This post will be long, but what I am about to ask of you will greatly help women all over the United States. I will tell you about the Crisis Pregnancy Centers and their tactics.
As most of you probably already know, a Crisis Pregnancy Center is not a medical facility. A Crisis Pregnancy Center, which is also sometimes referred to as a Pregnancy Recourse Center, is a non- profit, religious, pro-life facility, that claims to help women who are facing unplanned and unwanted pregnancies, including access to abortion, help with pregnancy related items, and help with adoption placements. What they don't tell women is that not only do they not offer any abortion services, but they aren't even an actual medical clinic. A pregnant woman would be better off buying a home pregnancy test and find a county clinic than go to these people.
Another thing they don't tell their "clients" is the fact that they are not bound by the HIPAA laws, so they can do whatever they wish with the information they are given. Numerous CPCs across the country have had numerous complaints of harassment, not only at home, but at work, and going as far as contacting their co-workers and disclosing the woman's personal business in hopes she is shamed by others and doesn't abort. This isn't rare either. Just in recent news, this was forwarded to me, and as I frequent Reddit daily, I have stumbled upon this quite a lot within the last few days:
The above 2 images were posted 3 days ago on
Imgur and it has made the rounds not only on Imgur, but Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, and other social networks. The description of what has happened at the above clinic is one of many. Hell, even the
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice condemns Crisis Pregnancy Centers.
Hell, I even have my own experience with a Crisis Pregnancy Center about 20 miles away. I was young, naive, scared, and wanted answers. I turned to a friend for help after being raped by a former boyfriend, and she recommended a CPC, without my knowledge, as I've never heard of them. I went there the next day, and was greeted by a seemingly friendly receptionist. I gave her my information, and was under the impression that I would be able to get information about abortion as that is what I wanted. Once I mentioned abortion, her facial expression changed slightly, which I didn't quite pick up on at the time. She then proceeded to lead me to a room in the back, to which I presumed was or explaining the abortion procedure to me. Little did I know I was about to go through an hour of what I can only describe as the most ridiculous hour of my life.
As I sat down in a rather uncomfortable chair, she told me to watch a DVD and then she'd be back in to talk to me some more, so I obliged, not thinking much of it. As soon as she pressed the Play button, a rather happy woman appeared on the screen. She started off introducing herself, and then it took a downward turn. She claimed she was an abortion survivor. At this point, I got up, and attempted to open the door. She locked me in the room. As I rattled at the handle, I heard the woman on the TV speak about how she was placed for adoption, how it has changed her life, and how she's against abortion. At this point, I was banging on the door and screaming about how they need to let me out. Nothing. I then screamed that I was going to call the police and have them arrested. The receptionist then unlocked the door, and as I stormed out, she started screaming at me how I would go to hell for "murdering that baby", how I was a whore, a sinner, how that baby would be better off without a murdering slut of a mother and then proceeded to shove pamphlets into my face. I threw them down, but not before noticing a little 2 inch by 2 inch booklet, with a feet pin that were roughly the size of my pinkie nail. I scoffed at her, told her to go to hell, and stormed out, and slamming the door behind me. I ended up screaming at my friend, only to find out that she was also anti-choice. Nonetheless, I haven't spoken to her since.
The next day, I scheduled an appointment with Planned Parenthood, and had my abortion a week later.
My story is one of many, it wasn't the first, nor the last. I have spoken to many women who have had a similar experience as mine. My experience made me realize that we have to fight for our rights more than ever, and I pledged to do so until my last breath on this planet.
So with this, I want to turn your attention to a recent "event" that took place on Twitter, hosted by "Pro-Lifers", called "#exposePP". This took place this past Sunday. Nonetheless, Liberals, Pro-Choicers, and even comedians took part in this trend, and here are some examples of what this ploy to "expose" Planned Parenthood turned into:
After the influx of the parodies of #exposePP, the "Pro-Lifers" changed the hashtag to say #PPkillsbabies, with which Liberals and Pro-Choicers took over again, with examples such as these:
So in the end, "Pro-Lifers" didn't get what they had hoped for. Now this is where you come in. A bunch of ladies are hosting their own
Twitter/Instagram/Tumblr event, named appropriately as #ExposeCPC, and I want you to take part in it. The event will take place on June 23rd, so get yourself an account on a social media site, and lets expose those who truly need it and deserve it. Since Crisis Pregnancy Centers are all about "helping women" and want more exposure, let's give it to them!
In closing, I would like to share some stories with you from a few women who I will keep anonymous:
The one here threatened to call CPS and get my baby taken from me because I didn't want to sell him. The couple was offering 50k... I went for chiz and giggles (my child was planned to the day almost) and was harassed daily via email and phone calls. They also took up new carseats for "moms who chose life" and told me via email (while under another name) to go to walmart. They sold the seats and didn't give them away.
