Your Tax Dollars At Work
Apr. 24th, 2006 11:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_pretentiousAn organization that calls itself "A Woman's Choice" runs a chain of fake women's health centers. Here's what a January New York Times article had to say about them:
Like many crisis pregnancy centers, A Woman's Choice is designed to look and feel like a medical center, not a religion-based organization with an agenda. Becky Edmondson, the executive director, said the center chose the look and name to reach women who were bombarded with pressures to abort and might think they had no other choice.
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.
Anne Ahola, the counseling director of EMW Women's Surgical Center, the abortion provider across the street, dismissed A Woman's Choice as a "fake" health clinic that tricks women into coming in to have abortions then provides inaccurate information about abortion and about their pregnancies. Crisis pregnancy centers have long been criticized for such practices, and courts have limited the terms they can use to pitch their services.
Here's some of what Planned Parenthood has to say about them:
One such center in Indiana shares a parking lot with a real Planned Parenthood clinic, and was designed expressly to lure our patients and deceive them. Recently, people from the fake "clinic" waged a campaign of intimidation and harassment against a 17-year-old girl who, with her mother and boyfriend, came to what she thought was our clinic for an abortion. Over the following days, the anti-choice extremists called the police to say the girl was being forced to have an abortion, showed up at her home, called her father's workplace, and even went to her school and urged classmates to pressure her not to have an abortion.
The worst part? Your tax dollars are funding these "crisis pregnancy centers" to the tune of $60 million.
I can understand that some people, even some of you, have principled objections to abortion. Still, I think this sentence bears repeating:
Over the following days, the anti-choice extremists called the police to say the girl was being forced to have an abortion, showed up at her home, called her father's workplace, and even went to her school and urged classmates to pressure her not to have an abortion.
Even if you object to abortion, is that a strategy that you want your tax dollars to fund?
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) has more details, including a confirmation that the Bush administration is funding these frauds.
You may wish to inform your representatives of your opinion on the Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women’s Services Act (SDAWS). You can download the full text of the bill from the link above. You can find your reps' contact info at http://www.house.gov.
Like many crisis pregnancy centers, A Woman's Choice is designed to look and feel like a medical center, not a religion-based organization with an agenda. Becky Edmondson, the executive director, said the center chose the look and name to reach women who were bombarded with pressures to abort and might think they had no other choice.
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.
Anne Ahola, the counseling director of EMW Women's Surgical Center, the abortion provider across the street, dismissed A Woman's Choice as a "fake" health clinic that tricks women into coming in to have abortions then provides inaccurate information about abortion and about their pregnancies. Crisis pregnancy centers have long been criticized for such practices, and courts have limited the terms they can use to pitch their services.
Here's some of what Planned Parenthood has to say about them:
One such center in Indiana shares a parking lot with a real Planned Parenthood clinic, and was designed expressly to lure our patients and deceive them. Recently, people from the fake "clinic" waged a campaign of intimidation and harassment against a 17-year-old girl who, with her mother and boyfriend, came to what she thought was our clinic for an abortion. Over the following days, the anti-choice extremists called the police to say the girl was being forced to have an abortion, showed up at her home, called her father's workplace, and even went to her school and urged classmates to pressure her not to have an abortion.
The worst part? Your tax dollars are funding these "crisis pregnancy centers" to the tune of $60 million.
I can understand that some people, even some of you, have principled objections to abortion. Still, I think this sentence bears repeating:
Over the following days, the anti-choice extremists called the police to say the girl was being forced to have an abortion, showed up at her home, called her father's workplace, and even went to her school and urged classmates to pressure her not to have an abortion.
Even if you object to abortion, is that a strategy that you want your tax dollars to fund?
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) has more details, including a confirmation that the Bush administration is funding these frauds.
You may wish to inform your representatives of your opinion on the Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women’s Services Act (SDAWS). You can download the full text of the bill from the link above. You can find your reps' contact info at http://www.house.gov.
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no subject
Date: 2006-04-25 02:34 am (UTC)I understand principled objections to abortion. I understand that it is an extremely emotive subject, and feelings run high. I do not understand how anyone could justify the sneaky, underhanded tactics for luring women into the centres, or the provision of inaccurate information, or the use of intimidation to pressure others into falling in line. It might be argued that people who honestly believe abortion to be murder are justified in using any means to prevent murder. I'm not convinced on that, but I do get that for many people it is a desperately important rescue mission. I still don't get the whole idea that the end justifies the means. And I'm absolutely livid that the US taxpayer is footing the bill for this. T is going to send a couple of strongly-worded emails to Holt, Lautenburg and Menendez.
