Contact: Cat Clark
National Office Coordinator
202-737-3352
For Immediate Release
September 29, 2004

MTV Makes Women the Losers

Former Feminists for Life intern Natalie Nardelli has been edited out of a "sexual politics" documentary by MTV on Wednesday, September 29. Nardelli had been interviewed to appear in "Choose or Lose: Sex, Votes and Higher Power," one in a series aiming to educate young people about issues in the 2004 elections. The series is part of a larger MTV effort to mobilize young voters.

In the "Sex, Votes and Higher Power" installment of "Choose or Lose," musician Christina Aguilera took cameras to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to find out how young people have been affected by the government's policies on abortion, sex education and domestic violence. Aguilera, a native of the Pittsburgh area, was a celebrity supporter of abortion advocates' 2004 "March for Women's Lives."

In an email to Nardelli, producer Amy Brille of MTV wrote:

"[T]he pro-life bites we ended up using were from an expert who was more representative of the mainstream objection to abortion—i.e., that it amounts to murder. We didn't have time to introduce and piece together other bites that addressed more nuanced objections such as the Feminists for Life ones which you so eloquently articulated."

"By refusing to include our message that women deserve better than abortion, MTV has chosen to make women the losers," remarked FFL President Serrin Foster. "It is very disappointing that MTV will only give voice to people who fit their simplistic, preconceived stereotypes."

Millions of 18- to 30-year-olds across the country, the "Choose or Lose" target audience, have encountered Feminists for Life's progressive College Outreach Program since its launch in 1994. "This audience increasingly questions abortion. They resent being forced into traditional boxes. They refuse to choose between women and children—born and unborn," Foster said. "And they demand woman-centered solutions."

Support FFL's outreach to the MTV generation.

Like the early American feminists who opposed abortion, Feminists for Life works to systematically eliminate the coercive factors that drive women to abortion by facilitating practical solutions. FFL is a nonsectarian, nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to empowering women through progressive, nonviolent choices
for themselves and their children.
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