Doing My Small, Small Part
Planned Parenthood emailed me with this story, asking for all of us to spread the word about this heinous act.
Ahem.
Posted by Melissa on April 24th, 2006 under Flaming OvariesAn 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!
April 24th, 2006 at 10:38 pm
Grrr. That is making me very, very angry and I’m going to go to that site. Thanks for the info.
April 25th, 2006 at 9:22 am
I would think this would already be legal — fraudulently soliciting confidential medical information and then disseminating it? Sounds like jail time to me!
But, sure, yes, since we obviously need to spell out what is not just moral but legal to these poor benighted assholes, of course I’ll check it out.
April 25th, 2006 at 10:23 am
Lisa and Sara, those are my feelings exactly.
April 25th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
Oh. My. GOD. Absolutely terrifying. Thanks for this, I’ll be sure to pass the word…
April 25th, 2006 at 5:54 pm
This makes me want to VOMIT. This is one of the most unethical things I have ever heard, and I honestly don’t know how these “crisis pregnancy center” workers sleep at night. I hope this center is sued for fraud, harrassment, defamation of character, and extreme invasion of privacy. And ramifications with HIPPA??? Infinite. Passin’ this one along to everyone I know.
April 25th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
One more thing…I started looking into this story, and the only places I see it are as reprinted in various blogs and a very vague note on the Planned Parenthood website. Is this not in the news? Are things being kept quiet for investigation purposes? Then again, you’d think something like this would have at least a vague story at the top of the news. I’m a bit disturbed by this lack of supporting evidence or specifics. I am not saying that this is all made up, but it does make me a bit suspicious.
April 25th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
I was the same way. I wanted more info before I posted it.
This is not a new issue or a new tactic for abortion opponents. When I suspected I was pregnant at 17 with Daniel, I went to a crisis pregnancy center. I was told they were open-minded and supported whatever decision was made. They were located across the street from the hospital and suggested they worked with the hospital’s resources. But oh no. It was a Christian center. Luckily, their test was negative. I was pregnant, but with Daniel I ended up with 9 negative urine tests and only 1 positive (a blood test). They were ACTUALLY SAD that I wasn’t pregnant, because they thought that would be “so beautiful.”
I think the issue is being brought to the forefront right now because of fairly recent Bush funding for Christian-based Crisis Pregnancy Centers and then NY Representative Carolyn Maloney and eleven co-sponsors are introducing the “Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women’s Services Act” (http://maloney.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view
&id=1082&Itemid=61) based on these situations.
When it happened to me, it wasn’t as dramatic, but it could have been. It was definitely deceiving.
April 26th, 2006 at 11:33 am
Man, I never heard of that, but it’s scary. BTW - found your blog through sweatpantsmom.
May 8th, 2006 at 6:15 pm
Substantial questions have been raised as to whether Planned Parenthood’s story is true (see here and here). I hope the CPC is shut down if the story is legitimate, but it may will just be a hoax started by PP as part of its e-mail campaign in support of the proposed anti-CPC legislation.
June 22nd, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Honor Among Atheists?
Is there honor among atheists? I’m beginning to wonder. My character has been brought into question this week in two posts by atheist bloggers: Raving Atheist Targeting Atheist Mothers? by “KC” at Bligbi, and Raving Atheist exposed yet again by Fran…
June 22nd, 2006 at 9:17 pm
[…] Today the Raving Athiest attempted to use my post HERE to show how we “pro-abortionists”, including me, had “mindlessly reprinted portions of the Planned Parenthood email.” […]