On March 31, in a piece titled "Pro-abort pressure fails: Lilith Fair keeps pregnancy care centers on list of charities,"  Jill Stanek pointed out that a press release issued just days before by Lilith 2010 tour organizers about how the charities that would receive donations would be determined, had engendered quite a "surprise." The "surprise" was that "several pregnancy care centers were included on the list." Stanek noted that it was "A surprise because back in the day Lilith Fair had the reputation of being a feminist and lesbian magnet, both groups being pro-abortion. Sarah McLachlan is also a pro-abort (ironically having previously performed in Rock for Choice concerts)."

A skirmish over which charities would receive funds was now taking place at Lilith 2010's Facebook page, where Lilith fans could nominate charities in their home towns and several at each tour stop would be chosen. (Lilith is scheduled to play in 36 cities across North America and $1 from each ticket will be donated to a local women's charity in each city.)

A few days later, however, Stanek was apparently not so surprised when she reported that Lilith 2010 organizers had dumped the pregnancy care centers (aka anti-abortion enterprises) as potential recipients while keeping maternity homes on the list.

Lilith 101

The Lilith Fair ("a celebration of women in music") was founded in 1997 by Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan, Nettwerk Music Group's McBride and Dan Fraser, and New York talent agent Marty Diamond. It featured only female solo artists and female led bands (both well-known and lesser-known musicians were included.) During its three-year lifespan it not only brought an eclectic mix of female musicians into the spotlight, it raised some $10 million for women's charities throughout North America.

In 1997, Lilith Fair garnered a $16 million gross, making it the top-grossing of any touring festival, and the 16th highest grossing amongst all concert tours that year. Main Stage artists included McLachlan, Tracy Chapman, Jewel, Paula Cole, Suzanne Vega, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Fiona Apple, Joan Osbourne, Cardigans, Emmylou Harris, Lisa Loeb, and the Indigo Girls.  There was also a Second Stage of artists, and a section called the Village Stage, which featured mostly local artists who performed at one or two venues.

McLachlan apparently took the name from the medieval Jewish legend that Lilith was Adam's first wife. There are more Lilith stories, however. According to "Tree of souls: the mythology of Judaism," by Howard Schwartz, Lilith appears as a night demon in Jewish folklore and as a screech owl in Isaiah 34:14 in the King James version of the Bible. In later folklore, Lilith is the name for Adam's first wife. Her story was greatly developed, during the middle-ages, in the tradition of Aggadic midrashim, the Zohar and Jewish mysticism.

The dust up

On March 29, a Lilith-sponsored press release announced that the 2010 Lilith Tour would partner with Involver, "the fastest growing social media technology platform .,. to launch `Choose Your Charity,' an audience engagement campaign run exclusively through Facebook."

Thus began the Battle of the Charities.

According to the Chicago Reader's Jessica Hopper, fans in Minneapolis and Indianapolis were "given the option of supporting Metro Women's Center and Indianapolis Life Center, respectively--institutions whose approach to women's reproductive health services (especially birth control and abortion) is guided by an explicitly anti-choice agenda. Several other cities, including Atlanta and Seattle, have potential beneficiaries that offer so-called abortion alternatives and faith-driven pregnancy counseling."

When Hopper asked festival organizers to comment "about this apparent change in tack for the historically pro-choice Lilith Fair," Danielle Romeo, a spokesperson from Nettwerk, said: "The primary focus of the selection process will be on those organizations that provide shelter to women in need. We want the fans to have a voice in the selection, and we will strongly consider all feedback on these selected charities when making the final decisions."

Lilith cofounder Terry McBride told Hopper that "The seeding at the start was done with a basic digital search in each market of woman's charities. It's not perfect. Nor could it be, as we simply don't have the local expertise even within our own city of Vancouver." According to Hopper, "McBride insist[ed] that the intent of the contest is to have each community help Lilith select a worthy recipient. The `seeding' he refers to, aka the initial vetting step, consisted of looking online for woman-focused organizations with federal tax ID numbers. He claims no other criteria were employed."

A few days after her initial report, the Chicago Reader's Hopper reported that the crisis pregnancy centers had been removed from the list of charities eligible for Lilith donations. At the same time, NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina was also removed. Hopper noted that "Several anti-choice organizations--faith-based maternity homes, abortion-alternative advocacy centers--remain listed."

Rachel Larris of RH Realty Check pointed out that Becky Smith and Katie Blair, who founded the Facebook Fan page titled "Lilith Fair: No money for crisis pregnancy centers!", released a statement that thanked supporters for rallying "together so quickly around the grave women's rights issue of crisis pregnancy centers." Smith and Blair said that their Facebook page, which began right after the posting of the "Choose your Charities" ballot, "quickly mushroom[ed] to a fan base of over 1200 committed concerned advocates for women's rights. We are so grateful to everyone who wrote an article, an email, a tweet, and started conversations regarding CPCs. While we can claim this as a victory, CPCs continue to misinform women and provide medically unsound information. We urge everyone to continue their activism by spreading the truth about the anti-woman practices of CPCs. Finally, we would like to thank Terry, CEO of the Nettwek Music Group, for moving so quickly on this important women's rights issue."

On April 5, Rachel Larris reported that Lilith 2010 issued a set of criteria for which charities are acceptable to submit at its Facebook page:

Criteria for Candidate Submissions:

A Women's charity with a focus on at least one of the following:

*    Reducing violence against women
*    Providing safety, shelter or recovery to women
*    Helping women achieve independence through education and career development tools
*    Providing access to ensure women's emotional, mental, social and physical well-being needs are been met
*    Focusing on building women's girls, or teens confidence through experiences in volunteering, education, friendships, community involvement, peer support or drop-in services
*    Offering treatment for addiction
*    Offering STD and HIV education and support
*    Providing rape and sexual violence education and support

According to Larris, these "criteria do not explain why CPCs have been removed from the list. In fact, given the lack of guidance on values undergirding any of these services, it is really not clear how this changes things. Certainly, an anti-choice CPC providing misinformation could claim that it `ensures women's emotional needs are met,' based on its own ideological positions of what those needs are and how to meet them.  Likewise, there is nothing about offering `peer support' or `drop-in' services that suggests whether these be accurate or not, ideologically anti-choice or pro-choice and fact-based.

"Confusion remains.

"And it is still not entirely clear why NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina doesn't meet those standards or if any other state NARAL organizations would be qualified. Emails sent to Nettwerk music group asking for clarification did not receive an immediate response."

Fortunately for Lilith 2010morganbizers, the deadline for submission is April 8.

According to some reports, the selection of the charities will ultimately be up to Lilith founders McLachlan, McBride, Dan Fraser, and Marty Diamond.

In light of the great many culture war battles taking place in cities and towns across the country, striking crisis pregnancy centers from Lilith 2010-eligible charities is a victory, albeit a small one. While crisis pregnancy centers were removed, several faith-based organizations remain. And why why NARAL dumped at the same time?

Then there's the question of whether anti-abortion activists will let the issue rest? As Lilith 2010 begins touring the issue of which charities it is supporting will no doubt be raised again, perhaps in the form of demonstrations outside concert venues and/or threatened boycotts.