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Group Calls For Protest Of Pregnancy Care Centers
By Mary B. Worthington, The Bulletin
In an e-mail sent to college activists, the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Campus Program announced a nationwide protest against pregnancy care centers that provide free aid and abortion alternatives for women.
The protest has been scheduled for April 13.
The Feminist Majority Foundation refused an interview with The Bulletin.
“We are not available to you,” said media coordinator Emily Pudalov.
The Feminist Majority’s Web site specifically mentions two networks of pregnancy care centers, Care-Net and Heartbeat International, as targets of the protest.
“Today, the abortion cartel is a multimillion dollar industry that encourages and promotes abortion for profit … Heartbeat pregnancy centers provide the crucial facts on fetal development and explain the physical and emotional risks of abortion that those selling abortion to women often leave out,” responded Virginia Cline, director of public relations and public policy for Heartbeat International.
While there is no exact number due to lack of affiliation of some privately-run pregnancy centers in the United States, it is estimated that the pro-life centers, which go by various names including pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) and crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), currently number about 2,500 in the United States.
“If they are really going to spend so much time and energy on trying to shut down CPCs that are trying to help women with providing them with resources, then maybe they should stop calling themselves pro-choice and start calling themselves what they actually are: pro-abortion,” said Jessica Bayer, director of the Bucks County Community Women’s Center in Bristol.
In materials sent to the nearly 400 college campuses that have Feminist Majority groups, CPCs were called “fake clinics” that “grossly misrepresent the medical risks of abortion by telling women that having an abortion could increase the risk of breast cancer, result in sterility, and lead to suicide and ‘post-abortion stress disorder.’”
While the Feminist Majority materials cite one study of 13,000 women who found they did not endure psychological trauma after abortion, renowned psychologist Martha Shuping, M.D. cited 26 studies from peer-reviewed journals indicating varying levels of adverse psychological and physical effects on women who have aborted in a presentation given at the United Nations in 2008.
“The Feminist Majority is known for ridiculously aggressive attacks and blatant disregard for women’s actual healthcare needs,” said Ms. Bayer.
“Instead of worrying about CPCs providing too much truthful information to a woman before she makes the huge decision such as abortion, they want women to go to an abortion clinic where no information will be provided regarding the side effects and furthermore want these abortion clinics to have no medical care standards or licensed physicians practicing which cannot even be considered by someone who is ‘pro-choice’ to be good women’s healthcare.”
“Heartbeat’s network provides options and resources for each pregnant woman who is not satisfied with the choice to abort her baby,” said Ms. Cline. “Often, she has been abused and abandoned, and dehumanized. The pregnancy center staff works to re-humanize the woman by listening to her, meeting her immediate needs, and opening healthy options for the woman in a compassionate and nonjudgmental way.”
Students for Life of America, who exposed the attack to their network of campus pro-life groups, urges students to take action to preserve the rights of pregnancy care centers on college campuses.
Mary B. Worthington can be reached at mworthington@thebulletin.us
The protest has been scheduled for April 13.
The Feminist Majority Foundation refused an interview with The Bulletin.
“We are not available to you,” said media coordinator Emily Pudalov.
The Feminist Majority’s Web site specifically mentions two networks of pregnancy care centers, Care-Net and Heartbeat International, as targets of the protest.
“Today, the abortion cartel is a multimillion dollar industry that encourages and promotes abortion for profit … Heartbeat pregnancy centers provide the crucial facts on fetal development and explain the physical and emotional risks of abortion that those selling abortion to women often leave out,” responded Virginia Cline, director of public relations and public policy for Heartbeat International.
While there is no exact number due to lack of affiliation of some privately-run pregnancy centers in the United States, it is estimated that the pro-life centers, which go by various names including pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) and crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), currently number about 2,500 in the United States.
“If they are really going to spend so much time and energy on trying to shut down CPCs that are trying to help women with providing them with resources, then maybe they should stop calling themselves pro-choice and start calling themselves what they actually are: pro-abortion,” said Jessica Bayer, director of the Bucks County Community Women’s Center in Bristol.
In materials sent to the nearly 400 college campuses that have Feminist Majority groups, CPCs were called “fake clinics” that “grossly misrepresent the medical risks of abortion by telling women that having an abortion could increase the risk of breast cancer, result in sterility, and lead to suicide and ‘post-abortion stress disorder.’”
While the Feminist Majority materials cite one study of 13,000 women who found they did not endure psychological trauma after abortion, renowned psychologist Martha Shuping, M.D. cited 26 studies from peer-reviewed journals indicating varying levels of adverse psychological and physical effects on women who have aborted in a presentation given at the United Nations in 2008.
“The Feminist Majority is known for ridiculously aggressive attacks and blatant disregard for women’s actual healthcare needs,” said Ms. Bayer.
“Instead of worrying about CPCs providing too much truthful information to a woman before she makes the huge decision such as abortion, they want women to go to an abortion clinic where no information will be provided regarding the side effects and furthermore want these abortion clinics to have no medical care standards or licensed physicians practicing which cannot even be considered by someone who is ‘pro-choice’ to be good women’s healthcare.”
“Heartbeat’s network provides options and resources for each pregnant woman who is not satisfied with the choice to abort her baby,” said Ms. Cline. “Often, she has been abused and abandoned, and dehumanized. The pregnancy center staff works to re-humanize the woman by listening to her, meeting her immediate needs, and opening healthy options for the woman in a compassionate and nonjudgmental way.”
Students for Life of America, who exposed the attack to their network of campus pro-life groups, urges students to take action to preserve the rights of pregnancy care centers on college campuses.
Mary B. Worthington can be reached at mworthington@thebulletin.us
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