Anti-abortion activists wearing pins that read, “I (Heart) Pregnancy Resource Centers” packed a House hearing room in Olympia this afternoon to testify in opposition to HB 1366, which would force pregnancy resource centers (also called limited service pregnancy centers) to inform women that they offer free over-the-counter pregnancy tests (and a healthy dose of religious guilt!) in lieu of actual, comprehensive medical services. Both sides were given equal time to testify (testimony ended after an hour), but opponents of the bill reportedly outnumbered proponents four to one.
Religious activists argued that the bill would put religious pregnancy centers (which are primarily privately funded) out of business by allowing women to press charges against centers in superior court for failing to inform them about the services that they don’t provide—namely, information about birth control, or abortion referrals. (The bill would also allow women to press charges for not delivering pregnancy tests in a timely manner or provide accurate information to women who aren’t native English speakers.) Opponents say the bill goes too far—and its penalties even farther. “These centers are staffed by volunteers—they’re not armed robbers or timber thieves,” testified John Panesko, an estate lawyer from Chehalis, WA. “They don’t belong in superior court. They’re the epitome of good Samaritans.”
But women’s rights advocates say the bill is necessary precisely because the centers are staffed by volunteers who can currently lie to women about the dangers of abortion and premarital sex and withhold pregnancy results—which women need in order to qualify for medical coupons or Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) programs in Washington.
*This post has been updated.
“I felt I was being held hostage,” testified Jennifer Adams, a woman who found herself pregnant at age 30 and without health care coverage. Adams visited the CareNet Pregnancy Center in Tacoma to get a pregnancy test administered by a clinic in order to enroll in prenatal health care. Instead of a quick, easy test, Adams testified that the woman administering the pregnancy test was “judgmental, especially when she realized my partner and I were not married. She then asked me to read a Bible verse aloud and then said she wanted me to know how important abstinence is before marriage. I felt my joyous event was being marred by this course of events.” In the end, the pregnancy center withheld Adams’s pregnancy results from her. “They said sending those results out wasn’t their policy. My access to coverage for prenatal care was delayed. If this bill were in place, CareNet could not have withheld my pregnancy results.”
Not only can these centers withhold health information from their clients, they’re also not required to follow HIPAA guidelines for keeping medical information private (as clinics staffed by trained medical personnel are required to do) because they’re primarily staffed by volunteers.
Other women testifying in favor of the bill said that young and low income women are particularly vulnerable to being trapped at these clinics. “The women I spoke to [who visited these clinics] all lacked health care insurance and lacked a healthcare provider,” testified Sara Ainsworth, a senior lawyer with Legal Voice. “They were never told that the center didn’t provide abortion or birth control. Women reported being asked to wait from 20 to 40 minutes to an hour and a half for test results [for a three-minute test]. Some were told to wait 12 weeks and see if they miscarried before making a decision [about having an abortion].”
Practicing law without a license is illegal. Shouldn’t practicing medicine without a license also be illegal?
It’s extremely important to obtain proof of your pregnancy in order to qualify for the medical coupon or WIC in this state. That’s why it mattered so much that Adams’s proof of pregnancy was withheld by these nutjobs.
You should have included that context in your story, Cienna.
Why do these jerks want to play God?
God’s got enough to do without their interference.
P.S.: If God didn’t want the pill, it wouldn’t exist.
Soooo………….we’re Christians and that means you can’t sue us?
“I ♥ Pregnancy Resource Centers” seems pretty wordy for a pin.
You can still call your reps and try to make up the difference in support: 1-800-562-6000. Leave a message with your name, address, and the bill in question, Limited Service Pregnancy Center Accountability Act (HB 1366/SB 5274). Or call tomorrow and talk to a human, or call your reps directly.
which are primarily privately funded
It’s not really clear to me, if these centers are not publically funded, why the state would have any control over what they do…since, presumably, you say the women are not forced to go to these centers.
However, you all, as private citizens, are perfectly legal to take some of your salaries and inheritances and fund the equivalent types of centers promoting what you think should be the proper response to those needing pre-natal assistance.
poor poor Jenifer-
her Joyous Event! spoiled…..
(what else could finding out you are pregnant when you have no insurance and no husband be?…pop the cork!!)
5: I heart PRC might make them look like gahdless cahmunists…
@7 The issue isn’t just that they don’t give women proper pre-natal assistant, it’s that they LIE about what they offer. Women don’t have to go to these centers but if they aren’t properly informed as to what they centers offer then they can’t make an informed decision can they? If you are misrepresenting what you do to people to get them in the door that should be FRAUD regardless of what the services involved are.
@7
Everything Medically related is controlled through the state so we don’t have dirty doctors or illegal procedures.
Your private practicioner is a private business but they are under strict regulations about your care.
They should count themselves lucky they can’t be sued for lying about there being anybody to hear your prayers. Seems like if you want the free pass to make shit up that churches get, then sign out front needs to say “church”.