Would you post this to Kith & Kin? And would you mind me re-posting it to my LJ?
no subject
Date: 2006-04-25 07:52 pm (UTC)I'm not on the Kith&Kin list--it was a doomed effort to manage my email traffic. If you're on that list, feel free to post it there, too.
And good for T!
no subject
Date: 2006-04-26 01:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-25 05:47 am (UTC)Being for Choice means being for CHOICES. I think too many people don't get that. On both sides of the equation.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-25 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-25 09:47 am (UTC)Caorlyn Malony used to be my representative. I miss her.
*heavy sigh*
no subject
Date: 2006-04-25 07:48 pm (UTC)Rush Holt sent me back a big parcel with several pages of the Congressional Record, with his part in the debates highlighted and annotated, along with a copy of the much-amended legislation as it eventually passed, and a letter explaining why he had decided to vote for the bill, based on its having been thoroughly revised between the day I wrote him and the day the vote was called. Handwritten on the letter was a note about how he, too, now had to wonder if assigning Said to Rumsfeld might not have helped.
Swoon.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-25 03:45 pm (UTC)But reading the whole article was another of those things that raises my hackles. This is all part of what I consider the Christian Taliban that Bush is shepherding into power. Even if, like mine, your representative is giving the Prez a procto exam with his head, write. You may safely assume that lacking our action there is a day coming when heads will fly.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-25 07:40 pm (UTC)I'm pretty happy with my representation. New Jersey's solidly blue these days. Often, when I'm about to write them, they beat me to the punch by emailing an announcement that they're already doing what I was about to ask them to do.
Even our Republicans are disgusted with the current state of affairs. Christine Todd Whitman, who wrote It's My Party, Too, was our governor, before Bush sent her to the EPA to be window dressing. She kept trying to take the job seriously, so he humiliated her into resigning. She was not a great governor, but I'm glad to see her using her credentials to be a thorn in W's side now.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-25 06:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-25 07:34 pm (UTC)I really liked this part of your profile:
In short, I depict myself as a follower of the universal and undeniable Truth. Whatever that may be, is possible to change from time to time, as more evidence is revealed and we as a human race sort through the lies and deception of centuries of religion.
For a while, in my teens, I tried very hard to be a Christian. My family was part of a wonderful congregation in a very progressive denomination (The United Church of Christ, who started a controversy a few years ago by making a tv ad that delicately implied that they welcomed homosexuals because Jesus would have--most networks refused to run the ads). I ended up acknowledging that my spirituality was Pagan in part because of the UCC covenant. The synod has tweaked the phrasing a bit in years since, but the version I memorized was, "We covenant with the Lord and with one another to walk in his ways as he sees fit to reveal them to us through his blessed word of truth."
I took my covenant very seriously. It turned out that the blessed word of truth was far vaster and weirder than even the weird vastness of the Bible. So your story of leaving Paganism for a path of discipleship struck a familiar chord with me.
The thing that bugs me about it this whole medical fraud thing is that these people are spending government money on the commission of crimes. If indeed the incident Planned Parenthood describes happened as they described it, then staffers at A Woman's Choice committed harassment and conspiracy to harass, and knowingly made a false statement to the police--that's at least three crimes. The girl also had a reasonable expectation of confidentiality, because the place was represented to her as a medical facility, and in some states there may be statutes relevant to that.
But then, we Americans have been living in a country without the rule of law for some time now, to everyone's detriment.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-25 07:43 pm (UTC)I'm not actually Christian. My fundamental different belief is that I do not believe Jesus is God in the flesh, and I believe he didn't claim that either, but that he is the Son of God and came to point the path that leads towards his Father. I don't believe anyone is saved until the second coming of Christ, because to be saved means to have eternal life and that is something that no one on earth has. We all succumb to death, and will continue to until we are offered eternal life.
I don't believe in a world-wide rapture either, I believe that it is a very specific geographical location that Christ will return to to pick up his brothers and sisters. If you're not there, then you miss out. (Hell can't exist, because while suffering for all eternity may not be pleasurable, it is a form of eternal life and that does not add up. The wages of sin are death, not a torturous form of eternal life.)
Anyway, sorry about going off on a tangent there.
I too think it's disgusting that something like that is government funded, but then again I'm not surprised by Bush's administration anymore.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-25 08:28 pm (UTC)