree.

Hogue went on to explain, “I’m witnessing a resurgence of…it’s not even outrage—it’s just reaffirming basic values.” Basic values? Now that’s a new definition of pro-abortion absolutism.  

Looks like Hogue missed the most recent polls – like CNN’s recent finding that 58% of Americans want all or most abortions illegal [3] or even polling data by Gallup and other organizations [4]. 

“We’re asking something pretty simple of our elected officials, which is to create policy that doesn’t hurt or shame us and supports us in living the real lives of twenty-first-century women,” Hogue stressed. 

Combe also listed Hogue’s “secret weapon” (“I’m down to the cellular level hopelessly optimistic. I want to unleash the imagination of what’s possible for women in this country”) and boasted, “there’s almost no progressive cause she [Hogue] hasn’t championed.” 

Hogue admitted, “The external narrative about the women’s movement is, ‘Oh, it’s catty.” “Catty” doesn’t do justice to Hogue’s own vicious rhetoric, like accusing pro-lifers and tea partiers of [5] “lying and cheating,” while stressing that anti-abortion means “anti-American.” [6]) But Hogue expressed hope in that “Our generation is unique: We see all these basic freedoms as tied together.” Redefining terms yet again, huh?

The list also recognized [7] Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, Hillary Clinton adviser Cheryl Mills, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier, former U.S. Chief of Protocol Capricia Marshall, Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden, CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash as well as Political COO Kim Kingsley.