Medical Right Watch

Who Is David Reardon and Why Is He Living in Missouri?

His ballot initiative could be as big as the 2006 South Dakota abortion ban referendum. It may be even bigger, considering that 2008 is a presidential election year.

Who is David C. Reardon and why is he living in Missouri?

It’s an interesting question because of the high-profile, election-year push for a ballot measure to ban abortion in Missouri. Previously, Reardon was mostly known as the founder, director and sole full-time employee of The Elliot Institute for Social Science Research of Springfield, Illinois, which he described as a “ministry.”

The institute’s principal activity has been propagating the notion that “abortion harms women” and advocating for post-abortion “healing,” which Reardon calls “a great evangelization opportunity for the Church.”

Now, however, he is the most visible person organizing the Missouri ballot measure, which gained national attention as soon as it was filed. If Reardon and his backers are able to gather the 85,000 signatures needed to get this measure on the November ballot, he may attain celebrity status among the Religious Right.

Although Reardon is a man of various talents, perhaps his greatest are being inventive and getting attention.

This is his second attempt to instigate a voter-driven initiative in Missouri, where he maintains a residence in St. Charles. The first effort, in 2006, fizzled after Reardon was sued for stealing the website code of a group he opposed.

Although Reardon has been known mostly for his advocacy against abortion, he has a substantial, if lesser-known, interest in voting operations. Self-described as a bio-ethicist in the anti-abortion world, Reardon was actually trained as an electrical engineer and has a degree from the University of Illinois. In 2005 and 2007, he received two connected patents for a new balloting mechanism, called a “computer enhanced voting system including verifiable, custom printed ballots imprinted to the specifications of each voter.” The patents would, among other things, end anonymous voting.

Simultaneous with running the nonprofit Elliot Institute and paying himself a salary of $44,000 for 40 hours a week, Reardon also completed several complex patent applications. In 1992, he received a patent for a method of adhering fingerprinting to paper documents. A 1995 New York Times article identified Reardon as the founder of “Kinetic Enterprises” in Springfield, Illinois, and he described a patent application that could stymie hackers.

In 2006, Reardon himself was accused of hacking the website code and look of a group whose politics he opposed, the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures (MCLC), which advocates for stem-cell research. Reardon was ordered by a federal district judge in Kansas City, Missouri, to stop operating a website that “illegally uses, mimics and copies the look, feel, graphics, coding and photos” of MCLC. Judge Gary A. Fenner wrote: “(T)he elliotinstitute.org website appears to be an unethical attempt to confuse Missouri voters into thinking that MCLC and the Elliot Institute are somehow affiliated.”

At the time, Reardon had filed a counter-MCLC ballot initiative to outlaw stem-cell research—it was called “Regulation of Human-Animal Crossbreeds, Cloning, Transhumanism, and Human Engineering.” The only other named members of the “coalition” were the Life Issues Institute, headed by National Right to Life Committee founder Dr. J.C. Willke, and the Society of Catholic Social Scientists.

Reardon’s inventiveness extends to anti-abortion activism in other ways. He is associated with several websites, including unfairchoice.org (with a tagline that says “Abortion is the UnChoice -- Unwanted, Unsafe, Unfair), afterabortion.org, unchoice.info, poorchoice.org, afterabortion.info, makingabortionrare.com. Another website has been launched specifically for the Missouri campaign, under the auspices of a group called the Stop Forced Abortions Alliance, which has only one other named member besides Reardon.

Religious and Medical Right groups quote Reardon extensively. Heartbeat International, a consortium of anti-abortion pregnancy care centers, said Reardon is “widely recognized as one of the leading experts on the after-effects of abortion on women” and cites him as support for the proposition the “women suffer mental and emotional hurt” after an abortion. An Elliot Institute brochure quotes accolades from leaders of the National Right to Life Committee, American Life League, Life Issues Institute, Life Dynamics and Americans United for Life.

While Reardon designates himself as “Dr. Reardon” and claims to have a Ph.D. in bio-ethics, his 1995 degree traces to the Pacific Western University in California, identified as a “diploma mill” business delivering degrees for a fee without coursework, according to investigators for the U.S. Government Accountability Office. (Pacific Western University has since changed its name to California Miramar University.) Some states have passed laws against the use of diploma mill credentials, including North Dakota, which makes it a misdemeanor to use a fake degree in connection with business, and Illinois, where one cannot be used to obtain employment.

Publications by Reardon are self-published by Acorn Books, which is described as “an imprint” for The Elliot Institute and for which Reardon is the business contact. The Elliot Institute earned $25,760 of its $148,000 in revenue from the sales of Reardon’s books in 2005.

In his writings, Reardon uses the aura of science and asserts data that are unproven or from biased sources. He argues that women who have abortions are “five times more likely to subsequently abuse drugs or alcohol” and are “65 percent more likely to be at risk of long-term clinical depression,” have elevated “risk of death from all causes,” are more likely to be hospitalized for psychiatric care and to become poor mothers later.

He co-authored and published a book with Julie Makimaa, who travels the anti-abortion circuit, arguing that women who are raped are better off if they continue a pregnancy caused by a violent encounter than have an abortion. Another publication, “Victims and victors,” uses selected statements of women who have had abortions to claim that women suffer post-abortion trauma, despite scientific studies that show the opposite. When one study showed unmarried women with unintended pregnancies who had abortions were no more depressed that those who had children, Reardon rationalized that the women were probably concealing abortions and were incorrectly categorized.

In an interview with Frank Pavone of the far-right Priests for Life, Reardon “analyzed” pro-choice activists, saying: “they are deep in denial and (because of) the defensiveness of their abortion, they surround themselves with women saying abortion is a good thing.” Reardon told Pavone: “We have to be much more vocal that we care about women… we want to protect them.” The use of post-abortion “healing,” he argues “is a great evangelization opportunity for the Church.”

But, despite five books and his self-published “Post Abortion Review,” Reardon was not invited to serve on a Missouri Task Force on the Impact of Abortion on Women, set up by Governor Matt Blunt in late October 2007.

Instead, on November 5, Reardon submitted a ballot proposal for November 2008, the “Prevention of Coerced and Unsafe Abortion Act,” acting for the Stop Forced Abortions Alliance. Under Missouri law, Secretary of State Robin Carnahan distilled the proposal into concise language and certified it. Before it can go on the ballot, 85,000 to 96,000 signatures must be gathered on petitions.

The ballot language, as certified by Carnahan, is for a law that would “make it illegal for a doctor to provide a woman with an abortion at any time during her pregnancy unless the doctor determines, either immediately or after extensive and documented emotional, psychological, physical, situational, and demographic evaluations, that the procedure is necessary to prevent imminent death or serious medical risks.” In addition, it would make it illegal to provide advice, assistance or a drug for a woman to terminate her own pregnancy. A Missouri state court has been asked to block the ballot initiative.

Reardon’s initiative promises to be as big as the 2006 South Dakota abortion ban referendum, providing he gets the signatures needed to be on the ballot. It may be even bigger, considering that 2008 is a presidential election year.

Cynthia Cooper
December 21, 2007

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