When I visited one out of curiosity I expected the litany of misinformation, lies and scare tactics with regard to abortion and was not disappointed. I was subject to the usual false pretenses of the clinic being neutral and the information presented being unbiased fact. What I didn't expect was the anti-contraception agenda and slut shaming. Among the dangerous things I was told, the birth control pill or options were cancerous abortifacients that never served a health purpose, the HPV shot encourages promiscuity and causes disease, IUDs are dangerous abortifacients, you get the idea. Perhaps the worst being that condoms don't protect against STIs and are bad for you. I was told my boyfriend didn't love me (breaking news to him, we've been together for seven years now) I was asked if it was "worth it" having sex outside of marriage and I wasn't even pregnant. I was preached to about Jesus with no regard for my own faith or even my own knowledge of the bible. (And interestingly enough, this CPC isn't Catholic. The anti-contraception trend is catching on with Protestants too.) I'd like to say this was a singular experience but with research, further visits to others and understanding of how most of the networks of CPCs work I found out it is not.
Only time I went to a CPC was to take a pregnancy test when I was in high school. They had me watch a video about giving birth. The told me the test was negative. They talked to me about abstinence. My guardian took me to my OBGYN who put me on birth control because I started hemorrhaging a few weeks later. The BC was to control the bleeding. My GYN told me I was most likely miscarrying.
I went to these people looking for help and advice. I was scared, highly hormonal with no real support system and facing a life-changing event. But how was I treated? I was told I was a sinner, that the man I loved would leave me, that my child would suffer majorly if I kept him, that my son needed to be saved from me, that I would never achieve my goals and dreams, and that there was better more deserving loving people out there that my child should go to. It was like getting hit by an emotional truck.
When I was 16 I got pregnant by my boyfriend who was very abusive. After having a positive pregnancy test I scheduled an appointment at what I THOUGHT was a regular women's health clinic. NOPE! Not in the south! When the pregnancy was confirmed and I started crying the woman gave me a lecture on how wrong abortion is and then made me watch a documentary called The Horrors Of Abortion (you can imagine)... THEN! After watching the documentary I was hysterical and they called the police and had 2 MALE police officers sit me down and give me ANOTHER lecture on how if I harm my unborn child I will be held accountable for murder in the first degree. How COMFORTING!
I experienced something similar here in Pensacola, FL. They didnt take my pants but sat me down and lied to me about what would happen if I had an abortion, made me watch a scary film on the risks, then had me take a pregnancy test. It was positive (duh) and since I was pregnant they gave me my "first baby blanket" with a script sewn into it. The old lady told me, "that's your baby talking to you, what does it say?" I read it with tears streaming down my face. "I am fearfully and wonderfully made".
They lied to me. They told me I'd get breast cancer, I could go infertile, hemorrhage and bleed out. They told me I'd never forgive myself. It would all be ok if I had the baby. My boyfriend would probably leave me anyway. I could get on Medicare. People can't ignore a child, they HAVE to help me provide.
Their website said they're unbiased. Pro woman. Not pro choice or pro life. I researched them extensively before going and everything said they'd help me. They didnt.
I'm nineteen and in college for nursing. I can't have a kid. I terminated my pregnancy 6 weeks in. If I could have gotten care fast and efficiently it would have been 3 weeks earlier. There's only one clinic here with protesters lining the streets and screaming at you. We drove 3 hours out of the city to get an abortion and the people from this "pregnancy resource center" called me every day for a week after I didn't show up for my second appt demanding to know what happened.
And to leave you off with an explanation of what Crisis Pregnancy Centers actually do, I present to you an
article where a leader of one of these Crisis Pregnancy Centers states what one of their tactics are:
If callers ask how much the center charges to perform an abortion, Lisa Arnold, a counselor and leader of the postabortion group, said: "I say, 'It changes, but why don't you come in for an ultrasound and we'll talk about it.' You don't want to deceive them, but you want a chance to talk to them." Once women come to the center, staff members - who oppose abortion even in cases involving rape and incest - encourage them to make further appointments, and refer them to doctors who share the center's views on abortion.
Lovely, right?
So the fight starts now, ladies and gentlemen. These "clinics" need to be put on the spot as the fraudulent, lying, deceptive pieces of shits that they really are. They don't help women, they help themselves and spit on those who truly need help. They aren't Pro-Woman or Pro-Child as they claim. They are only Pro-Birth-BY-Any-Means-Possible.
I will leave you with this famous quote by the Honorable George Carlin-
Why is it that most of the people who are against abortion are people you wouldn't want to fuck in the first place? Boy these conservatives are really something aren't they? they're all in favour of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn but once you're born you're on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that they don't want to know about you. They don't want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no daycare, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you're pre-born you're fine. If you're preschool you're fucked. Conservatives don't give a shit about you until you reach military age. Then they think you are just fine. Just what they been looking for. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. Pro-life. Pro-life. These people aren't pro-life they're killing doctors. What kind of pro-life is that? What they'll do anything they can to save a fetus but if it grows up to be a doctor they just might have to kill it? They're not pro-life. You know what they are? they're anti-woman. Simple as it gets. Anti-woman. They don't like them. They don't like women. They believe a woman's primary role is to function as a broodmare for the state. Pro-life. You don't see many of these white anti-abortion women volunteering to have any black fetuses transplanted into their uterus's do you? No you don't see them adopting a whole lot of crack babies do you? No that might be something Christ would do.
8:16 AM PT: My new Twitter username(well, not new, but most used) is @55aku7ina, so feel free to follow me!