My first pregnancy scare happened when I was 19. The night before leaving for a six-month trip to France, I had farewell sex with my boyfriend using a novelty condom of Gene Simmons’s tongue. Long story short, Gene Simmons’s tongue broke. (I’ve always hated KISS.) Early the next morning, I boarded a plane and prayed to the merciful loins of sweet baby Jesus—like atheists sometimes do when they’re scared shitless and circumstances are spinning beyond their control—that I wouldn’t get pregnant.
Three weeks later, my period was two weeks late. I didn’t want to tell my boyfriend or mother—there was little they could do for me besides worry along. I didn’t feel comfortable confiding in my devoutly Catholic host family (also, I was in France, so I was functionally mute and only semiliterate). I scoured the small supermarché in the tiny town where I lived but saw nothing resembling a pregnancy test. What I needed to find was the French equivalent of Planned Parenthood.
So I looked up the French word for “pregnant” in a phone book and jotted down a business in a neighboring town with a question mark in the ad. After class, I took a bus 20 minutes through the French countryside to a slightly larger tiny town to see if I could get a pregnancy test. When I entered the establishment, three women looked up and greeted me kindly. One spoke perfect English. I teared up. She shuffled me into a small room, where on one wall I noticed a cherubic baby Jesus smirking at me from high atop a cloud. She closed the door and asked me to take a seat. Jesus, the woman, and I sized each other up, and I wondered, What fresh hell is this?
I’d accidentally walked into a Christian adoption center instead of a medical clinic. When I told the woman that I wouldn’t be giving any potential babies up for adoption—because I’d be getting an abortion—she refused to direct me to a doctor who could administer a pregnancy test.
Luckily, I found a pharmacy in town after I left the adoption center. After a macabre game of charades that involved mangling the French words for “pregnant,” “baby,” and “blood” while gesturing enthusiastically at my vagina, I was able to locate and buy a pregnancy test. I took it in a public restroom.
It came back negative.
For that woman at the Christian adoption center, it was more important to deny medical access that might conflict with her religious views than to help a scared teenager with no support system find the services she needed. That was the Christian thing to do.
This is what people at limited service pregnancy centers do every day with smiles on their faces. There are at least 46 such pregnancy centers in Washington State—and, to some degree, they do great work. They offer free baby clothes, diaper services, and parenting classes to many poor, young mothers.
But for women unwilling to become young mothers—nervous women who are lured into the centers for their advertised free pregnancy tests—visiting these centers can be traumatic. On their websites, brochures, and business signs, many advertise themselves as medical clinics, not Christian pregnancy centers. “Medical Clinic,” read many of their business signs, followed by “Free Pregnancy and STI Testing.”
But none of these centers are medical clinics—they’re not medically licensed with the state. They’re largely staffed by volunteers, not nurses or doctors, and their services are far from comprehensive. Some of the centers offer sexually transmitted infection testing or ultrasounds (no diagnostic analysis, just moody pictures of your insides) but no other medical care. None of them provide information about or access to birth control or condoms (just abstinence and Jesus). When you visit their websites or call to make an appointment, it’s rarely made clear that these are Christian organizations. Based on anecdotal evidence, only occasionally do they voluntarily disclose before appointments that they’re opposed to abortion and won’t refer women to providers who offer those services.
In big cities like Tacoma and Seattle, many are strategically located next to Planned Parenthoods and real medical centers that do practice the full spectrum of women’s health, including abortions. In small towns, these centers are often the nearest option for women seeking a free pregnancy test. Either way, countless women mistakenly enter these pregnancy centers seeking medical care. What they get instead is an over-the-counter pregnancy test and inaccurate sermons on the horrors of abortion.
Women’s advocacy groups have lobbied the Washington State Legislature for the last two years to approve a bill that would make it clear to women what services these centers do—and don’t—provide. The bill would require pregnancy centers to inform patients up front that they’re powered by the Lord, not science. They don’t provide medical care, they oppose any birth control except for abstinence, and they refuse to offer abortion referrals to women seeking those services. If the women’s advocacy groups get their way, the “medical center” staff would have to verbally disclose these basic facts before an appointment, as well as prominently post signs in the main languages spoken in that county (think Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, or Vietnamese, as well as English).
