Before the ass-crack of dawn this morning, I stood waiting with 100 people outside the capitol for today’s hearing on Senate Bill 5274, which seeks to impose minimal disclosure and privacy standards on limited-service pregnancy centers. It was my first Senate hearing. While Cienna Madrid focused her reporting on the hearing itself, I was eager to talk to people opposing the bill who hadn’t been groomed to testify.
- The sweet, sweet ride of a “life-affirming specialist.”
What I found was that people opposed to the bill seemed uninformed about how limited pregnancy centers actually function.
“They’re taking the crisis out of ‘crisis mode’,” a woman named Sherri Johnson from Longview, Washington, told me. When I asked what she meant by this, she replied, “These centers remind women about faith. Faith is a key component to pregnancy, and that’s what women who have abortions lack.” Johnson said she couldn’t speak more specifically on the pregnancy centers because she’d never been in one—she’d just traveled from Longview to support her church group.
Other opponents seemed confused about the funding that some of the centers get. “[They] are not costing the government a penny,” argued Martha Hayden, a sweet old woman I sat next to in the Senate Gallery. She’s wrong. Many limited-service pregnancy centers do receive public money through funding for abstinence-only sex education.
Hayden sported an “I (heart) Pregnancy Resource Centers” button with pride, as most opponents of the bill did, and she had nothing but glowing things to say about limited-service pregnancy centers—even though she’d never used their services. When I asked her about the claims that some of the centers withhold patients’ pregnancy tests, she replied, “I don’t think there’s a problem with that.”
“I don’t think there’s a problem with that” was a popular response to my questions. In so many words, people didn’t see a problem with centers withholding information from women—from pregnancy and STI tests to basic birth control information. It’s frightening that these people can argue against restrictions on pregnancy centers while simultaneously failing to acknowledge that their views and methodologies severely restrict women’s health care options.
When I asked Hayden about women who come to the clinics and ultimately seek abortion care elsewhere, Hayden simply said, “These women can get their lives turned around and become viable, usable people in our society.”
Most of the bill’s opponents probably identify as pro-life. But if the centers remain unregulated, they could prevent women from accessing prenatal care through their practice of withholding pregnancy test results. In Washington, women cannot access assistance with prenatal care through Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) without the results of a positive pregnancy test. According to Dr. Kate McLean, “A delay in prenatal care can lead to an increase in maternal and infant death.”
Intentionally delaying prenatal care isn’t exactly in lockstep with all that concern for the unborn. The centers are, arguably, putting the health of fetuses, not to mention women, at risk—that’s why passing this legislation is so important.
May I insert my faith into your vagina? I promise to take it out before it squirts all over.
Okay, now where can I get a “I ♥ Heathen Sluts” t-shirt?
Every sperm is sacred, Ballard Pimp.
Poor, poor Unpaid Intern! I want to FedEx you some bleach and a hazmat suit, in case you need to go back there…
Seriously, think about this: Those people you interviewed, those are all of our “peers.” If you ever go to trial, they could sit on your jury. If your kid is in school, they could be the PTA. They are as dumb as a bucket of nuts, and they are determining your rights. Sweet Jesus.
When is the next meeting? My wife is 100% pro-choice and were trying to have a kid. She often doesnt have to work until 10am and watching a movie like 12th and Deleware enraged her, she was glued to the documentary from start to finish, including the credits.
Im pretty sure she would be down to attend these hearings and would be vocal. Shes the type of girl who was kicked out of the girl scouts because she refused to take part in group prayer.
*Facepalm*
What a fucking scumbag.
@5: Well, to be fair, much of their business probably comes as the direct result of abstinence-only education. It’s only right that’s where the money should come from.
nice reporting. more interviews with the faithful!
@8 more interviews with the close-minded and uninformed! FTFY
More of this would be both entertaining and horrifying to read. Mostly the latter.
@6: I assume by that she means “women who raise lots of white Christian Republican-voting children”, and not, you know, community organizers or social workers or doctors who work in low-income areas or anything else that might actually be viable and/or usable in our society.
Or “women who post-abortion will be extremely regretful and willing to publicly express that on behalf of pro-life organizations.”
@7,
True, but of course, it only compounds the problem.
So first, my tax money goes towards deceiving kids about reproduction, then when – surprise, surprise!!! – they get pregnant, my tax money goes towards deceiving women about their pregnancy and options.
For fuck’s sake, please somebody tell me that the abstinence-only program is going to be axed (or already has been). I would rather those dollars go towards the fucking military than abstinence-only “education.”
“Viable, usable people.”
Damn. Just…. damn.
So, how about a disclosure rule that makes these people offering “testimony” admit that none of them have ever been in a crisis pregnancy center, much less been a “client” of one, and that they are merely regurgitating lines fed to them by their church leaders?
I’m with @6 and @13. What a vile thing to say.
I find it somewhat ironic that unpaid intern, an unapologetic conservative, finds it strange that fellow conservatives are politically ignorant, ill-informed mouth pieces for conservative propaganda. Maybe his eyes opened a little today, but I doubt it.
@16:
Are you sure you aren’t talking about the OLD unpaid intern? If so, he’s long gone.
@16: New intern dude. Matt has gone on to conquer Somalia if I’m not mistaken.
This is the result of pouring tax money into the hands of religious fanatics. A lot of fucking nonsense!
@19- Last time the USA poured a bunch of money into religious fanaticism we kicked the Russians ASS! And created the Taliban.
Remember to write your legislators!
I was at the hearing…….I want to comment at the sweet little faith based women who said “I don’t think there’s a problem with that”….I don’t think there’s a problem with them adhering to the bill if they claim to already do it!!!!!! I am pro-choice, haven’t needed an abortion but believe it is a women’s right!
On another note WASHINGTON, OUR SENATORS acted childish and disrespectful, (minus 3 men who acted civil and respectable)–I was astonished at the way they sat on their bench making snide remarks, whispering and glaring at the PRO CHOICE testimonies….Unbelievable that a senate was put in her place by another senate for acting like a 3rd grader…Gregoire needs to fund the house with AA meetings!!!!!!!!!
I’m all for transparency, and I’m totally against people being herded away from choice, but a sign that reads “Pregnancy Care Center” with “Life Affirming Specialist” gives most people a pretty good clue what that joint’s about, doesn’t it?
Still, the sign should clearly state that the center is anti-choice.
The Clueless Liberal Hipster stood and prayed thus with herself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other people are, ignorant, pro-life, squares, or even as this publican…..
@23 A sign that reads pregnancy care center should offer pregnancy care – not delay prenatal care to make some bullshit religious point.
25
and killing a baby is “care”?…..
“The centers are, arguably, putting the health of fetuses, not to mention women, at risk—that’s why passing this legislation is so important.”
Yes, not to mention the women. Fetus health; WAY more important.
Sorry, feeling snarky, what with this shit and HR3.
“I don’t think there’s a problem with that” – This is totally unsurprising. Many conservative people are completely down with the “I want you to do what I want and I don’t care if I have to lie to you to get it” style.
See: masturbation causes blindness, kissing can make you pregnant, homosexuality is contagious, sex is dirty (only if you do it right), condoms don’t work, virginity is sacred, ad nauseum.