WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- The anti-abortion movement will take on a younger, hipper face as high-school and college youths descend on Washington this weekend for the Rock For Life rally and concert, declaring that "You Will Stop Killing My Generation!"
The music ministry organization Rock for Life expects hundreds of young supporters to travel to Washington, arriving in the nation's capital by Saturday for the beginning of a concert that commemorates the 28th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade that legalized abortions in the United States, and the annual anti-abortion March for Life rally.
The march and rally comes a year after President George W. Bush's inauguration and his swift move to ban government funding to international family planning groups that offered abortions. The action sent tremors through women's advocacy and abortion rights groups; they had not expected Bush to act so quickly to begin what they consider curbing access to the procedure.
Bryan Kemper, director of Rock for Life, said the group would host a Saturday concert featuring the bands Hangnail, Cool Hand Luke and Jennifer's Regret at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Capitol Hill. The next day, they will hold a candlelight prayer vigil at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Next Monday, the participants plan to picket the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and hold a news conference followed by a youth rally. The event winds up with a second concert on Constitution Avenue next Tuesday, with youths sporting "Abortion is Homicide" sweatshirts for the March for Life rally.
Abortion rights and women's advocacy groups such as the Feminist Majority Foundation have not yet announced their counter-plans for the weekend. The Feminist Majority Foundation also sponsors what they call Rock for Choice concerts around the country featuring musical groups such as Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine, among others.
The Rock for Life organization, founded by Kemper in 1993, is a division of the Virginia-based American Life League, led by anti-abortion activist Judie Brown. Rock for Life has created a youth-oriented marketing campaign, taking a page from MTV by generating a Web site, sponsoring music concerts featuring mainstream Christian bands and producing anti-abortion compilation CDs
"We want kids to know where their money is going to when they are supporting one of their favorite bands. If that band is using their popularity and their money to support the killing of our generation, we don't want to support that band," said Kemper. He said Rock for Life supporters return CDs and boycott concerts from artists who support abortion rights.
Kemper's group maintains that youth are being "deceived and manipulated" by the music industry and asserts that "many of today's popular artists speak out for abortion rights and raise money for pro-abortion causes," according to its Web site.
The marketing campaign also offers somewhat of a softer, gentler contrast to the stereotypical image of angry activists outside abortion clinics confronting women and staff trying to enter. Instead, it offers T-shirts, mugs and trendy "messenger" bag briefcases emblazoned with their slogan and other declarations such as "Abortion is Homicide" and "Abortion is Mean."