But religious activists have been organizing to block the bill again, after killing a similar bill last year that included a requirement that centers provide “medically accurate information” to women. Religious activists blocked that bill on the grounds that it impeded their free speech rights—specifically, their right to say that HIV flies through condoms like “rice through a tennis racket,” for example, as one center reportedly told a client according to Planned Parenthood.
This year, anti-abortionists have two arguments: one, that the legislation goes too far. “If a patient is allowed to bring a special civil suit because they’re unhappy with an interaction, that’s an impossible goal to meet,” testified Anita Showalter, the director of Life Choices of Yakima. Showalter said the goal of her organization is to “support women,” but then described the bill’s language requirement—put there so that patients understand the kind of care they’d be getting—as “unduly burdensome.” They argue the bill would put religious pregnancy centers (primarily privately funded) out of business by allowing women to press charges against centers in superior court if they don’t follow the law.
Their second argument is that the bill isn’t necessary—they already disclose their Christian roots and, even though they don’t refer for abortion, they’re happy to discuss abortion and respect a woman’s right to choose it. “The center laid out all of my options, including adoption, keeping the baby, and abortion,” testified Amy Thayer, a woman who got pregnant at age 17, at the bill’s hearing in the state house’s Health Care and Wellness Committee. Thayer decided to keep her baby after visiting a pregnancy center in Centralia.
But how, exactly, are the pregnancy centers presenting these options? Who’s the victim here—the centers or the women who unwittingly enter them looking for comprehensive medical services?
I‘m sitting on a baby blanket covered with dancing bears and staring at six plastic fetuses curled in brightly colored plastic wombs. I’m trying not to fidget or accidentally flip anyone off as a beautiful woman named Diane, the director of the Care Net pregnancy center in Gig Harbor, asks me a series of personal questions about my medical background and religious leanings (she stresses I don’t have to answer any questions that make me uncomfortable).
I’m taking a crash course in pregnancy centers with the help of Megan Burbank, my incredibly intelligent, long-suffering, unpaid intern. Over the space of a week, Megan and I take pregnancy tests at six centers in Bellingham, Olympia, Tacoma, and the Seattle area. We don’t lie—neither of us ever says we’re pregnant. We just request pregnancy tests.
Gig Harbor is my first stop. I’m nervous. Also, I’m a little baffled by Diane’s line of questioning. She’s asking about my drug and alcohol use, about my partner’s drug and alcohol use, if I have a good emotional support system in my life, how long I’ve been in a relationship, and if he beats me. These are the kinds of questions I would expect from a medical professional, but Diane is “just a mom and a Christian.” (She does introduce me to a nurse in the hallway.) I have no idea why a pregnancy center that doesn’t offer medical services would need to collect such information, but I answer honestly.
“Can you describe your relationship with God for me?” Diane says.
“Superstitious.”
She presses me to elaborate.
“I pray to God when my period’s late and when I’m scratching Lotto tickets.”
She nods and scribbles a note on my “chart.” I imagine it reads “heathen.”
“And what are your plans if you find out you’re pregnant today?”
“I will likely get an abortion.”
Diane then asks if she can share her experiences with pregnancy and motherhood, and I consent. I admire her honesty, but her personal narrative doesn’t sway my resolve. She then asks if I’d like more information about abortion before I commit to such a weighty decision. Maybe I’d like to watch a video that outlines all my options—motherhood, adoption, and abortion—while I wait for my pregnancy test results?
“Sure.”
I go to a bathroom and pee in a cup while staring at a poster of “A Woman’s Monthly Carousel.” I worry a secret worry that I could actually be pregnant. When I return to the room, it seems that the fetuses have been rearranged to all stare at me with their dark, blank panda eyes, and Choice of a Lifetime is queued on the television. Diane is gone. The video informs me that if I have an abortion, my chances of dying within the year are four times greater than if I chose to keep the pregnancy. If I make it through that year alive, according to the video, my risk of getting breast cancer is likely to “increase by 50 percent.” If, down the road, I do decide to have children, I might not be able to bond with them. I could also suffer for years from post-abortion syndrome (a condition dismissed by the American Psychological Association) that may lead me to contemplate suicide.