Don’t those anti-choice people work for a living like us pro choicers?
@7
I know it’s your dream to have no regulations & no oversight and everyone can do just as they please. Unfortunately, humans can’t handle this kind of responsibility. The ‘volunteers’ at these centers are the perfect example: they abuse their power. They withhold care based on their close-minded judgments, they betray medical confidentiality, and they lie both by commission and omission.
Sure, it would be great to live in a world of freedom. But as long humans are only interested in the freedom to fuck over everyone else, it will look like the Dark Ages.
@ 13 No. I was at the hearing for this bill last year and the ones attending were all stay-at-home mothers and retirees.
@ 15 Fuck you. With perfect use birth control still fails about 1% of the time, and who wants to use condoms all the time with their long-term partners? And how dare those restaurant workers, bartenders, artists, janitors, administrative assistants, and so forth get pregnant when they have no health insurance?
I say again, sir or madam, fuck you.
We were going to go, but ended up having too much crap to get done today. 🙁
@7 The point. You have missed it.
This pisses my wife off more than it does me, glad that someone is finally doing something about these BS clinics.
its ironic how the “pro-lifers” are so NOT about life when it comes down to it. can’t handle this pregnancy right now? well, honey, just pray that god kills your baby in the first trimester so you don’t have to do it.
seriously.
@15: Fuck you,
@15, @7 Fuck you
this is negligent voodoo healthcare
You get what you pay for. Unless they’re kidnapping these women, they are free to leave with or without their pregnancy test results and head over to a Planned Parenthood instead. Medical advice from non-professionals should be prosecuted; anything short of that is free speech.
You can’t legislate away all douchery. At some point, people, even those in dire situations, have to learn when to say enough is enough and just walk away and find a better place (there’s better free places!).
Newsflash: you can’t be held against your will by timeshare salesmen either.
And we can certainly add rural women to that, can’t we?
“They’re the epitome of good Samaritans.”
What?!? Most Good Samaritans try to get you help, not pass judgment and withhold help.
fuck i was at home smoking weed and working on my next abortion
@15,
If anyone wants to know why we have problems in this country look no further than the individuals who believe health care is a luxury reserved only for the rich and privileged.
@17 – I do. I want to use condoms all the time with my partner who I’ve been with for thirteen years. Don’t want a baby? Be responsible.
Not saying that it’s always effective…I’m sure it’s not.
Also not excusing the other comment. Just arguing against that one point. That’s a lame, ignorant excuse for getting pregnant.
Pro-choice, also…in case that matters.
Withholding for months on end the results of a pregnancy test that takes only minutes to complete is monstrous. Holding the results for up to 12 weeks – in other words, the first trimester – is an obvious tactic to make sure that if the results are positive, the woman can no longer have an abortion performed, or at least make it much more difficult.
Meddling in the lives of others as a method to push your religious beliefs is unconscionable. And of course there’s all the other methods employed that were not mentioned here: exaggerating or fabricating physical damage caused by abortions, misleading women about abortion time frames, etc.
But it’s okay for Christians to lie about what they’re doing and what their goals are, since they’re doing the work of Jeebus at the time, right?
I noticed Larry Stickney of Protect Marriage Washington (the folks behind the opposition to marriage equality and the Domestic Partnership bill that became Referendum 71) in the crowd opposing the bill, just to give some sense of the type of crowd that they’ve assembled here to protect these citadels of reproductive misinformation.
If people are against abortion because they don’t like the idea that women are stupid and make foolish decisions like choosing not to use birth control, well… why do you want them to reproduce? Don’t you think their children would inherit what you envision to be their negative traits? You dislike people who make poor decisions and your solution is to enfore the production of more people who make poor decisions?
Or do you think their children will somehow become republicans or superstar-economy-boosters?
Or are you misogynists?
Or do you just believe that it’s god’s plan to populate the earth with people you can belittle?
If you despise these people… why are you so adamant that they reproduce so that you can despise their offspring?
@31 I think you answered yer own question.
*gotta be hatin’ someone…*
31
People don’t like abortion because it kills innocent helpless babies that society has a moral obligation to protect- if need be even from their parents and physcians sworn to “do no harm”.
Hubert H. Humphrey said: “the moral test of society is how that society treats those who are in the dawn of life, the unborn and children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”
If we start killing kids because their parents are idiots oe assholes, well, that sure would be a slippery slope…..
It’s called Democracy people….
damn, this is a new low.
even for the SlackerStonerSlogSlugs….
a public hearing is held and naturally no hipsters get off their lazy asses to attend but rant and rave about the people who did.
Don’t feel too bad,
Democracy isn’t for everyone.
Seattle liberals may not be cut out for self government.
Perhaps you could appoint Danny your HomoLiberalHumanistHeathenHighPriest
and establish a Theocracy.
Danny could tell you what to think and what to fuck
and you could just sit around all day
Praising Danny!
and smoking pot
and bitching about your itchy discharges….
