Pregnancy centers (faith-based) mislead girls, says congressman (Reuters)

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060717/ts_nm/abortion_dc;_ylt=AuVHPsklHIuENcog.Df5xWms0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-
Pregnancy centers mislead girls, says congressman

4 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Advisers working at some federally funded pregnancy resource centers mislead pregnant teens about the risks of abortion, falsely telling callers it raises the risk of breast cancer, infertility and mental illness, a U.S. congressman said on Monday.


Democratic staff on the House of Representatives Government Reform Committee who called up some faith-based pregnancy resource centers said they received incorrect advice aimed at discouraging abortion.

"Twenty of the 23 centers reached by the investigators (87 percent) provided false or misleading information about the health effects of abortion," California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record) said in a statement.

Waxman, the ranking Democrat on the committee, asked staff to check on pregnancy crisis centers, which were given $24 million in federal funding between 2001 and 2005.

also says that 'Female staffers posed as pregnant 17-year-olds"--then called the "centers that have received grants from the Compassion Capital Fund"

more.

[ThomCat]

1. We need a whole lot more people

like Waxman and Kucinich in Washington.

[Norquist Nemesis]

2. Well, I'd say it raises mental illness risks

especially when you have whackos running around calling any woman within 100 feet of a clinic a murderer. It's tough enough to be pregnant without having these Cuckoos-for-Christ shouting obscene accusations at you.

[Ilsa]

3. Did anyone really think it was going to be any different?

I'm sure they lied about how "honest" they were going to be when they applied for the money. Medical matters needs to remain within the domain of medical care, and funded based on science, not personal religious beliefs and so-called "research" bent to meet their whims depending on how many Republicans discovered they were infertile that year.

[mzteris]

4. actually -

they're not "lying" - they really BUHLIEVE what they're saying.

I think the term is

pathological.

[HeardOnTheHill]

5. Actually...

Actually, I'd wager that the clinics could have been completely upfront about their tactics and still gotten their funding. One only need to look at the US's policies for distributing aid to foreign medical clinics to see the immense role anti-abortion policies play.

[MountainLaurel]

6. Unfortunately, that may be the truth

No pun intended.

Don't forget all of the abstinence-only programs that provide outright lies as "facts."

[wicket]

8. "Medical matters needs to remain within the domain of medical care"

Amen to that!!!

:kick:

[NobleCynic]

7. A more serious issue than it seems at first glance

A word-of-mouth disinformation campaign pure and simple. And because word-of-mouth is so strong comparatived to other advertising techniques, especially when coming from an authority figure to a person in a vulnerable situation, this is something we should be much more proactive about in fighting

[EFerrari]

9. Right on, Henry!

:yourock: :yourock: :yourock:

[Czolgosz]

10. TEXAS VOTERS: We have a law in Texas that REQUIRES that all physicians

must provide this MEDICALLY INACCURATE information to all women seeking such reproductive health care services.

The Dallas Morning News asked all the Texas gubernatorial candidates what their position was with regard to issue, AND ONLY CHRIS BELL STOOD UP TO SAY THAT TEXAS SHOULD NOT BE MISINFORMING TEXAS WOMEN SEEKING HEALTH CARE SERVICES AND INFORMATION:

Dallas Morning News: Are Texas laws too restrictive for adult women? Would you favor adding new restrictions or repealing current ones?

Bell: The informed-consent requirements should conform to mainstream medical knowledge, which refutes the link between breast cancer and abortion. Medicaid births cost Texas several hundred million dollars a year; let's spend smart and reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.

Friedman: I have mixed feelings on parental notification. On the counseling requirement, I'm not sure, but I know the less I talk to social workers, the better. No issue with the public-funding restrictions, but I would want to investigate further.

Perry: The governor has worked hard to increase the role of parents and guardians in the major life-changing decisions of their young daughters, and minor abortions have dropped significantly. He recently signed a parental-consent law because he believes it will save young lives by further involving parents.

Strayhorn: Declined to answer.

For those wingnuts who fail to grasp that Kinky Friedman is a Republican (i.e. - he's run for office in the past as a Republican, he's given a campaign interview where he said that he supports Bush's foreign policy and thinks Bush has done well in the Middle East, and he voted for Bush/Cheney in 2004), does this put an end to that NONSENSE?

For those OTHER wingnuts who fail to grasp that Carole Strayhorn is a Republican (i.e. - she's run for office in the past as a Republican, her sons have served as top-level Bush stooges, and she was the tie-breaking vote in favor of Tom DeLay's illegal redistricting plan), does this put an end to that NONSENSE?

[HockeyMom]

22. I want to see the STATISTICS

If the number of abortions have gone down due to parental notification/consent, where are the figures showing that the number of births have gone UP?

You cannot have one without the other.

[w4rma]

11. How the heck would an abortion cause cancer cells to form in a breast?

:wtf: That makes no sense whatsoever.