Then a woman on the video recounts her experience of getting an abortion after being forcibly raped. She says it was easier to forgive her rapist than to forgive herself for getting an abortion because “I did that to myself.” The not-so-subtle subtext of the video: Have the baby. Keep it, put it up for adoption, give it to a pack of wolves to raise—anything is better than having an abortion.
Maybe it’s working, because I’m genuinely panicking about the results of my pregnancy test. I’m probably not pregnant; I use birth control. But if you’re sexually active, there’s always the risk of pregnancy.
If you don’t want to be pregnant—if you’re not expecting it—even confronting that risk can be traumatic.
This is the first pregnancy test I’ve taken since France. I’m praying for another negative test now, in this tiny room in Gig Harbor, but my anxiety is increasing. I come from a long line of fertile alcoholics. Diane hasn’t returned in 20 minutes. Processing the test takes three minutes. The video is long over.
All I’m thinking about is how I can’t have a baby. I’m poor and irresponsible. I can’t even remember to feed parking meters. I’d have to give up my collection of antique meat cleavers and light sockets. I want a scratch ticket to busy my sweating hands.
Diane walks back in and takes a seat next to me on the couch and shows me the results.
Having a Christian loudly announce that you’re not pregnant is a rich, rare gift, sweeter than birthday cake. I tear up. We hug.
Only half of the six pregnancy centers Megan and I visit during our weeklong pregnancy test spree disclose over the phone that they don’t perform or refer for abortions. None mention that they’re Christian-run clinics. “We do not discriminate, judge, or lecture,” says a woman with Whatcom County Pregnancy Clinic, a crisis pregnancy center in Bellingham, when I pointedly ask if the organization is Christian and if they refer for abortions. She dodges the referral question, saying only, “Come in and take a free test. It’ll only take a minute and then we can discuss your options.”
Christ is waiting in the waiting rooms—Bibles, crosses, and Reader’s Digests everywhere. But by the time women are in those waiting rooms, most have already committed to an appointment, which is the goal.
At every center, Megan and I are faithfully given false information about abortions that is presented as fact. Their statistics come from debunked medical studies, the conservative Medical Institute, and Focus on the Family.
After receiving years of testimony from women who visited the centers and were given false medical information by the volunteer staff, the organizations Planned Parenthood Votes! and Legal Voice, a Washington-based women’s law center, spent two years investigating these limited service pregnancy centers. In January, after gathering the input they’d received, the groups released a report on the deceptive practices the centers employ.
Their findings are a more detailed, thorough look at what Megan and I anecdotally encountered. According to the allegations, women were subjected to inappropriately long wait periods for pregnancy test results and were provided false or misleading information about abortion, birth control, pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections. The report concludes that the centers “provide inaccurate information designed to delay women from making decisions about how to handle unintended pregnancy.”
The centers often won’t give women their results in writing, which they need to qualify for medical coupons or Women, Infants, and Children programs in Washington. They refuse to issue referrals for services they can’t provide and morally object to. And when women visit these centers, they have no guarantee that their medical information will be kept private—again, the centers aren’t obliged to follow standard HIPAA privacy regulations because they’re not medically licensed businesses.
It was hard to visit these centers and not remember crying in a French bathtub at age 19, convinced I was pregnant. In times of personal crisis, it’s hard to critically challenge where “facts” are coming from—especially if the person presenting them is kind and matronly and she hugs you and fetches apple juice. A woman who is emotionally overwhelmed and doesn’t quite know what she’s getting into is pretty easy to dupe. She might not question “facts” like the “fact” that abortion leads to suicidal thoughts, breast cancer, infertility, and death for many women. She won’t be able to forgive herself. Even rape victims aren’t able to forgive themselves.
It’s so rare for someone who isn’t in over her head—who asks informed questions or challenges these “facts”—to walk into these places that the volunteers become immediately suspicious of women like, well, me and Megan. When we politely challenged them and asked lots of questions, they asked if we were “spies from Planned Parenthood.” Happened more than once. Those meetings quickly ended. 
Megan Burbank contributed reporting to this story.
