Ipas Withdraws Underwriting Support Of North Carolina Public Radio WUNC

More than 100 organizations nationwide decry WUNC’s decision

Click here to read the letter sent to WUNC

Click here to read the letter written in support of Ipas

Click here for more information on Ipas

November 19, 2004 – Ipas, an international nonprofit organization based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, announced today that it will discontinue underwriting support for WUNC, its local public radio station. At issue is the phrase “reproductive rights,” which the station removed from Ipas’ on-air underwriting announcement and has refused to restore, despite a groundswell of opposition to that stance from WUNC listeners and others locally and nationally.

The text of Ipas’ on-air announcement had been: “Ipas, a Chapel Hill-based nonprofit that protects women’s reproductive health and rights at home and abroad. More information available at www.ipas.org.” The announcements aired on WUNC since mid-February, and the text was unchallenged until October, when the station informed Ipas that the word “rights” would no longer be permitted. During several weeks of discussion with WUNC – including a face-to-face meeting with the station’s senior management – Ipas senior executives tried to persuade WUNC to change its position, but to date such efforts have been unsuccessful.

“We highly value WUNC listeners and want to inform them about our work,” said Ipas President Elizabeth Maguire. “But there is no alternative language. Promoting reproductive rights is half Ipas’s mission. WUNC’s position denies Ipas the right to describe itself accurately and completely. It goes against fundamental values which we – and many others in our community – expect our local public radio station to uphold.”

Founded in 1973, Ipas works globally to protect women’s health and advance women’s reproductive rights. On Wednesday, Ipas sent WUNC, members of its Community Advisory Board and university officials a letter signed by nearly 100 community members requesting that the station reconsider its position on the phrase “reproductive rights;” more people added their names on Thursday. Individuals and organizations who signed the letter include donors to WUNC, community groups, faculty at local universities, elected officials, religious leaders, artists, writers and business people in WUNC’s listening area. The letter said, in part, “We feel that the extraordinary caution exhibited in this decision is undue and serves to perpetuate self-censorship, which is all too prevalent in the current political climate. We count on public radio to expose and resist such tendencies, not to reinforce them.” Since Ipas posted the text of the letter on its website Thursday afternoon, nearly 300 individuals from across the country have signed on, as of early Friday.

In addition, on Thursday, 22 national organizations issued a statement decrying WUNC’s decision which, it said, “threatens the very concept of free speech” and is consistent with a pattern under the Bush administration that punishes “organizations that do not conform to its narrow ideological position.” Cosigners included Americans for Democratic Action, the Center for Women Policy Studies, the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, Population Connection and the National Council of Jewish Women.

“As an organization dedicated to protecting the world’s most vulnerable women, Ipas cannot compromise its principles,” said Maguire. “Reproductive rights are a mainstream concept, protecting them is a core component of Ipas’s mission, and it is essential that we be able to convey that message to all audiences, including WUNC listeners.”

Maguire continued, “But also at issue is the right of all WUNC underwriters to portray themselves and their work accurately. We had hoped for a different resolution, especially because we recognize WUNC as a valuable community resource and want to support it. If the station’s management is willing to restore the word ‘rights’ to our announcement, we would be glad to resume our support.”

“Reproductive rights” encompass a series of rights that are respected, promoted and enforced by the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court, laws throughout the United States and countries around the world, as well as by multiple international agreements endorsed by all but a few countries. At a minimum these include the rights of men and women to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children, and to make reproductive decisions free of discrimination, coercion and violence.

In 2001, Ipas rejected all federal funding because of restrictions (known as the Mexico City Policy or the “Global Gag Rule”) which would have dramatically limited Ipas’s work with overseas organizations. Ipas’s decision cost the organization about $2 million.

“We refused to be gagged then, and we will not be gagged now,” said Maguire.

past features