It ain’t Gommorah but it’s pretty damn close…
17
no
Fuck you….
how dare you lack Faith in Danny?
you filthy heathen pig whore…..
using a Condom = Safe Sex.
what part of SAFE escapes you?
Condoms and
Oral Sex and
Anal Sex and
especially GAY SEX
are 100% FOOLPROOF and SAFE!
Danny Praise His Holey Name has said thus….
after all,
20% of Homosexuals can’t be wrong…..
Jennifer Adams is the poster girl for the Liberal Left.
Her “Joyous Event”?
Finding out she is pregnant. (at a free clinic….)
Extra-specially Joyous because
she is unmarried
and without health insurance.
Why- a Liberal Immaculate Conception!
Mailed and emailed my state legislators. I’ll do the same again today. These centers are out to make women suffer, not help them in their hour of need. I’m so shocked they’re staffed by Christians.
@31-36 Good morning Period Troll! My aren’t we up early today? Tossing and turning with dreams of Dan and Terry wake you up? Well there, there, it’s all good, they’re still married and raising their child. I notice your obsession with Dan has moved into the worship phase. Now while I’m sure Mr. Savage might be a little flattered that you have begun signing all your internet correspondence by Praising His Holy Name, it *is* a bit much don’t you think? Maybe you should just stick to decorating your Trapper Keeper and locker with his picture, and writing “Mr. Period Troll Savage” over and over in your journal. Don’t forget to dot the “I” with a little heart!
@38,
I know, I remember the earlier back-and-forth as well. But your post at 15 required my post at 27 to balance the universe or something, something…
I wholeheartedly agree that people should make better decisions. In particular, our elected officials and representatives should make the better decision to provide good, accessible, health care, birth control, and reproductive information and planning to everyone, and should also make the decision to ban religious fucks from shaming and misleading people who make mistakes because they are uninformed and uneducated.
Once those decisions have been made and are at work, then I will shift the responsibility hat more towards those who are still making mistakes even after being informed and educated.
@38 So your solution to abortion is education. That sounds pretty good.
@ 33
Au contraire, people don’t like abortion because it means women have bodily autonomy. They may think it’s because it’s about killing babies, but it’s really because they hate women. Quite simple, really.
“Good Samaritans” my ass. Good Samaritans provide help to those who need it, and what these centers provide is the opposite of help. It’s just a bunch of psychological bullying dressed up in the trappings of medicine that justifies itself by religion. If these centers did go out of business as a result of this bill being passed, it’d be cause for celebration. If those volunteers really believed in Jesus and what he taught, they’d be using their time and resources to help the poor instead of bullying pregnant women.
@34 — Are you sure you understand how democracy works?
The scariest line in this article is, “opponents of the bill reportedly outnumbered proponents four to one.”
45
well,
lets see-
who outnumbered whom 4 to 1?
yeah.
we think we understand……
Last I checked a pregnancy test in a drugstore was hardly on a purchase scale with a car or monthly rent. If women don’t want the lecture or feel uncomfortable in a FREE service, they have every right to leave and drive to Walgreens.
@33
What is this? Political ideology meets Mad Libs? You just get to fill in terms regardless of the context or any actual facts? Cool. My brothers and I used to do that on long car trips. Let me guess, your next game is license plate bingo, right?
@41
With all due respect, I’m unsure if any government program or even an act of God could educate a 30 year old woman living with a man who doesn’t understand how someone gets pregnant. Any assumption that a girl past the age of 14 doesn’t understand the role of condoms or the pill in her sexual life is just not supported by the social facts.
As for the person at 17, there’s an easy answer to your question. Who wants to use condoms in a long term relationship? Anyone who wants not to have children. Easy, isn’t it? And yes, a janitor or restaurant worker who can’t afford the costs of bearing and raising a child has no business getting pregnant, whether this is because they have no health insurance or because their income won’t support a child.
You no more have a right to be a parent than you have a right to health care.
@46
What opponents are worried about is replacing one group of zealots with another. Instead of having a religious group stalling pregnancy test results, you would have folks playing witch hunt with any religious charity based on their own malice.
Here’s the key thing- the service is free. And it takes no government money to be free. If someone dislikes it, they can leave and go somewhere else.
@47: Just because Christian activists don’t have jobs don’t mean they’re a majority.
question to the pro-lifers here: where do you stand on providing health care to the non-citizen children of immigrants here in washington?
What? Are you really that crazy?
Who in charge of handing out the right to be a parent? Does Obama do that?
@48: Ah what a sweet little black and white world you do live in SB. Wouldn’t it be lovely if poor people could just be made to forego any personal needs and desires, put their heads down, and CHEERFULLY workworkwork, only being allowed to breed enough to replace their numbers in the factories, while the shining lights of intellect (dare I say Alphas?) such as your self, ruled as benevolent despots.
@51: Yes, he really is that crazy.