I am anti-choice and lucky enough to live in a country where the law reflects my views. But these places sound truly awful. It is a shame that the people who need this information most are least likely to read your article 🙁
@10: “I think the reason that they resort to these tactics is that they believe they are preventing murder. If i thought i was going to prevent a murder i would have no problem lying, cajoling, misleading or even bullying somebody. I hope that most people feel that way.”
Scientologists bully, lie to, murder, and lock people up in internment camps because they think that psychologists are evil.
“I hope that most people feel that way”.
First Number 11, you have to realize, that most of the “christian” women who work for these centers are the same women who do choose to adopt, foster, and travel around the globe to help children, women, and families. I don’t see too many feminists doing this same thing. As for being licensed and following HIPPA laws. Abortion clinics are not licensed either, only the doctors are…same for the pregnancy clinics. Most of the women working in these clinics have been helped by the same clinics at some point in time, or they themselves have had abortions. They do NOT consider women who choose abortions murderers. They understand first hand the feelings of guilt and remorse that can come from these choices, all Three choices. These women working for these clinics and doctors and nurses, volunteer their time because of the deep love they feel for the women and the choices that lie ahead. It isn’t to “force” a woman NOT to choose what she feels is right, but to make a fully informed decision and to fully have the ability to talk out anything she wants. a 99.7% approval rating is higher than just about ANY clinic that is out there. And I think the doctors and nurses that work for free would beg to differ that the pregnancy centers are not medical. All information is completely upfront that they do NOT and will NOT perform abortions or refer for abortions. I think Even Megan Burbank would tell you that she had to initial every line that states all of these facts before being seen. I think we are also failing to remember that although many women regret NOT having an abortion, How many more regret Having had an abortion? I think maybe it’s a case of the grass is always greener on the other side. Maybe this is why the centers seem to stress abstinence. Is it not true that this is the only 100% effective way to not get pregnant or an STI or STD? It is hard to fight that fact. Some seem to think that we as humans are animalistic in our behaviors and cannot choose to abstain from sexual activity. It is an easy excuse to just say it is my body and I can do with it as I please. Yes it is, and no one is telling you otherwise, but there are MANY consequences to making this decision. Yes you can use birth control, But you and I know that it isn’t 100% effective, and most young or immature women don’t take it like they are supposed to therefore way less than 100% effective. Yes condoms are available and do help cut down the risk of STI’s considerably but these too aren’t used properly or effectively too much of the time. And then (even though most will disagree) there is a HUGE personal side of giving yourself away, to whomever you please. I don’t care who you are, if you are completely honest with yourself, every time you have gone to bed with someone you barely knew you will wake up and regret it to some extent at some point, if not the next day.
@havingbeenthere…
I couldn’t disagree more with your characterization of my sex life.
Thanks for the article, research and visiting these centers. I’m spreading the word!
As a Catholic, I’ve listened to the “pro-life” glurge all my life.(and it is glurge: worse than an early 70’s feminine deodorant commercial)
The fact remains: if a woman doesn’t want to have a baby, she shouldn’t have to. If nothing else, she should get accurate information about whether or not she’s pregnant, and what all her options are under the truth in advertising and consumer protection laws.
If we as a nation really cared about the unborn, we’d have universal health care, and adequately funded public schools. But we’re just a bunch of cheapskate prudes, willing to put up with BS like these pregnancy centers in order for us to feel superior and judgemental over women in tough circumstances.
Chalk me up as a woman who chose to give her baby away to a good family, who is satisfied, even happy, with the results of her decision, but who, in retrospect, wishes she had chosen to abort.
That’s right. I wish I had aborted the baby instead of bearing her and giving her up for adoption. Maybe now I wouldn’t be cursed with the physical changes of having a baby and giving her up (I had no follow-up care; the adoption agency dropped me like a hot brick after they had what they wanted from me), the social repercussions of being publicly pregnant, of losing my good job because of it, of having to tell future serious boyfriends I bore a child by another man and gave it away…
Excellent article on a truly appalling set of practices.
Excellent article.
Whoops, double post. FORGIIIIIVE MEEEEEE!!!!!
