Playing Doctor
- Posted by: SiobhanOConnor , Robert A. Di Ieso, Jr.
- on May 30, 2007 at 8:35 pm
It’s 7:47 on a Saturday morning in the Bronx, and a 32-foot-long RV, plush considering the surroundings, is taking up almost three full parking spots near the corner of Southern Boulevard on East 149th Street. Inside, the floors are carpeted, there’s a comfortable couch, a microwave, a dishwasher, a mini-stove. There’s a box of half-eaten Entenmann’s danish on the counter, and a flat screen computer monitor on the table. It would almost look like a tour bus, were it not for the ultrasound machine in the back.
A few yards up the street is an abortion clinic—though you’d likely miss it if you didn’t know to look. There is a man in a security vest by the clinic’s front door; next to him stands a woman who later identifies herself as Mary, with a half-dozen plastic rosaries dangling from her wrist and a fistful of pink pamphlets. With wild eyes, she watches oncoming foot traffic, approaching every young woman and couple she sees, bar none.
A tough-looking girl with a bold gait—hair wrapped in a do-rag and legs poured into low-cut jeans—veers when Mary jumps into step with her. Nearby, a small group has convened in what appears to be a prayer for the unborn. Mary hands the young woman a few of her brochures; without stopping, the young woman sashays right past her—not inside the clinic, but down the block. It’s impossible not to wonder if she rounded the corner and went in through the facility’s back door. One can only guess.
Consider this a very literal iteration of a battle that’s going on in state legislatures across the country; in Congress and the Supreme Court; in medical clinics and the nearby pro-life centers that look just like them. This roving RV, one of roughly 3,400 pro-life counseling outposts nationwide known as crisis pregnancy centers, is evidence of a tactical shift in the anti-abortion movement—the idea being: Take the “choose life” message, dress it up to look medical (ideally with an ultrasound machine), and, in this case, take it on the road. Many of the centers offer free pregnancy tests, baby clothes and diapers, adoption referral, and parenting classes. What they don’t offer is pregnancy prevention other than abstinence, abortion referral, or—in most cases—access to medical professionals. Since half the pregnancies in the country are unintended, critics say it’s dangerous to be funding centers that don’t offer complete family-planning options in addition to counseling.
This pamphlet advocates abstinence as the only medically-safe contraceptive option. |
As it stands, CPCs have a PR problem. They have a well-documented reputation of persuading young women to continue pregnancies they say they don’t want, showing them gruesome videos about abortion, and providing medical misinformation. One center even went so far as to pretend to offer a woman an abortion only to then delay the procedure until it was no longer a legal option.
In response, less radical CPCs have been working hard to change that tainted reputation—one pro-life umbrella group has even gotten behind proposed legislation to regulate CPCs in Oregon. “They have really changed their tactics and techniques,” says Sarah Wheat of Planned Parenthood Austin. “I think they are being a little more strategic about how they present themselves in an effort to increase their funding.” Of course, the more organized and well-funded CPCs become, the more eyes are on them—and for CPCs that isn’t always good news. A recent report by Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, shook the abortion debate, confirming what reproductive-rights advocates have been saying for decades: that 87 percent of the centers investigated provided false and misleading medical information about abortion and contraception. This runs the gamut from claims that birth control leads to breast cancer to citing “evidence” that abortion causes women to later commit suicide.
The Waxman report also tallied up the amount of federal funding these centers have received under the Bush administration. Since 2001, CPCs have received more than $30 million in federal dollars, and many states have also been generous (Texas has earmarked $5 million for counseling that steers women to abortion alternatives). In the last few years, these centers’ funding strategies have changed dramatically. In the past, they relied heavily on private, often tax-deductible donations, as well as creative indirect money-gathering strategies, such as federal abstinence-only education contracts and state “Choose Life” license plates—for an extra $20 to $50, people can customize their plates with a pro-life message; the extra cash goes straight to CPCs. “There’s a new trend with governors and state legislatures being much more bold in their willingness to secure direct funding for CPCs,” Planned Parenthood’s director of government relations, Jackie Payne, confirms.
| Quote: |
| Soon everyone will have to look at ultrasounds of a fetus they don’t want because they won’t be able to find a family-planning clinic. |
Currently, in the United States, there are two CPCs for every abortion clinic, a ratio that will only grow more lopsided as abortion becomes more regulated, bans are upheld, and national and state family-planning dollars are redirected to CPCs. “Only 13 percent of counties in the U.S. have abortion providers,” says Payne. “Soon everyone will have to look at ultrasounds of a fetus they don’t want because they won’t be able to find a family-planning clinic.”