[Czolgosz]

12. Same way God create Eve out of Adam's rib and global warming's a myth (bad

religion + bad science = bad public policy)

[Pacifist Patriot]

16. Same way fighting toe nail fungus causes a brain tumor?

[VegasWolf]

27. The same way masturbation makes you go blind. nt

[iverglas]

13. I don't pretend to have an informed opinion about Eliot Spitzer

-- but the first I heard of him was when he took these fuckheads on in NYC. And that gives him a leg up in my books.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliot_Spitzer

Safety and health

In 2002, Spitzer's office issued subpoenas to 24 non-profit crisis pregnancy centers that sought to dissuade women from having abortions. Pro-life groups criticized Spitzer, charging that he was harassing the centers on behalf of a political ally, NARAL Pro-Choice America. Spitzer's office argued that the centers used deceptive advertising and practiced medicine without licenses. The centers often use graphic videotapes and photographs to dissuade women from having abortions, and have been accused of deceiving women who come to them for advice.

(! got so excited I typed "blockhead" instead of "blockquote")

More to the point, one of the centres called a young woman client's clergyperson without her consent with the end result that her family found out she was planning to terminate her pregnancy.

Important point:

These outfits feed on women's lack of access to health care. They provide pregnancy tests that some women can't afford, for instance, which is how they lure many in. Getting the results of the pregnancy test is another matter -- read my old net-friend Kelli's tale here:

http://eileen.250x.com/Main/infrmdC/CPC_Sting.htm

My visit to a CPC
-- By: Kelli --
15 November 2001

This CPC identifies itself as a "pregnancy center" in their commercial, which features a pretty young girl looking seriously into the camera and saying, "I'm almost two months pregnant. What'll my parents think? What'll my friends think? I need somebody to talk to - I need to know what my options are." Fade to a voice-over "X Pregnancy Center - free pregnancy tests - call (gives phone number)"

This morning I called and said, "Hi, do ya'll give free pregnancy tests?" "We sure do. Can I make you an appointment?" I did so and arrived at the appointed time. ...

Kelli gives a detailed and fascinating account of her trip.

The latest scam is 3D colour ultrasounds -- this is the mother of all scammers, and the one Spitzer went head to head with:

http://www.expectantmothercare.org/EMC_in_the_news.html

The hitch is -- these gadgets are medical devices (and various other services they pretend to provide are medical services -- even interpreting a pregnancy test is a medical service). And the scam artists are not employing physicians, and are NOT abiding by the rules of medical ethics in treating their "patients".

Just some food for thought. PP exposed these scumbags long ago, which is why telephone companies have for years refused to allow them to advertise in yellow pages under "abortion services", as they had merrily been doing up til then.

[uppityperson]

28. I checked your links, wtf is a "4-D sonogram movie"?

4 dimensional? wow! you get an extra dimension if you go there, since other places offer only 3 dimensions!

I have a friend that experienced what Kelli did. She had several things going on in her life at the time (being a normal complicated human) and, based on what they told her, the pressure they put on her, the threats to call her home and work after she (naively) filled out the form, she did not get an abortion at 6 weeks. Instead she ended up getting a mid-term abortion. She said this was the absolute worst thing that had ever happened to her, quite traumatized by it and she has been continuing to eduate her young friends about their true choices ever since.

I asked, "Are you saying abortion is physically riskier than childbirth." The lady said, "Oh, yes. Millions of women are injured or killed by abortion." Again, to be perfectly clear, I said, "You're telling me legal abortion carries more risk than childbirth?" She said, "Yes, it does." I said I'd like to see some statistics to prove that contention. She insisted it was true and they had the statistics "somewhere around here."

Lies. Why would dilating your cervix to 2 be more likely to cause you to not be able to carry a child to term, when you dilate to 10 giving birth? Why would a legal abortion (done by a professional in safe conditions) be more risky than childbirth?

There are few absolute truths in life, but here are 3. People are complicated, the issue of abortion is complicated, fundamentalists/extremists lie to manipulate people.

[Lindacooks]

14. Repukes lie. That's what they do. No surprise there.

But outrage at the fact that they are getting MY tax dollars.

[progressoid]

15. Golly gee. I'm shocked I tell ya. Just shocked.

That's called false witness and it's a sin! I'm tellin' Gaaawd!

And then I'm sending Henry a thank-you email.

[Megahurtz]

20. Lol!

:D

[roseBudd]

17. SEcond hand smoke causes breast cancer, why aren't they worried about that

[AnOhioan]

18. Bravo, Rep. Waxman

He receives the "good job" pat on the back today.

[NC_Nurse]

19. That's why they call them "faith-based" instead of

fact-based. No surprise there.

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. Does this qualify as medical malpractice?

[rodeodance]

23. if these 'counselors' are licenced by a state (doc, nurse, psychologist et

c)--then yes.

[iverglas]

26. see my post 13

and some of the links in it.

What it actually seems to qualify as is practising medicine without the licence.

I think that's one of the things Spitzer was going after them for.

[bleedingheart]

24. No one will care until it happens to "their woman"

you see...if this were some outfit that were giving false prostate tests results and misleading information to men about their penis problems....well it would be a big deal...

But you see...this is about screwing over women and it doesn't get much attention unless that woman ends up telling her boyfriend that she has to have the baby because the people at the clinic told her she would get cancer....and so now he is going to get stuck with child support...and then....since "his woman"...got misleading information and because he is going to have to pay for support for the next 18 years...he is going to be pissed.

[Mad_Dem_X]

25. I think you're right, unfortunately

Conservatives (esp. conservative males) don't mind screwing over women unless the outcome affects themselves adversely.