I know that some of you who read the blog will not like this so I'm giving you warning. This is only for my benefit. I want people to read it if they want to - it's about abortion rights - or if they don't want to. I DO NOT want to make people angry or even have a bunch of debating posts because I think readers may be tired of it. I am worried about this issue though, because there are good clinics that do help teenagers that are in trouble and this gives them a bad name. I am pretty sure that there is a Catholic one here in Wichita - I do not think it would ever be this bad, and so I wanted to make sure I said that. Again, warning. DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!!
--------------Here's the story — Spread the word!--------------------
An Indiana mother recently accompanied her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend to one of Indiana's Planned Parenthood clinics, but they unwittingly walked into a so-called "crisis pregnancy center" run by an anti-abortion group, one that shared a parking lot with the real Planned Parenthood clinic and was designed expressly to lure Planned Parenthood patients and deceive them.
The group took down the girl's confidential personal information and told her to come back for her appointment, which they said would be in their "other office" (the real Planned Parenthood office nearby). When she arrived for her appointment, not only did the Planned Parenthood staff have no record of her, but the police were there. The "crisis pregnancy center" had called them, claiming that a minor was being forced to have an abortion against her will.
The "crisis pregnancy center" staff then proceeded to wage a campaign of intimidation and harassment over the following days, showing up at the girl's home and calling her father's workplace. Planned Parenthood's clinic director reports that the girl was "scared to death to leave her house." They even went to her school and urged classmates to pressure her not to have an abortion.
The anti-choice movement is setting up these "crisis pregnancy centers" across the country. Some of them have neutral-sounding names and run ads that falsely promise the full range of reproductive health services, but they dispense anti-choice propaganda and intimidation instead. And according to a recent article in The New York Times, there are currently more of these centers in the U.S. than there are actual abortion providers. What's more, these centers have received $60 million in government grants. They're being funded by our tax dollars.
A bill has just been introduced in Congress to stop the fraudulent practices of fake clinics, but it desperately needs more support. Tell your representative to take a stand: anti-choice extremists must not get away with this any longer!
Go to: http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/fake
4 comments:
I read about this too (I think we get the same e-mails), and it is unfortunate that someone would be tricked like that. No matter where someone falls on the abortion issue spectrum, I would hope they would agree that something so personel for a person should be kept private, and these people made an already difficult situation that much worse. I don't think rabid pro-lifers OR rabid pro-choicers do much good for their side. Anyway, I just wanted to give you a nice mellow comment before any potential debate breaks out.
Well, I've got to say, some people are crazy, which is too bad. In this case though, I'd hate to think that one example could result in the loss of what is really a very useful program.
Honestly (and I can already hear the debate gears ramping up as I write that word) this really sounds like a big heap of pro-choice propoganda. It even follows a clear propoganda string.
1. Provide an example.
2. Generalize the "bad guy" in the example to all like-entities.
3. Show a way in which this group of bad guys is getting an unfair advantage (that's only immoral as long as they really are bad guys). (Also, mostly only useful in America).
4. Call to action.
Seriously, I found the original post on AlterNet and was amazed to find people supporting this story and calling anyone who disagreed with it "illogical."
C'mon folks. STATISTICS. Don't fall for claptrap, either from the right, the left, or anywhere inbetween.
Anyway, let's return to this story. Where was the logical fallacy? Some might point to the lack of multiple sources or the lack of an established news-entity making the report, and those are bad things, but that is not the logical fallacy.
Let me provide you with the necessary sentence: "The anti-choice movement is setting up these "crisis pregnancy centers" across the country."
There it is. Step Two: Generalization. The story presumes that because one such center may have acted this way in Indiana, then all others must as well.
It's really pretty sad how blindingly obvious some of these stories can be. Like, the only thing it is missing is a sentence at the end that says "Send this to 10 people in the next ten minutes, or you'll have bad luck for a year."
Now I don't know which organizations are out there to intimidate or help or hurt or any of those other things concerning abortion, but I do think one help-organization's attempt to destroy another one seems a bit wack.
It'd be like the Salvation Army sending out a bulletin on the evils of the GoodWill.
where did you get this information? From a news site or email forward?
Call me a skeptic, but I've read too much hoaxes to believe everything I see.
That, and what they were doing to the girl was illegal, which would have made news somewhere.
As I said before the article I don't think that all crisis pregnancy centers do this. I am fairly certain that this one is probably at the extreme end of the spectrum. As for it being a hoax or not, I did look up the subject in the NY Times and they had an article on it. Unfortunately, I don't have a subscription so I can't get it.
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