New York State has the dubious distinction of being the abortion capital of America—it performs 10 percent of the country’s abortions, making it a focal point for some pro-lifers. “This is the front line for abortion in America,” says Chris Slattery, from the passenger seat of the RV in the Bronx. Slattery runs the RV and 15 other pregnancy centers in the city, many of which are strategically positioned across the street from (or in the same buildings as) Planned Parenthood centers.
After about an hour and a half of sidewalk counseling, Slattery’s coworkers, joined by Mary from the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, have stopped dozens of passersby, handing out as many leaflets. A knock on the van’s door animates the sonographer, who has shimmied into a nurse-blue vest, ready to get to work. The visitor is a 20-year-old, light-skinned black woman, dressed Saturday casual in a gray sweat suit and Nikes, hair yanked into a high ponytail. She is a mother of two—she had her first child at 18, her second at 19, both unplanned—and she came here unsure, she says. The counselor asks her if she believes in God (she does); if she has heard about the “medical risks associated with abortion” (she has); and if she wants to watch a video about fetal development (sure). Finally, it’s sonogram time. The sonographer slides the accordion door shut, and the young women can be heard giggling, as echoes and white noise fill the bus. “That’s the baby’s heartbeat,” Slattery tells me matter-of-factly. We later find out that the pregnancy was six weeks along. After the woman leaves, it’s smiles all round. “Another save!” he says.
Herein lies the crux of the controversy surrounding CPCs: their increasing use of the sonogram as a persuasive tool and their dispersal of health information refuted by every major medical association in the country, as well as the government. This is the heart of the debate—both sides fundamentally disagreeing on the science behind the information they provide. Do pro-lifers actually believe the National Cancer Institute is so entangled with the pro-choice movement that it is obscuring a causal relationship between abortion and breast cancer, or is this assertion merely an effective tool for coercion they don’t want to give up? Depends on whom you ask.
Intimidating text from a crisis pregnancy center’s flyer. |
“What concerns me is that if a woman goes to a CPC and has an ultrasound,” says Jessica Farrar of the Texas State House of Representatives, “she thinks she’s receiving medical care. But there might be a birth defect or some other issue related to her health that would fail to be diagnosed because there are not the right medical staff there. CPCs are often the first line of observation, but a woman could walk out that door thinking everything is fine with her, when it’s not.” Some reproductive-rights advocates are asking that CPCs be required by law to post a sign that says “This is not a medical facility” in the entranceway.
Meanwhile, 550 pregnancy centers are already equipped with ultrasound, with another 100 in the works this year, says Beth Chase, the executive director of the medical advancement division of the pro-life umbrella group National Institute of Family and Life Advocates. According to an article by NIFLA’s president, Thomas Glessner, CPCs are reporting fewer and fewer clients seeking abortions, so a “major challenge … will be to find new methods to attract abortion-minded women.” The strategy? A nationwide effort to convert CPCs into what they call full-blown medical facilities. “Full-blown,” of course, is a relative term.
Chase is a thoughtful, soft-spoken woman—the kind of person who uses your first name when she talks to you, whom you can hear smiling as she describes the positive impact CPCs have had on her clients. The new centers she calls “pregnancy help medical clinics” are equipped with ultrasound machines and many are offering free early prenatal care, Sexually Transmitted Infection testing, and standard medical services associated that appointment. What they don’t offer is abortion referral, contraception or, in most cases, visits with a licensed OB-GYN. “Under the supervision of a licensed physician, an ultrasound exam is performed by a medical professional to confirm a viable intrauterine pregnancy,” she says. “And during that time a woman can also be introduced to her baby for the first time.”
