While RH Reality Check likes to be ahead of the curve in terms of our use of technology, we certainly haven't mastered it all. We are glad to report about good use of technology for reproductive health advocacy, even when it isn't us.
Women's Voices, Women's Vote have been going at it hard this election season, trying to get out the female vote in America - 20 million eligible women didn't vote during the last election. And among their strategies? Besides releasing all of their TV ads on YouTube (like our friends at NARAL Pro-Choice America have done), they're making use of another increasingly popular technology: cell phone text messaging, or SMS.
99% of the time we stick to the subject matter, but in this case we thought it worth mentioning some technology for the sake of all of our readers in other advocacy organizations. While experiments are certainly still being made, the opportunity to get in touch with activists on their cell phones is looking increasingly promising. WVWV is using SMS in its voter registration efforts in the Nashville, TN area. Working Assets is running an SMS "Protect the Elections" campaign, putting a twist on WVWV's campaign: they're looking to get out urgent news to activists on Election Day by storing their cell phone numbers ahead of time.
And in the reproductive health community? Rumor has it that Planed Parenthood is launching an SMS campaign to monitor South Dakota election results, and if you're on any of their email lists, you may have even received a note about it by now. A reader sent us this page they found on PPFA's SaveROE.com blog: http://www.saveroe.com/node/6156. The registration appears to be working on the page.
I guess we will wait and see how they use it on the 7th, but it's a great sign of reproductive health organizations making use of the latest technology in their work.
Text messaging and other techonology like this will likely become instrumental in future elections, and we wanted to make sure you know about it now.
In the meantime, check out the video below to learn more about the WVWV campaign and how it's impacting its Nashville audience:
RH Reality Check is having some fun in the sun starting Saturday, June 28th and won't be publishing for the week. Check back on Monday, July 7th for brand new, exciting content!
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