Copied from Planned Parenthood:
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 so-called "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 Planned Parenthood 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 the girl 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.
The anti-choice movement is setting up these "crisis pregnancy centers" across the country. Some of them have neutral-sounding names and run ads that falsely promise the full range of reproductive health services, but they dispense anti-choice propaganda and intimidation instead. And according to a recent article in The New York Times, there are currently more of these centers in the U.S. than there are actual abortion providers. What's more, these centers have received $60 million in government grants.
They're being funded by our tax dollars.
A bill has just been introduced in Congress to stop the fraudulent practices of fake clinics, but it desperately needs more support.
Tell your representative to take a stand: anti-choice extremists must not get away with this any longer!
Holy shit! Thank you so much for posting this. I had no idea that this bill was proposed, but it is definitely needed!
oh my gosh. that is one of the most fucked up things i have heard in a LONG time!
That is absolutely awful, disgusting, horrific, and a thousand other words. I can't believe that is being allowed to happen, I can't even imagine the reaction here if that occured. We have 'crisis' pregnancy centres, but the anti-choice movement here is small...or at least not very vocal.
That's so far beyond appalling I can't even begin to try and say anything about it without spluttering incoherently.
I can't begin to comprehend how anyone could even begin to imagine that kind of behaviour is ethical.
Oh my god that is so fucked up! Hearing that people do shit like that makes me so incredibly angry!!! And funded by the government? UGH!
i went to a crisis pregnancy center. they were rude and didnt offer me much help. they say they are there to support the mothers, however, prior to going i had already choosen to keep the pregnancy, once they found that out they really didnt do anything for me. i believe if i had sounded unsure about my decision or mentioned abortion they would have been on my ass and offering me services right and left to keep me from aborting. its like once you choose life we dont give a fuck. this explains why these organizations dont press for more services such as food stamps and section 8. their only agenda is preventing abortions by what ever means necessary. other than that, they dont care if raising a baby is hard or near impossible, they just are not interested in you. only the fetus.
anyways thats my rant, i will definately see about raising support to stop them. when i left the crisis pregnancy center, i demanded to take my file with me. that poor girl.
I walked into one of these places to get a test when I was 17. While my "test" (sure they dumped the pee) They put on a friendly video, lullaby music and all then BAM. A most appalling experience that still gives me chills.
This is abuse. Plain and simple. Could probably easily be classified as assault. I hate it's still happening but love that it's getting attention. Getting involved and getting loud is a great option available to women anywhere.
ugh. my mom runs one. I could totally see her doing that. The worst part is that so many of the "volunteers" are old, rich, Catholic, white, men.
the lady at the center i went to said " ive been working on this job as longer than you've been alive, i know girls like you, you will not make it unless you give up your baby to good christian people who wont mess up her life" when i told her i would make it she basically tisked at me and asked for the panfalet back because " it costs her money and she needs it for people who can use it" . i have a good mind to march back in there and tell her how full of shit she was.
that is so fucked up.
I read somewhere that there was a clinic telling women that they weren't pregnant so that by the time they found out that they were it was too late to have an abortion. I will try to look for it.
Yeah there is one of those right on my campus at school.
Sky kid that is so fucked. Oh my god. I'd always that that if it came down to not having money I'd go to one of those places just for the test. Now I for sure won't. The PPs here don't do free tests. good ol texas.
I don't know about in Texas, but the Health Department in Michigan does tests that the cost is based on your income. It's also covered by Medicaid (Michigan's government insurance). So if you ever need one, I'd go to a health department.
Hey, I followed your link and wrote to my representative and he wrote back to me! Usually when I send reps emails or letters or whatever I never hear from them again. I just wanted to follow up and share with y'all his response.
Here is his email to me:
I am totally going to write back to thank him! Anyone else get a response from your rep?
That is so awesome that you got a response!
That was an AWESOME response!
That is cool that he wrote back. I didn't get a response, but I didn't expect one.
I went to a pregnancy crisis center and they were of great help. They were all good christian woman and asked me if I was planning on keeping my child of giving it up or having an abortion. I told her I wanted to keep it and they were very helpful with getting me in the right direction to get medicade. WIC and a support group for single moms as well as they donated brand new clothes and other mommy/baby needs to mom and baby if they needed it. This was all paid for by differeny churches NOT the goverment. After I had my baby boy I went to go visite them and they were all congratulating me. They told me he was a gift from God not a mistake and that God will always provide for our needs. I don't believe some one should be made to keep their baby if they don't want to but I don't believe these ladies were into that, they just wanted to let girls know that getting pregnant was not the end of the world and that they had other options than abortion but if they did decide to have an abortion it was their choice to make. So just tel let everyone know not all pregnancy chrisis centers are the same.
They were nice to you because you weren't choosing abortion.
.. as well as "good Christian women"?
We're not all religious here.
Well I know a girl that did decide to have an abortion and they didn't go all crazy on her trying to tell her she should not get one they just told her it was her choice, they just presented other options, but she did not feel pressured and they left it at that. I am not religious either I just thought that they were all very sweet ladies, when you're young and single and get pregnant it's tough to find someone to just talk to about how you're feeling and what is going through your mind. All I really want to say is not all of the crisis pregnancy center are supported by the goverment and not all condemn girls that have abortions.
Jigsmommy, I think you should take a look at the mission statement & user agreement & read some of the threads.
Girlmom is a pro-woman pro-choice pro-kid site.
Its different than a lot of other sites.