A woman named Bethany, with 13 years of experience at a Dallas abortion clinic, finds this particularly troubling. “It isn’t the sonogram itself that is objectionable, but the highly unethical purpose for which it is used,” she says. “A sonogram picture from a medical facility has information printed on it, such as measurements in millimeters for purposes of determining the stage of pregnancy. I have had pictures from CPCs handed to me by 16-year-old [clients of mine], with the words ‘Hi, Mommy!’ where the medical data should be.”
As crisis pregnancy centers become more like medical clinics, other problems emerge. Right now there are no sweeping regulations for these centers, though Oregon and Texas have proposed Senate bills attempting to change that. On the other hand, some people are concerned that the more medical CPCs become, the more powerful they will actually be. And as it stands, women have often reported confusion about the difference between a CPC and a medical clinic. Amanda Hill, for example, was 19 and living in a trailer home in Huntsville, Texas, when her period was a week late. She looked in the phone book and found a large ad boasting “free, anonymous pregnancy tests and pregnancy options counseling.” She headed over that afternoon.
A pamphlet that erroneously links abortion and breast cancer. |
After her test, she says, she was left alone in a pamphlet-filled room for half an hour. “Finally, a counselor wearing a white lab coat and carrying a clipboard came into the room pulling a TV on a rolling cart behind her,” she says. She suspected that the clipboard had her results, but before she could get them, she’d have to watch a video about prenatal development. “It started with a quote about how at the moment of conception you are given a road map to be complete as a woman,” Amanda recalls. “It was really powerful, heart-wrenching stuff, and the pictures of the fetuses looked like full babies.”
The counselor then asked Amanda what she would do were she pregnant. “When I told her, she asked me how my parents would feel about me killing their grandkid,” she says. She was told she was on a destructive life path, and was encouraged to pray with the counselor (Amanda is not Christian). About an hour later, the counselor sent her on her way with a bunch of pamphlets. She wasn’t even pregnant.
The RV has been parked by the clinic’s front door almost every morning for two months now. Its presence has been without major incident, though it’s impossible to know the impact it’s had on the young women passing by, preparing to make one of the most personal decisions of their lives. Planned Parenthood has called it a trap. The clinic staff declined to comment.
Slattery, for his part, feels his work has been an unqualified success. In his 20-odd years of pro-life work, he says he’s counseled 70,000 women. “We could fill Madison Square Garden with our saves,” he says. “They come in here more afraid of their child, and they leave more afraid of abortion.”
The morning sun is getting brighter, and around 10 a.m. another sidewalk counselor turns up with his two young daughters, the youngest monkeyed around his waist, the other by his side. His glasses are thick and it’s hard to see his eyes, but he has the demeanor of the deeply spiritual—stoic, squinty, gentle. Soon, the three of them will join the growing vigil set up by the clinic’s front door.
Inside, the clinic’s waiting room looks like any medical triage center—tidy rows of chairs, every seat taken, a few people slumped against the taupe walls, mouths open, fast asleep. Couples sit with their fingers clenched so tightly that the blood appears to be draining from their knuckles. Some girls giggle and whisper, other girls sit alone.
Just outside the back door, by the waiting room, a man of about 25 is smoking a Newport, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “They tried to stop us on our way in,” he says, cocking his chin without looking up. Across the parking lot, a lone man holds a stack of blue and green pamphlets. “They were persistent, too.” He shakes his head and with a swift exhale says, “We’re going to be okay. We’ll come out the back door.”
DISCUSSION: 39 Comments
Thanks GOOD for spreading the word about misinformation CPC clinics spread. The women of this country deserve to be fully cared for and fully informed of ALL of their choices when it comes to their reproductive health. Its very sad that we live in a society that uses the bodies of women as religious and political battle grounds.
Hopefully post bush we’ll see some legislation that limits the reach of CPC clinics. Confusion and coercion aren’t things that women and their partners should have to worry about when it comes to pregnancy.
Thank you so much for having the courage to speak out on this issue. Far too many people are afraid to support reproductive freedom because of the controversy surrounding abortion.
Many people disagree with the decision to abort, and that’s fine. They don’t have to get one. But they do not have the right to decide for anyone other than themselves.
Thank you for exposing the coercion and outright lies that Crisis Pregnancy Centers use to manipulate women.
