WASHINGTON WATCH: NOW RALLY: WOMEN USING WOMEN

Some of the banners at Sunday's "Rally for Women's Lives": (ITAL) "Republicans Don't Need Abortions, They Eat Their Young." "Stop the Rapist Republicans." "Neuter Newt!" "Capitalism = Violence Against Women." "Contract on America Rapes American Women." "Break the Racist Contract." "Free Abortion on Demand." "Take Your Filthy Republican Hands Off My Body." "The Pope, Newt, Randall Terry: Stop Killing Women!" "Get Your Rosaries Out of My Ovaries." "Abortion on Demand and Without Apology." "Newt Is a Terrorist." "The Pope Sucks." "Newt sucks." "The Contract Sucks." UNITAL

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Depending on whom you ask, 50,000 to a quarter-million "womyn" and men amassed on the National Mall Sunday afternoon under gorgeous skies. The event, sponsored by the National Organization for Women, was billed as a protest of violence against women. Instead, it was more of a rally for abortion rights and against the Contract With America. While most of those in attendance seemed not to mind the muddled message, others found it manipulative in the worst way. Count me as one of those who left disappointed.

Violence against women remains a serious problem in the United States. According to the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, a woman is battered every 15 seconds. Battery appears to be the single most common cause of injury to U.S. women, more common than auto accidents, muggings and rapes combined. Over 4 million women were physically assaulted by a partner last year, according to the center.

These numbers are disgraceful, and they are powerful, especially if you know someone who has been beaten or molested, especially if you have struggled to help them overcome the pain, especially if you yourself have been a victim. But this doesn't excuse using these numbers to jerk the emotions of vulnerable or compassionate men and women with the purpose of rallying them to an unrelated political agenda. In the most cynical way, this is what NOW leaders are attempting to do. They should be -- but are not -- ashamed.

"This rally starts a nationwide grass-roots campaign to stop violence against women," NOW president Patricia Ireland told the media at the event. The campaign will "underscore the undeniable link between physical attacks on women, terrorist attacks on abortion clinics and political attacks in Congress."

It is a crafty -- but ultimately dishonest -- strategy to transfer emotion and hurt for political gain.

By repeatedly juxtaposing painful anecdotes of rape, abuse, incest and murder with various political figures and causes, NOW blatantly seeks to discredit policy opponents not by argument, but by atmosphere and name-calling. As one speaker at the rally yelled -- after touchingly telling about a friend's struggle to overcome the scars of rape -- "Republicans are rapists. We must stop the rapist Republicans."

Betty LaHayes, president of the largest women's group in the nation, Concerned Women for America, says such tactics indicate just how out of touch NOW feminists are with most American women. NOW's "hysterical rhetoric about violence is a facade for its real agenda of big government, abortion-on-demand and lesbian rights."

She is right. Since voters overwhelmingly elected a conservative Congress last fall, NOW leaders have found themselves and their core issues marginalized in Washington, even by the pro-choice Democratic president they helped to elect in 1992. No longer can they drive their agenda simply by demanding hearings from Democratic congressional chairmen, who were dependent upon their campaign contributions and endorsements. Instead, NOW must convince men and women to join their cause through other means. Unfortunately, their traditional message has little resonance in today's political environment so they have turned to emotional manipulation.

There is nothing wrong and, indeed, there can be something healthy in giving testimony to one's pain. And there are some people who deserve venomous rhetorical attacks, as well as the full force of the law. Randall Terry and Paul Hill are among them. But using women who have been beaten and raped to falsely discredit policy ideas you disagree with is exactly that: using women. NOW discredits itself with such tactics.

Jon K. Rust is a Washington-based writer for the Southeast Missourian.