I'm impressed - Planned Parenthood is the first advocacy group that's contacted me after I've expressed a willingness to help on-line. It's nice to see at least one group has their act together. They've actually come up with something this working mom can do from her desktop.
So they just sent me the following bulletin, asking me to blog about it or at least send it out to my friends & family. Seems there's a new twist (emphasis on twisted(ed)) to the tactics of the anti-choice crowd. Not only are they luring young women into their so-called clinics, but now they're showing up at their homes and filing false police reports.
CRISIS PREGNANCY CENTER - ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK
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!http://www.ppaction.org/...
Go to: http://www.ppaction.org/...
There's got to be something we can do to counter these groups. At least go after them for filing a false police report. This kind of harrassment's got to be illegal.
I'm posting this to see what the legal eagles in our action-oriented community think - is there a way to go after these bastids over this new twisted, sicko tactic?