Previous poster stated, “The women of this country deserve to be fully cared for and fully informed of ALL of their choices when it comes to their reproductive health.” I agree, now doesn’t that include a female baby in the womb? (sorry if I used the word “baby” and not “fetus” as you like to use.)
And for Good to make issue of government funding CPC’s receive? I bite my tongue every year as I pay my taxes and think that part of that money goes to Planned Parenthood.
What is so horrible about helping a woman in a crisis pregnancy situation then supplying her with diapers, formula, etc? It gives her a real choice…if this wasn’t available she would feel that abortion is her ONLY choice.
Now for women who use abortion as birth control…well, that is another story in itself.
A sonogram machine does not do evasive procedures. What’s next–legislating stethoscopes?
I dont’t think that anyone should be frightened of a group who legally and peacefully parks outside an abortion clinic in order to provide options–even in the name of religion.
If one calls themseleves pro-choice, then one should not be afraid of a woman obtaining information from different sources to make their choice.
Maybe if i took XANAX , Valium , vicodin and adderall and then smoked some dope this would make sense. Maybe if my dad believed in the global warming or some other democratic scam , this would seem a legitimate article to me. Wow who are the publishers of this trash?
I’m always amused at the euphemistic terms of “choice†and “reproductive rightsâ€. Neither of these has been denied to women, as a matter of fact they have the power to make a sound “choice†regarding their “reproductive rightsâ€. And when would that time be? The very moment you decided to engage in a sexual relationship for which you were not willing to accept the possibility of pregnancy. Women’s liberation has given you this very powerful right over men…learn to use it before engaging in sex, otherwise stop punishing the life’s of unborn children for your poor decision making skills!
It is true that everyone deserves a choice. Whether it be abortion or not. In light of that fact, it is also important that anyone who believes they can alert people to other options be aware that they are responsible for giving them all the facts about that option. I personally believe that the way the CPC is going about this is manipulative and wrong. Not only are they giving misinformation about connections to breast cancer and future pregnancies, but they are also terrifying women who may not have the capacity or ability to have a child at that moment. Or, a worse scenario is that the woman in question was raped and could end up dealing with more emotional stress and mental instability from carrying a child that is linked to a horrifying event in her life.
In the end, the CPC should be stopped for their agenda to scare women into a choice. It reeks of the current administration in the White House. Scare tactics don’t generally work on the entire population so hopefully this won’t last long.
This is article is unbelievably intellectually dishonest and one-sided. I heard about this web page today after reading about the high profile associate publisher getting busted with drugs. Oh and by the way, yes, women should be made to see the ultrasound of their babies in the womb. Pretending the pregnancy never happened won’t change the REALITY of the existing life, no matter how bad one wishes it hadn’t happened. The bible and religion need NOT apply to recognize truth. The truth is that a deliberate abortion procedure takes the life of an innocent human being.
This is article is unbelievably intellectually dishonest and one-sided. I heard about this web page today after reading about the high profile associate publisher getting busted with drugs. Oh and by the way, yes, women should be made to see the ultrasound of their babies in the womb. Pretending the pregnancy never happened won’t change the REALITY of the existing life, no matter how bad one wishes it hadn’t happened. The bible and religion need NOT apply to recognize truth. The truth is that a deliberate abortion procedure takes the life of an innocent human being.
This article is utterly ridiculous and one-sided. For a magazine that is supposed to represent open-minded American individuals, this article is a complete disappointment. One of the wonderful things about our country is the great gift of options we can exercise in nearly every situation imaginable. If I was faced with the situation of an unplanned pregnancy, I would want every possible solution for how to deal with it presented to me. Your article deals with the topic in the least objective way imaginable. What kind of narrow-minded idiots are writing this material anyway?
Loved this comment. Wow, is right. It begs the question, who’s running Crazytown?
It should be no surprise that Ms. O’Connor has written a slanted article regarding abortion — from what I can tell, it’s what she does.
As a reporter for Marie Claire in 2006, she went trolling on a pro-abortion website for “women who have been deceived by CPCs”.