@125
“@118, They never said to me “I would prefer my child was dead,” they say “I would prefer never having had gone through it at all.” They’re saying they wish they never had a child at all, not that they wish they had a child and that child subsequently died. Yes, it is most certainly complicated. And it’s most certainly not a black and white, “you’re either 100% for it or 100% against it” situation either.” I felt, and still feel, very bad for both of them. Just from knowing them, I know they suffered a lot from their experiences.”
Thank you for clarifying this. I’m sorry that they are still suffering from their decison — it must have been such a heart wrenching one. I absolutely understand wanting the whole thing not to have happened.
That sort of situation is why my currently 1.5 year old daughter (and any subsequent children, male or female) will be reading “Cycle Savvy” http://tinyurl.com/4vec9l9 at age 9 or 10 and giving me a full report on it, as well as attending http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Whole_L… . I’m not under the illusion that we could prevent all unwanted pregnancies with better education about the emotional and physical aspects of sex, but I think it would be a good start.
@TheLiberator: “As to the clump of cells argument, in as little as 12 weeks from conception, the baby has fingers, toes, a beating heart, and brain activity. In any other environment that is considered life, but the abortionists consistently deny it as life.”
I agree: “that clump of cells” is a life, and technically it is human. But I disagree to the idea that it is a human person, with all the rights we usually consider part of what a human is. At the stages of development where abortions are usually carried out (about 90% of abortions in the US are performed within the first trimester, or 12 weeks, of the pregnancy), the embryo is simply not developed enough. Sure, there’s brain activity there by week 12, as you say, but there’s brain activity in cows as well (now, if you’re a vegan, and opposed to the slaughter of animals as well, then we’ll have to disagree, and I’ll applaud your internal consistency even if I disagree with your conclusions. Actually, come to think of it, vegans should probably all be anti-abortionists).
A topic that seems not to be raised too often when it comes to abortions is the difference between early and late abortions. There’s a very large difference in the development of a foetus from 10 weeks to 16 to 20 weeks. I am against late-stage abortions on request, and with what I know of foetal development, I think the laws used many places in Europe, where abortion is only freely available for the first trimester, strikes a good balance between choice and life. I could agree to 16 weeks, but allowing abortions without a sound medical reason beyond that stage is starting to stretch it. At 20 weeks, the foetus is possibly able to feel pain (though that is a debated topic), and at 21, it is technically viable (though the chances of survival at 21 weeks is really small). I’d prefer if there was a little bit of a safety margin on these numbers, so 12-16 weeks seems good.
@Thomas…
The necessary corollary to limiting late-term abortions is increasing access. Unfortunately, the majority of late-term abortions that are not medically necessary are often late-term because the woman has hit obstacle after obstacle in trying to get the procedure done. Most notably, women are often “chasing the fee”… while they try to scrape up the money for an abortion, the price increases weekly as the pregnancy progresses.
Here’s an excellent article on late-term abortions, and the myriad circumstances that lead to them:
http://abortiongang.org/2010/07/what-eve…
Feature article: Fact or Fiction?
Really, Cienna? Really? Did you really go to the Gig Harbor Center first that day?
Did you really watch a video in the Gig Harbor Center?
Did you actually hear the director tell you about her pregnancy and the wonders of motherhood?
Did you really have to wait 20 minutes for your pregnancy test results?
Fact: If you were a patient at a center, because of confidentiality promised to a woman, those involved would not be able to disprove or prove what happened during an appointment. The center staff would keep its promise even if the patient told the world that events happened in ways that they didn’t.
Fact: The Care Net Centers of Puget Sound: Lakewood, Tacoma, Gig Harbor, Federal Way, Puyallup and Kenmore are licensed under board certified OB/GYNs as pregnancy medical clinics and have over 32 medical professionals providing medical services in the centers. Their licensure is with the physicians just like Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics or family planning clinics. These centers follow all applicable laws including OSHA, HIPAA,and CLIA.
Googling Megan Burbank shows that she is a member of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington and other sources state that Cienna was at the hearings in Olympia supporting Planned Parenthood who is behind this bill to regulate pregnancy centers.
