Founder of largest fitness franchise in world (Curves) is pro lifer

[ailsagirl]

=snip=

The born-again Christian from Waco, Texas, did give many hundreds of thousands of dollars to clinics and centers that offer health care to women while working to dissuade them from terminating unwanted pregnancies. He writes generous checks to centers stressing abstinence-only programs for teens. And he withdrew his funding of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and its Race for the Cure because the foundation supports Planned Parenthood, which he strongly opposes.

"I'm not afraid to tell the truth," Heavin told Today's Christian magazine. "There's nothing healthy about abortion."

Heavin told the magazine he's confident that, once his members learn the facts, they'll stay with the program. And some are, while others are making a different choice.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/paynter/180078_paynter30.html

http://www.snopes.com/business/alliance/curves.asp

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3202059

[MrModerate]

1. Let's get our terms right -- this guy is not "pro life" . . .

He's just antiabortion. Not the same thing.

[ailsagirl]

5. If he's against Planned Parenthood, I would say he's pro-life

The article says he's "A committed Pro-life Christian."

[housewolf]

7. The term "pro-life" is a right-wing distortion

They are not "pro-life" - such a term would mean that one supports life under any circumstances. To be "pro-life" one would have to be against the death penalty, against war, against violence of any sort and "pro (FOR)" anything that supports life.

The right-wing created that term in order to more favorably represent their position but it does not honestly reflect their position. Their position is "anti-abortion." They are against abortions, period. They don't allow for any extenuating circumstances such as rape, incest, healthy of the mother or fetus.

The only term that accurately reflects their position is "anti-abortion."

Admittedly, they have been wildly successful at convincing the media and the public at large to accept their distorted use of language. It remains, however, inaccurate regardless of how many newspaper articles, magazine articles or rw spokespeople use it. Those of us who support a woman's right to privacy/choice should NEVER refer to the rw as "pro-life." We add support to their distortion by doing so.

[SusanF_CA]

9. I try to refer

to them as "anti-choicers", since I refer to myself as a Pro-Choice individidual

[ailsagirl]

10. Hi Susan-- welcome to DU (if you haven't already been)

Goot point. How about "anti-pro-choicers?"

:evilgrin:

[EFerrari]

18. Welcome to DU, Susan

:hi:

[ailsagirl]

12. Excellent points-- I've always seen "pro-life" to mean anti-choice

Words are a powerful, powerful weapon. The rightwingers have a good grasp of that. Wish the Dems were more up-to-speed with it!!

[Gormy Cuss]

15. I prefer to use the person's own choice of self description

But if I think it's intentional obfuscation or defensive framing I have no troubled modifying it with "so called" or "self-described."

"So called pro-lifer" sounds like fighting words, doesn't it?

[reprobate]

19. I prefer the term "right wing nutball"

[Hamlette]

14. I'd prefer the term anti choice

I'm anti abortion and VERY pro choice.

I'm sick of the dem party being labled "pro abortion". No one should be pro abortion. It's a difficult decision that should not be taken lightly and is a bad method of birth control.

The real issue is, it is MY private decision, not yours. We should stress that people like the owner of Curves doesn't trust women to make the most difficult decisions about their own lives. He wants to make those decisions for us. We need to push back on the abortion issue but we have allowed them to call us baby killers. We need to make this a privacy and freedom issue.

We should tie to to Schiavo. We should make these decisions in consultation with our doctors and our loved ones, not Tom Delay. If we lose on abortion, will Tom be telling us when we can and can't refuse services?

[EFerrari]

16. It's even worse than that. If he supports the anti choice agenda

he's by definition obstructing good health care for women, which makes him a full time, franchising fraud.

Mr Curves, why don't you want me to be healthy?

[liberalnurse]

2. He will feel the drop in enrollment....

Lets keep the word out there!

[Chicago1]

3. The leader of Curves IS PART OF THE VOTER FRA*D FIASCO

If you go to Wayne Madsen's articles on onlinejournal.com, his company was one of the companies that's involved with the VOTER FR**D DEBACLE.


Waiting for the IMPEACHMENT WHILE THE SCANDALS KEEP UNFOLDING
America's Work Stories
http://usaworkstories.blogspot.com
[e-mail]

[madrchsod]

4. this was brought up a few months ago

and a fellow lady du stated that the sign-up paper work asks for a lot of personal information that to her seemed unnecessary.must be selling information and mailing lists..

[LiberalFighter]

8. That needs to be wrote up more and there is also the Identity Fraud issue

Isn't there a new law that requires businesses to destroy certain types of data that might be used for identity fraud?

[MasonJar]

6. We must all remember these people are pro-birth...not pro-life.

[ailsagirl]

11. Yes!! n/t

[Iris]

13. "There's nothing healthy about abortion."

And having too many children in too short of time is?

or

Having a baby at the age of 12 or 13 is?

or

Giving birth to a dead baby with only 1/2 a brain b/c you couldn't get a third term abortion is?

[EFerrari]

17. Or being consigned to a lifetime of poverty? Or, of permanent

bad health from hard to get prenatal care? Or, reproducing your rapist's genes?

Long list.

[Iris]

21. Yep. I could have gone on and on!

[Casper]

20. These are franchises

The issue of Curves and it's political leanings is not new. I believe it's important to remember that your local Curves is owned locally. And, more than likely, it's owned by a woman. I have a pro-choice, very liberal friend who owns one and I have spoken to her about this "problem". She assured me that there is no pressure from the corporate leadership to support the anti-choice agenda.

Let's face it. If you're worried about corporate influence in our political system, Curves is small potatoes. Do you eat at Wendy's? They are notorious for avidly supporting the anti-choice agenda. What about Home Depot, who many would argue is the #1 retail establishment responsible for getting * elected. Exxon, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart... the list is long.

Your locally owned Curves is probably responsible for pulling a woman, or a group of women into a higher economic bracket. My friend offers health care and other benefits to her employees - something that many companies don't offer any longer.

So, what I'm saying is, before you jump to conclusions about the Curves down the street from you, why not talk to the owners? Find out what their scoop is? And, besides, it is a healthy and proven fitness system.

[kittenpants]

22. good point about it being a franchise.

glad to hear that your friend isn't pressured to conform to Heavin's views. I love the site www.buyblue.org and you're right about Home Depot being a problem!