Abortion Clinic Days Request
The request was also sent to “National Network of Abortion Funds” — in one request she refers to them as “so-called ‘crisis pregnancy centers’:
NNAF Request
(Strangely, I have not seen any requests from Ms. O’Connor at pro-life sites asking to hear from “women who have been deceived by abortion clinics”)
The focus of her article, from what I can tell, was a woman who hardly represents some poor, confused little girl who was tormented and lied to by pro-life thugs. Read all about that here:
Dawn Eden Blogpost
So, apparently Ms. O’Connor’s journalistic raison d’etre is to write about the evil CPC’s who want to prevent women from killing their unborn children.
In other words, what should we expect?
(p.s. – I was also drawn to this site due to the unfortunate exploits of Mr. Gore, III. Seems like quite the unintended publicity stunt!)
As the article points out, those who advocate CHOICE actually mean having fewer choices.
I do not think abortion should be used for
Birth control! But I also believe a women has
The right to choose. I get mad when I see some that don’t
Use birth control and end up having 5 abortions!
But I have also seen some that use birth control and still end up
With a baby they don’t want. I am all for giving them the right
To choose even all for right to life groups standing out side ready
To help but only if there is laws in places that make sure they are only giving
The truth! Not using scare tact’s to make a women feel bad. How is that helping.
And if they want to keep the women from just coming back next time she has a baby
Maybe they should give her birth control. After she has the “saved baby†she didn’t
Want could pay for or what ever she going to know next time they are full of it!
My 18 year old came to me a few months ago and told me she was having a baby her boyfriend has no job and will not get one (he doesn’t think he should he think it up
To me and her dad to pay for the baby! He is 21) she wants to keep it even though she
Still has a year of high school and no job! I took her to a abortions places I also took
Her to a teen mom sport group to here what other moms her age are going though I took
Her to a places that handles adoption to talk that option over with them and I also
Took her to a places that is right to life (one that doesn’t lie yes there are some and I
Am all for their right to do their job) the ones that don’t lie are usually do not bring god in to it. Anyway I felt even though I knew I could help her pay for the baby and do want
Want grandbaby she is the one that will be caring for it for the next 18 years it was her right I felt this was the only way she could truly say she made a informed chose!
She is keeping it. I am all for making abortions that last option not the first! But
If we take away the illegal right to chose we will not stop a woman that truly wants
One we will only end up putting both mother and baby at risk for dieing. Even before
It was illegal women had them they just never knew it was a real doctor doing it right or not. I choose to keep my kids if I was having a baby I didn’t want or couldn’t care for I would give it up. That is just me my right. I do not think in a free country I have a right
To tell another women she has to make the same chose as me!!!!!!
Good article. I think it points out just how poor science education is in our schools… and homes. Society, for that matter. Teens should be better informed – few would be so easily deceived by adults posing as health care professionals if they had the necessary maturity and information about their sexual health.
Truth, Was the small d intentional on democratic? Making a case for fascism?
I visited one of these “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” not too long ago. I was treated like garbage because I was considering abortion and because I am not a Christian. My first visit was a two hour attempt to convert me to Christianity disguised as a counseling session. I was called a “child of Satan” among other things.
I would love (well, sort of) to write more about this experience, but my son is crying, heh.
To my dear feminist soul sisters in crisis,
don’t forget that you are a WOMAN first !!!
that means WOMEN’s RIGHTS !!!
POWER TO WOMEN !!!
Its one thing to kill a boy baby.
But ask yourself – how can you kill a GIRL baby and still claim that you believe in WOMEN’s RIGHTS !!!!!
What about the RIGHT of your little GIRL to LIVE. huh ???
If you believe in WOMEN’s RIGHTS, then you MUST let your little GIRL baby live !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It seems that everyone associates pro-life with evangelicals and pro-choice with everyone else. Both sides continue to describe one another with sweeping generalizations. Neither side has ever truly listened to one another and it is the voice of the extremist which dominate the debate. I personally don’t agree with abortion, but I don’t think it is my right to make that decision for anyone else…and crazy as it sounds, I actually believe in Jesus.
What I feel is missing is the intelligent and rational discussion. My wife was on the board of a CPC for several years and during her time with the organization they never once abandoned a girl who after being exposed to and understanding all aspects of their choice decided to go through with an abortion. Sure, they were saddened, but they truly loved these girls…unconditionally. There was and understanding that people are people not projects.
