I'm glad to be back from my long winter break. I hope you have enjoyed the holiday season and are ready to start discussing reproductive politics again.
I don't know if you came across this article in The New York Times on pregnancy centers (sometimes called "crisis pregnancy centers" or CPCs). It does a nice (and fairly sympathetic) job of describing the work of CPCs, which exist primarily to dissuade women from having abortions.
CPCs are run by pro-life activists. They advertise in billboards, in phone books, and on the Internet in a way that tries to reach women before they would contact or go to an abortion clinic (or an organization that offers abortion as one option or service of many, like Planned Parenthood). Just as an experiment, imagine you are a pregnant women thinking about having an abortion or considering other options (like adoption) and looking for information. Do a pretend search on the Internet. There is a very good chance that among the many results, right near the top, will be a link to a CPC (or "women's care center" or a similarly named organization). It will not necessarily be clear that you are being directed to a pro-life organization.
In towns with an abortion clinic, CPCs will often set up shop right next to the clinic, and use "sidewalk counselors" to try to persuade women entering the abortion clinic to go to the CPC instead.
People who work at CPCs use four basic tactics to dissuade women from having abortions:
Links:
Article in The New York Times (January 4, 2013): Pregnancy Centers Gain Influence in Anti-Abortion Arena
For an excellent description of the various wings of the pro-life movement in the United States, read the following 2008 book by Professor Ziad Munson: The Making of Pro-Life Activists: How Social Movement Mobilization Works
Unpublished report by Professors Ziad Munson and Christopher P. Scheitle on CPCs and their place in the pro-life universe (June 16, 2009): Crisis Pregnancy Centers: The Remaking of the Abortion Debate
I don't know if you came across this article in The New York Times on pregnancy centers (sometimes called "crisis pregnancy centers" or CPCs). It does a nice (and fairly sympathetic) job of describing the work of CPCs, which exist primarily to dissuade women from having abortions.
CPCs are run by pro-life activists. They advertise in billboards, in phone books, and on the Internet in a way that tries to reach women before they would contact or go to an abortion clinic (or an organization that offers abortion as one option or service of many, like Planned Parenthood). Just as an experiment, imagine you are a pregnant women thinking about having an abortion or considering other options (like adoption) and looking for information. Do a pretend search on the Internet. There is a very good chance that among the many results, right near the top, will be a link to a CPC (or "women's care center" or a similarly named organization). It will not necessarily be clear that you are being directed to a pro-life organization.
In towns with an abortion clinic, CPCs will often set up shop right next to the clinic, and use "sidewalk counselors" to try to persuade women entering the abortion clinic to go to the CPC instead.
People who work at CPCs use four basic tactics to dissuade women from having abortions:
- They provide an ultrasound examination to emphasize the humanity of the fetus.
- They provide information on alternatives to abortion, such as adoption.
- They use standard pro-life talking points about the dangers of abortion, such as a post-abortion regret, links between abortion and breast cancer, medical complications from the abortion procedure, etc.
- They offer to provide help to pregnant women through their pregnancy and possibly beyond (diapers and formula, for example).
Pro-life activists fall into different camps, with different philosophies about how best to fight abortion. People who work at CPCs see themselves on the front lines, making concrete changes to women's lives and preventing abortions one at a time.
In recent years, some state legislators have attempted to require pregnant women to receive their pre-abortion counseling from a CPC (rather than receive government-mandated counseling from a person at the abortion clinic itself). That kind of law has not passed yet, I believe, and it would almost certainly be unconstitutional. Some CPCs have also received government funding, in part because some offer abstinence-based birth control counseling. Most recently, CPCs have been in the news because pro-choice state legislators have attempted to require CPCs to more clearly disclose that a) they are pro-life organizations, and b) they do not provide abortion as one of their services. This legislation has run into opposition not just from pro-lifers but also free speech advocates.
Links:
Article in The New York Times (January 4, 2013): Pregnancy Centers Gain Influence in Anti-Abortion Arena
For an excellent description of the various wings of the pro-life movement in the United States, read the following 2008 book by Professor Ziad Munson: The Making of Pro-Life Activists: How Social Movement Mobilization Works
Unpublished report by Professors Ziad Munson and Christopher P. Scheitle on CPCs and their place in the pro-life universe (June 16, 2009): Crisis Pregnancy Centers: The Remaking of the Abortion Debate
Comments