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Stop Fake Clinics from Providing Women with Deceptive Information
While these so-called clinics claim to offer help for women facing unplanned pregnancies, they are in fact run by anti-abortion organizations with the aim of preventing women from obtaining abortions.
Stop Fake Clinics from Providing Women with Deceptive Information
Action Needed:
"Pregnant? Scared? We Can Help." So claim billboards popping up around the country advertising the services of local "Crisis Pregnancy Centers" (CPCs). While these so-called clinics claim to offer help for women facing unplanned pregnancies, they are in fact run by anti-abortion organizations with the aim of preventing women from obtaining abortions. These fake clinics use deceptive methods to get women in the door and then bombard them with misleading information. To address this problem, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) has introduced the Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services Act (H.R. 5052) which would enforce truth-in-advertising standards for reproductive centers. Please urge your representative to support this legislation. It is imperative that women are provided with accurate medical information.
Background:
Crisis Pregnancy Centers or CPCs utilize deceptive advertising to lure women to their clinics. Their deceptive methods include:
* using names similar to legitimate clinics (e.g. "Women's Resource Center")
* displaying colors frequently used by actual clinics or women's centers
* being located near legitimate clinics so that patients may accidentally enter the wrong building and
* giving misleading descriptions of the services that they provide ("pre-abortion counseling")
Women who have found themselves at CPCs report being harassed, intimidated, and made to feel guilty for considering abortion. In many cases, women who enter these centers are not informed that the clinic does not actually provide abortion services.
CPCs lure women in by offering free pregnancy tests. Women have reported that the CPCs lied to them about the results of the pregnancy test (telling them they weren't pregnant) so that they would miss the window of time during which they could safely obtain an abortion. Because CPCs are often located near actual clinics, women with appointments for abortion services may mistakenly enter the CPC instead. Such women are sometimes fed orange juice and donuts so that even if they find their way to the real clinic they can not obtain an abortion that day. Also, some of the workers and volunteers at CPCs have no medical training and are only there to deter women from having an abortion.
These fake clinics prey upon women facing unplanned pregnancies and make an already difficult situation worse by misleading and manipulating them. Please help put an end to these deceptive practices by urging your representative to support the Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services Act.
Action Needed:
"Pregnant? Scared? We Can Help." So claim billboards popping up around the country advertising the services of local "Crisis Pregnancy Centers" (CPCs). While these so-called clinics claim to offer help for women facing unplanned pregnancies, they are in fact run by anti-abortion organizations with the aim of preventing women from obtaining abortions. These fake clinics use deceptive methods to get women in the door and then bombard them with misleading information. To address this problem, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) has introduced the Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services Act (H.R. 5052) which would enforce truth-in-advertising standards for reproductive centers. Please urge your representative to support this legislation. It is imperative that women are provided with accurate medical information.
Background:
Crisis Pregnancy Centers or CPCs utilize deceptive advertising to lure women to their clinics. Their deceptive methods include:
* using names similar to legitimate clinics (e.g. "Women's Resource Center")
* displaying colors frequently used by actual clinics or women's centers
* being located near legitimate clinics so that patients may accidentally enter the wrong building and
* giving misleading descriptions of the services that they provide ("pre-abortion counseling")
Women who have found themselves at CPCs report being harassed, intimidated, and made to feel guilty for considering abortion. In many cases, women who enter these centers are not informed that the clinic does not actually provide abortion services.
CPCs lure women in by offering free pregnancy tests. Women have reported that the CPCs lied to them about the results of the pregnancy test (telling them they weren't pregnant) so that they would miss the window of time during which they could safely obtain an abortion. Because CPCs are often located near actual clinics, women with appointments for abortion services may mistakenly enter the CPC instead. Such women are sometimes fed orange juice and donuts so that even if they find their way to the real clinic they can not obtain an abortion that day. Also, some of the workers and volunteers at CPCs have no medical training and are only there to deter women from having an abortion.
These fake clinics prey upon women facing unplanned pregnancies and make an already difficult situation worse by misleading and manipulating them. Please help put an end to these deceptive practices by urging your representative to support the Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services Act.
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Fake counseling in our own city is located in the Mission.
Alpha Pregnancy Center
5070 Mission St
For REAL counseling about your options go to:
Access - Women's Health Rights Coalition
http://www.whrc-access.org/
Alpha Pregnancy Center
5070 Mission St
For REAL counseling about your options go to:
Access - Women's Health Rights Coalition
http://www.whrc-access.org/
you said: "The pro choice movement wants it both ways. If a group wants to set up a counselling service which tries to save the lives of babies then it should be allowed to. You now want to stop people counselling againsts abortion. Who do you think you are. Your extremist agenda seeems intent on making abortion the only choice considered by women. Abortion is horrific. It compounds sexism and lets men off the hook. It also destroys life. Defend freeee speech and oppose this attack on counselling."
If a group wants to provide counseling services to women, it should take into account the fact that it is primarily serving women- giving them information and letting them make their own decisions. Yes, of course women are told about adoption and options of having their own kids at these clinics. But there is a subtle pressure to keep the baby, rather than to allow the woman to move on with her life. And women are not told about the option of ending the pregnancy, AND, I wonder, are they told about methods of keeping from having another unwanted pregnancy? Are women and men trained in how to use condoms and lubricant, how to negotiate when to have sex and when not to, how to plan sexual activity based on where they are at in their menstrual cycles?
I like the way one of the groups, I think it is NARAL Pro-Choice America, phrases its goal for abortion access: "Safe, Legal, and Rare." You anti-abortion people should endorse that. Whichever group it is wants to help reduce unwanted pregnancies so women don't have to take weird medications or have disturbing procedures to undo something that should never have happened. And then there is Planned Parenthood. Well, that says it all. Let girls and women plan when to get pregnant, and not have to have kids before they are ready to.
But don't force women into having kids they don't want. Don't do this to their bodies. It's our choice. And by consensus, it is still the law of the land.
If a group wants to provide counseling services to women, it should take into account the fact that it is primarily serving women- giving them information and letting them make their own decisions. Yes, of course women are told about adoption and options of having their own kids at these clinics. But there is a subtle pressure to keep the baby, rather than to allow the woman to move on with her life. And women are not told about the option of ending the pregnancy, AND, I wonder, are they told about methods of keeping from having another unwanted pregnancy? Are women and men trained in how to use condoms and lubricant, how to negotiate when to have sex and when not to, how to plan sexual activity based on where they are at in their menstrual cycles?
I like the way one of the groups, I think it is NARAL Pro-Choice America, phrases its goal for abortion access: "Safe, Legal, and Rare." You anti-abortion people should endorse that. Whichever group it is wants to help reduce unwanted pregnancies so women don't have to take weird medications or have disturbing procedures to undo something that should never have happened. And then there is Planned Parenthood. Well, that says it all. Let girls and women plan when to get pregnant, and not have to have kids before they are ready to.
But don't force women into having kids they don't want. Don't do this to their bodies. It's our choice. And by consensus, it is still the law of the land.
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