I agree there are groups whose tactics are wrong and those groups should be dealt with accordingly, but this alarmist propaganda demonizes all CPC’s in one fail swoop.
Is it just me or does the author seem upset that abortion minded girls change their mind? Being Pro-Choice is she equally upset when abortion clinics don’t present all options to its potential clients. What is the real story?
It is unfortunate to me that the pro-life v. pro-choice debate has lost any semblance of intelligence it may have had. This article has no more credibility than the non-medical CPCs that it misrepresents. The real problem with this debate is that people from both sides have forgotten that their opponents are people, people who (i believe) are trying to do what they believe is right. It’s easy for me to see that someone who believes that abortion is murder would resort to whatever means in order to save the life of an unborn child. It’s also easy for me to see how someone who believes in the right of a woman to choose would view this as coercive and misleading.
What i personally don’t understand is how offended many pro-choice people get when people decide not to have abortions. That seems inconsistent to me.
i would like to see a study on how many women wanted to have an abortion, were convinced to do otherwise, and are now happy with their decision. i think a study like this would really shed some light on this whole discussion.
Although I do agree with some sort of CPC qualifications.
There are definitly some crazies out there who are not as rational (or legal, for that matter) as these more “organized” groups.
It’s such a tragedy that the Abortion arguement overshadows the priority of care for these mothers.
Wonderful comment.
I agree wholeheartedly!
When it comes down to this issue, everyone has an opinion, and everyone gets heated. My theory, if you don’t believe in abortion, don’t have one. It’s a personal choice and no matter of debate should truly matter. It’s up to the woman, and that’s it. What I think is helpful that this article points out, however, is that people are trying recruit, versus help. Yes, some people have commented that it’s good to have lot’s of options available, but it’s completely different to actively recruit, like these people are doing. Present the options, but don’t invade a person’s privacy. This is a tough decision and the last thing a woman needs is another stressor following her around. I’ve had an abortion, and if someone like that would have approached me that day I would have felt it to be rude. Who likes being solicited, really? I mean, we all avoid the perfume lady at the store most the time, do you really think it’s appealing when you are handling a pregnancy? It most certainly is not. Plus, no person was going to sway me from my decision. I was confident with my decision, I talked to my parents and boyfriend at the time, and it was the best option for me. I was not killing anything, I was choosing not to be pregnant and give birth. My life and my body simply could not handle it at that time. I also believe that someone has to take a breath of air before you can be accused of snuffing them out, so there is no guilt on my conscience. If you disagree, I’m okay with that, too. People believe different things, we are all different, and that’s what makes us great. We live in a country that believes in freedom and equality, so let my body be free and let my beliefs be equal with yours.
As an abortion provider active nationally with the Abortion Conversation Project, I have been dealing with CPC’s impersonating clinics for decades. It’s hard to understand how it is ok for them to use deliberate misinformation, scare tactics, and delaying strategies but they do. We see the lasting trauma from these encounters in women caught in The Abortion War. That’s why we created some national programs like (url=http://www.ChoiceLinkup.com) to give people accurate unbiased information on health as well as reproductive justice. Also, (url=http://www.MomDadIMpregnant.com) advice for teens and parents in the middle of a pregnancy crisis. We are constantly amazed that women’s real experiences are silenced because only the extremes are heard. Thanks for opening up some conversation. Peg J
I am pro-choice, and anti-abortion.
I have many friends who are pro-life and pro-abortion.
The biggest issue with this continuing debate is the misleading names the two sides give themselves.
Pro-choice, yeah, I’m all for choosing stuff. BK, have it your way. I’m down with that.
Pro-Life, I like living. Life can be pretty good, and even when it kinda sucks, I find it better than the alternative.
The sides need to be honest.
One is pro-abortion. That’s it. They scoff at abstinence only education, and seem put off by adoption.
On the other hand we have anti-abortion, and in many cases, anti-birth control. You will have your baby, and then you will keep it or give it to other people to parent it. Period.
Now since I’m pro-choice, I personally choose the second. And since I’m betting your pro-choice, if you want, although I’ll be disappointed, choose the first.
Pick what you want.
Say what you mean.
“We must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us.”