So, as interesting as this topic is, and as many comments as it has generated, this writer did not check her facts before writing this article which seems truly intolerant against centers whose main purpose is not to be a family planning clinic or an abortion clinic. These pregnancy medical clinics are for those women who wish to continue their pregnancies and need help and an extensive referral network to support them in their Choice for continuing their pregnancies and either parenting or placing their children for adoption.
@124 You bring up some good points. Again, I am not a physician and defer the decision about what to inform a woman regarding possible risks that may be associated with their reproductive choices to the physicians who are responsible for their care.
@offfwhite: Agreed there. Abortions should, and indeed would have to be, be easily available in the first trimester, so that one could indeed practically be able to have one as early as possible.
Please don’t “clump” all of us Christians into Hate mongers who are only in the business we are in to save some “cells” that are growing in womens bodies. We actually have a DEEP appreciation for the women themselves. As for my self, I have been on every side of this issue and as I have grown I have completely changed my entire life. IF only we could “convince” you of the miraculous difference in our lives AFTER finding the truth in God it would be astonishing. I wasn’t raised christian, I didn’t believe it, thought it was all fraudulent. I even fought on the abortion rights advocates side at one time. Finding myself pregnant at 19, I was referred to, at the time, Crisis Pregnancy centers. They did NOT force anything down my throat, in fact they were the only place that treated me like a friend rather than a “patient”, but they did give sound advice. I never forgot that place. But they had no influence, overall, on my eventual Christ following. Later in life everything changed. I completely “woke up”,I understand the position you are looking at it through You feel I “fell asleep” but you couldn’t be further from the truth. I went on to have one more daughter and adopt a son from the foster care system at two days old. They are amazing. Best of all my son was born FROM a drug addicted mother, who tried unsuccessfully to abort him. He is here without a single side effect. He is a straight A student and the best thing that ever happened to our lives. Please don’t tell us that we DON’T understand, when you REALLY Don’t understand at all. I can completely remember seeing it from all of “your” perspectives, and I Clearly see how WRONG that was. But I don’t intend to change your minds here. I am just stating the facts. Without a belief in God or the bible, there is Nothing wrong with the feelings you have, You can’t be held accountable for something you don’t truly understand.
I have Such a HUGE respect for women, and I WISH none of them would choose abortion, BUT I still realize it is 100% their decision. It is absolutely heartbreaking that 1 of 2 babies are aborted in King County, and 1of3 in Pierce. All I can tell you is that working with these girls first hand I have YET to find ONE that was using birth control consistently…NOT ONE that was using it while she got pregnant. NONE Use condoms on a regular basis. So it pretty much is being left to abortions being used as a form of birth control, yet none of the advocates seem to think anyone would choose this form of birth control. Tell that to the women that have had 3-10 abortions. I think even they would differ.
Since most of the NARAL and planned parenthood activist’s believe in freedom of speech and the right to choose, why don’t you just let the clinics exist? This is giving thousands of women a CHOICE..the choice to go somewhere that Has NEVER once Hurt someone physically..Yet you fight for abortion clinics that hurt women daily, physically and mentally. Some women will never regret the abortions they had but FAR more will.
I would like to answer your post, havingbeenthere, from the end to the beginning. Let me preface this by stating that I am not from the US, so some of my knowledge on the subject of US culture when it comes to these things may be lacking.
First, it’s not their right to exist that is being attacked. As several people have pointed out, these clinics do indeed do good in some areas, and they’re supposedly an excellent resource for women who choose to keep their baby (I can’t really comment on that, as I have no experience with them, but I do believe this to be true). What they are attacking is the fact that at least some of the pregnancy centers (1) operate under a sort of false flag concept, where they are not up-front about their pro-life leanings, and (2) use outdated medical/scientific studies as propaganda to scare the women visiting them away from having an abortion. If these centers gave medically correct and balanced advice, but still were adamant on their stance on abortion, they would, in my book and most but the most extreme pro-choicers, be entirely accepted. It is the deception that at least some of these centers use as a tactic to scare women away from abortion (as opposed to trying to convince them with sound arguments) that we find despicable.
