Phoney "Crisis Pregnancy" clinics

[mykpart]

The following is from an email I received today from Planned Parenthood. Our tax money is paying for this BS!

The Story: An Indiana mother recently accompanied her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend to one of Indiana's Planned Parenthood clinics, but they unwittingly walked into a "crisis pregnancy center" run by an anti-abortion group — one that shared a parking lot with the real Planned Parenthood clinic, and was designed expressly to lure our patients and deceive them.

The group took down the girl's confidential personal information and told her to come back for her appointment, which they said would be in their "other office" (the real Planned Parenthood office nearby). When she arrived for her appointment, not only did the Planned Parenthood staff have no record of her, but the police were there — the "crisis pregnancy center" had called them, claiming that a minor was being forced to have an abortion against her will.

The "crisis pregnancy center" staff then proceeded to wage a campaign of intimidation and harassment over the following days, showing up at the girl's home and calling her father's workplace. Our clinic director reports that she was "scared to death to leave her house." They even went to her school and urged classmates to pressure her not to have an abortion.

This cruel and fraudulent behavior shows exactly what's behind the proliferation of these centers. That's why this new bill is so important: it would make it illegal for any entity to advertise abortion services if it does not provide such services.

Worse yet — the Bush administration has used $60 million in taxpayer dollars to fund these propaganda machines. This has got to stop!

[Erika]

1. The big thing for the GOP is to control women

Through lies, fear, or intimidation.

I hope the ACLU sues.

[Progressive4Life]

8. BINGO!

If it were really about being "pro-life," they would care about those of us outside the womb.

If it were really about reducing abortion (because it will never be eradicated), they would advocate easily accessible contraception and comprehensive sex education.

It's all about returning women to the status of adult minors. Susan Faludi has an entire chapter about this in Backlash: The Undeclared War against American Women. A must-read IMHO.

[Nobody]

9. These control freaks are deathly afraid

that their kids aren't theirs. The males, that is. They can't be sure without DNA testing. They are convinced that every woman is jumping into bed with every guy she sees.

They are obsessed with sex, and assume that everyone else is just as obsessed. Many of them have pre- or extra- marital relations and assume that everyone else is, too. They are so obsessed and thinking about sex constantly, that they can't walk down the street in Taliban-ruled Kabul without getting horny.

They assume that everyone else does too. They're wrong. Most of us think about other things in addition, it's why civilization was able to advance despite them.

[wisteria]

2. This is out and out harassment and they shouldn't be able to get

away with it. They have gotten bold and think they can continue using these tactics because ultimately the Bush courts will back them. This is just wrong though, and Bush should acknowledge it as such.

[silverweb]

3. Yup, I got this from PP, too.

Planned Parenthood needs all the help we can give them.

These anti-choice freaks are not above any twisted, devious, deceitful, or even violent means of pushing their control over women.

[TheFarseer]

4. They are so crazy

I just don't know why they have to make everyone do what they want when they have no stake in the outcome.

[HockeyMom]

5. Didn't her mother accompany her?

I thought they WANTED Parental Notification? But if the parent of the minor agrees to the abortion, they will then intimidate the family?

I guess parents only "know whats best" if they are anti choice?

[Catamount]

6. I just received the same email...so I'll enclose the link below!

Go to: http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/fakeclinics

I hope that we can put a STOP to this nonsense!
Please help folks!

[Catamount]

7. Also K&R

[Quantess]

10. Well, I've been aware of these fake clinics for a while, and

I'm sure they are only becoming bolder and more numerous.

Anyway, I would like to share a sort-of-amusing rainy-day activity:
Go there and take a pregnancy test!

Walk in, smile meekly and nervously, give fake contact info, tell them you are worried you might be pregnant (hey, maybe you really ARE worried you might be pregnant), but of course you would "keep it" (spare yourself the lecture) and take the test.

It's a real pregnancy test, the same kind that costs money in the pharmacy. Save yourself some cash, while wasting their time and resources.

If the test comes back positive, whatever you do, try to smile and act as though you have been tragically blessed.
Since you will have given them fake contact info, they won't be able to pester you.

If the test comes back negative, the worker will look so disappointed.:evilgrin:
Their look of disappointment is priceless.

[dropkickpa]

11. I did exactly this...

...when I got pregnant with my daughter. I didn't trust the test I took at home, I was 100% flat broke, so I called them up and went in. Did the whole "Of course I'll keep it if I'm pregnant" yadda yadda yadda, though I had absolutely NO idea of what I'd decide to do at the time. It was so creepy there, cheap cheap plastic furniture, ugly wallpaper, and it was basically a 3 room office. And the woman who was there was totally creepy. A stark contrast to the planned parenthood office a 1/2 block away, which was well appointed, the staffwas wonderful, and I got not 1 creepy vibe (I ended up loaning my best friend some money and support a few months later when she ended up pregnant and needed to take care of it). But hey, it saved my 5 bucks!

[Quantess]

12. Interesting.

The workers that I encountered weren't creepy, they were just super-religious young women.

I have done it exactly 3 times. Twice I got to see their precious crestfallen expression of disappointment at the negative result. One time, while I was reeling at the positive result, I saw the poorly concealed delight on the worker's face. This was her big chance to save a fetus.

She was actually a fairly nice person. She was so ready to comfort me about my joyous miracle fetus, she would have hugged me if I had allowed her. I was polite to her. But, once I left there, all bets were off.

[dropkickpa]

13. The woman I met..

well, her behavior was normal (for the most part), but something was just that tiniest bit off about her, which I found very creepy. Very over-eager and earnest. I'm sure they'd be over-joyed to know that I kept the kid, even though I didn't make the decision to until I was about 10 weeks along, and it had NOTHING to do with them.

[Quantess]

14. Right,

if you told them your child is alive and well, they would probably be congratulating themselves that they had saved a fetus. I know what you mean about the workers seeming a bit "off". They probably ask each other "how many babies did you save today?" LOL.

I'm sorry but grown women think these things through on their own, and end up making their own decision. Voices from the peanut gallery have little or no weight when a woman learns she has an unwanted pregnancy. They can tell me how delighted they are that I'm pregnant with a miracle fetus, (they can even do scare tactics like show abortion photos, which wouldn't have mattered since I've seen those before and they don't impress me), but it won't be a big factor in my decision.

It can be a really, really tough decision. I don't know how much I want to share, but, my S.O. and I together decided what to do. We had only been together a very short time when I conceived. We are still together almost 2 years later. That was probably over-sharing, but my point is that in every situation the circumstances are different, and no one can tell you what is the "right" thing to do.

[REP]

15. It's Not About "Saving Babies" - It's About Making Money

Each unwanted pregnancy is a money-making opportunity for the CPCs. They want that pregnancy to be unwanted but carried to term, so they can act as the adoption agents, which nets them $10K - $100K per healthy white infant. That look of joy at your dismay wasn't at the prospect of forcing you to be a mother, but at the prospect of forcing you to hand over a healthy newborn to them to sell to a wealthy infertile couple. If you (or any woman) said she was keeping her baby, there'd be pressure to adopt it out, and precious little in the way of help until agreement was given to relinquish the infant at birth. These centers are not about helping women or "saving babies" - it's all about money in their pockets.

[weeksbr1]

16. Does anybody know...

how many of those things there are out there? I know East Lansing has one, it's right by my house. I make sure to glare deeply into the large windows everytime I walk to the bus stop.

[Quantess]

17. Look in the yellow pages under "abortion alternatives"

Just in the Portland area, there are about 10 "Pregnancy Resource Centers", and a handful of other places such as "Birthright".