The lack of use of birth control is indeed a big problem, but I don’t think it’s one that is directly linked to the availability of abortion. What pro-choice activists mean when they say “no women use abortion as their primary form of birth control” is that very few women thinks that way. They don’t go “meh, let’s not use a condom, if I get pregnant, I can just have an abortion”. What they think is more along the lines of “I’m in my safe period now, I won’t get pregnant” or “it’s not really going to happen to me”, if they think about it at all (having been on an alcohol binge or two myself, I can safely state that if you’re drunk enough, you’re in no state to make responsible decisions). They delude themselves into thinking they won’t become pregnant, and when they discover, a couple of weeks later, that they are, they fall to abortion as their way out.
What is needed is better education about birth control, as well as having it cheaply available (which, in the case of condoms, I suppose it really is). Abstinence-only sex education leads to lack of knowledge about safe sex, and while it may well cause a slight reduction in sexual activity among teens and young adults, those that do engage in sex engage in risiker sex, leading both to more STDs and unwanted pregnancies.
As for your comments regarding christianity, I can’t really say much about that, so I won’t. I will say that the Bible is somewhat muddier regarding the question of abortion than what most churches tend to teach. For example, according to the mosaic laws, causing a woman to miscarry is punishable by a fine as determined by the judges (Exodus 21:22). If the woman dies, however, it’s considered murder and capital punishment is to be dealt out.
In fact, there are several American churches that are pro-choice, and don’t find the Bible to condemn abortion.
Perhaps somone should look into the Christian adoption agency practices – including ‘unwed’ mothers homes. Big business that focuses upon the profitable outcome instead of the woman in crisis.
Well well…who is the one that is fake? Cienna!
the center who is truthful and kind. That takes no government funds and supported by volunteers or the fake client who distorts, judges others and lies!
Good article. I would have liked to hear more detail about the other centers visited.
For someone who basically agrees with the main points of this article, I couldn’t even finish it because the tone/writing style was so insufferable.
Should these centers disclose what they are right away? Absolutely.
Is it ok that they try to pass themselves off as medical centers or push blatantly untrue facts about abortion on pregnant women? Absolutely not, and this should be written into law.
Should Cienna Madrid try to tone down the self-righteousness just a bit, and not characterize all Christians as liars and condescending assholes? Perhaps. You know the only thing as obnoxious than a self-righteous, know-it-all, fundamentalist Christian? Someone of the same personality type who builds her identity around being a bad-ass, enlightened, sex-having victim/rebel against “Christians”. This could have been a great piece of journalism if it had been written by just about anyone else.
I guess the moral of the story is don’t be a sleazebag, slut of a whore and your life will be better. Wow, who ever thought it could be that simple.
Having heard about these “crisis” pregnancy centers for a long time, I’m glad this article made the community fore aware of them. Capitalizing on a woman in a bad situation is painful to think about, I’m a BIG fan of planned parenthood for this reason. Informative and understanding. Being a Liberal Catholic i do sometimes take offense to people categorically defining christians as conservative, deceptive, closed minded individuals, I have no problem with a womans right to choose. If I were a young woman in a situation I couldnt handle, I absolutely would choose termination of pregnancy.
Great idea for an article, well done.
My question is – what is the percentage of women (who would seek an answer to whether they are pregnant or not) who would use these “services” as opposed to buying a kit in a grocery store? Granted, the store-bought ones may not be 100% accurate but still.
@176
It’s not just the pregnancy test most clients are seeking, but options counseling and information as to “What next?” if the test is positive. Also, many have already used an OTC test and know they are pregnant, but most clinics (crisis pregnancy center and comprehensive clinics) will perform their own test to confirm.
This is for the scumbag who lied about about only 3% of planned parenthood’s funding coming from abortion. That is a lie and the fact that you and anyone associated with you believes that is insanity, please give a source. The mere fact that you would try to mitigate abortion proves your misgivings about killing a silent and underdeveloped human. Why not extend child killing rights to 9 month out-of-the-womb babies as they are not fully developed humans?
Just in case you come back in France: it’s called Planning Familial.
Lying weakens their position immensely from a moral standpoint. Basically, if you feel you have the moral high ground (“preventing the murder of babies”), there is zero reason to lie about condom effectiveness, the psychological effects of abortion, invent spurious claims of cancers, etc. You already have the argument that you feel trumps everything else (“babies!”). The fact that they feel the need to lie about so many other things makes it clear they do not have the courage of their convictions.
One thing that is not mentioned is that the emotional effects post-miscarriage are much the same as what these “crisis pregnancy centers” claim are what happens after a procured abortion. Nothing like finding your wanted pregnancy has expired, but not been expelled, and having it labeled a “missed abortion”. There is a lot of emotional fallout from that, as well, including depression.
@miscarried (181)…
I am sorry for your loss, but miscarriage and its emotional fall-out are irrelevant here. Women with wanted pregnancies do not go to these “clinics,” and the emotional fallout of the miscarriage of a wanted pregnancy is due to a very different relationship with the fetus than a woman has with an unwanted pregnancy. It’s a false equivalence.
No one is saying the emotional fall-out CPCs claim comes from abortion doesn’t exist, it’s just not necessarily a likely outcome of abortion.
When oh when will some coherency come to this cultural clusterfuck of a hot issue?
I’m neither liberal or conservative. I try to not root for a team but look for what’s true and support that. We should think for ourselves and stop watching the news/reading everything planned parenthood promulgates (if this was a red state, I’d say stop listening to everything focus on the family says). Lets get some other opinions and stop treating this like it’s an issue about treating women well. It’s an issue about women wanting to be as careless, disrespecting of themselves and hopeless as the men who knock them up. Men get to walk away from sex and not have any physical worries about being attached to a child. Why shouldn’t women get to too? But this is irresponsible, defeated logic. Women, be strong and set the example for men. Men, we need to stop objectifying women and take responsibility for the sexual decisions we make. We all learned in 5th grade what sperm is and where babies come from.
As a society, we do have an interesting issue that most generations haven’t had to deal with to the degree we do. In agrarian culture kids were a massive plus. It’s only the last hundred years they’ve become an economic drain. Industrial, consumer culture has brought us to the place we are with kids and self-absorbtion. But we still need to make the right choices as a culture and individuals. It’s no more ok to not take responsibility for babymaking as it is for not taking responsibility for our clothes being made in sweatshops or our economy raping the environment.
The ironic thing is that the West’s obsession with individual choice and freewill comes from Christianity’s influence (at very least on Locke and his influence) on us. History 101, really.
Lastly, I hope the language I used wasn’t too divisive. We all believe what we believe and only open-mindedness and existential revelation can change it. I just hope we can take a sober look at this issue and not let our emotions continue to be fuel for corporate media advertising salespeople. The madder you get while watching your favorite talking head, the more $ they make.
When oh when will some coherency come to this cultural clusterfuck of a hot issue?
I’m neither liberal or conservative. I try to not root for a team but look for what’s true and support that. We should think for ourselves and stop watching the news/reading everything planned parenthood promulgates (if this was a red state, I’d say stop listening to everything focus on the family says). Lets get some other opinions and stop treating this like it’s an issue about treating women well. It’s an issue about women wanting to be as careless, disrespecting of themselves and hopeless as the men who knock them up. Men get to walk away from sex and not have any physical worries about being attached to a child. Why shouldn’t women get to too? But this is irresponsible, defeated logic. Women, be strong and set the example for men. Men, we need to stop objectifying women and take responsibility for the sexual decisions we make. We all learned in 5th grade what sperm is and where babies come from.
As a society, we do have an interesting issue that most generations haven’t had to deal with to the degree we do. In agrarian culture kids were a massive plus. It’s only the last hundred years they’ve become an economic drain. Industrial, consumer culture has brought us to the place we are with kids and self-absorbtion. But we still need to make the right choices as a culture and individuals. It’s no more ok to not take responsibility for babymaking as it is for not taking responsibility for our clothes being made in sweatshops or our economy raping the environment.
The ironic thing is that the West’s obsession with individual choice and freewill comes from Christianity’s influence (at very least on Locke and his influence) on us. History 101, really.
Lastly, I hope the language I used wasn’t too divisive. We all believe what we believe and only open-mindedness and existential revelation can change it. I just hope we can take a sober look at this issue and not let our emotions continue to be fuel for corporate media advertising salespeople. The madder you get while watching your favorite talking head, the more $ they make.