Crisis Pregnancy Centre

From UBC Wiki

Introduction

Crisis Pregnancy Centres (CPC's) are clinics that support and promote the continuation of unplanned pregnancies. They are non-profit clinics which provide counselling services for pregnant women and mothers of infants and strictly do not provide abortion services.[1] Such services may include counselling, child rearing resources, adoption referrals and referrals to prenatal care. CPC's are also commonly referred to as Pregnancy Resource Centres, Pregnancy Help Centres, Pregnancy Help Medical Clinics and Pro Life Clinics.[1]They are usually sponsored under one of the three main Pro Life organizations: Birthright International, Care Net and Heartbeat International. In the United States alone, CPC's outnumbered abortion providing clinics by 2,500 to 1,800 as of 2013.[2] In Canada, the number is around 400.[3]

History

The first Crisis Pregnancy Centre opened the United States in response to the legalization of abortion in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1967 by Robert Pearson. Pearson was heavily opposed to abortion rights, and stated the necessity for CPC's as follows: “Obviously, we’re fighting Satan. A killer, who in this case is the girl who wants to kill her baby, has no right to information that will help her kill her baby.” [4]Subsequent CPC's opened up across the country and eventually moved north to Toronto, Canada, in 1968, under the organization Birthright International.

Controversy

Many people put their full faith and trust into health care providers, which can be dangerous in the case of Crisis Pregnancy Centres. Hundreds of women get pregnant annually without planning or wanting a child. Deciding what to do in this situation can be extremely difficult. It may become even more challenging when given misleading or biased information. As mentioned, Crisis Pregnancy Centres are anti-abortion, which is an ongoing debate within our society. Crisis Pregnancy Centres help hundreds of women annually with counselling, prenatal care, and countless other issues that may arise. It has also been argued that Crisis Pregnancy Centres do not always give complete and correct unbiased information pregnant women, which can lead to uneducated decisions. Women need to be given ‘‘‘all’’’ their available options and resources, to make the most educated decisions for their personal situation. It is crucial that health care providers remain unbiased. There have been cases examined where Crisis Pregnancy Centres attempted to frighten or mislead women in their decisions, to promote their anti-abortion views. This may include giving false information regarding the physical, medical and emotional effects of abortion. Dealing with a pregnancy at any stage in a women’s life presents countless challenges and problems, and there are numerous health care providers and centres that are available within our society that will give non-biased and non-judgmental information and support. “No health care provider should pressure you into a decision about your pregnancy. All real family planning clinics will give you information about all your options”. [5]

Crisis Abortion Clinic Practices

Crisis Abortion clinics are usually staffed with volunteers and employees with lack of medical educational background. Pregnant women who visit these clinics seek for accurate information regarding abortion are unaware of the inaccurate information given in order to delay access to abortion and proper services. In turn this practice would result in unethical health decisions and a rise of unintended births. Further investigations of Crisis Abortion Clinic concluded a common medical practice of delivering misleading and false information to women about abortion.[6]

Information provided at the clinic are delivered through written pamphlets, telephone calls, in-person appointment and clinic’s website. However, majority of information is fabricated thus leads to made-up risk regarding abortions. According to the Waxman report, 87% of clinics contacted provided false abortion medical information.[7]

There are four examples of false abortion medical information relayed:

  • “abortion significantly increases their risk of breast cancer”[6]:201
  • “abortion can make it difficult to become pregnant in the future, can cause a significant increase in the risk of ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage”[6]:202
  • “can cause scarring and permanent damage to the uterus”[6]:202
  • “abortion may have a deleterious effect on long-term mental health” [6]:202

Consequently, studies have shown to prove all of claims to be inaccurate and demonstrates that the clinics are not delivering proper information in regards to the benefits, risk and cost of an abortion.[6]

What can be done

Crisis Pregnancy Center provides all the necessary services to women that are pregnant. This includes: • “provide useful and necessary services to pregnant women”[6]:202 • “the information they convey about abortion is scientifically accurate” by the American Center for Law and Justice[6]:202

There are three approaches that can help in the harmful practices

1.Since there are many employees with lack of medical education, and referring enforcing laws to disallow to provide referrals for abortion or contraceptive services.[6]:202

2.Another impact is due to false practices of staffs working in Crisis Pregnancy Centers, enforcing laws prohibiting false advertisement can help protect services given to pregnant women.[6]:202

3.Due to falsification of information given to many teenagers, public health education should bring public awareness campaign to inform and educate women (especially teenagers) about Crisis Pregnancy Centers.[6]:202

Religious Influence

One of many goals of Crisis Abortion Clinic is to convert patients into a religious belief. The common choice of religion is Christianity. Christianity has a religious view of promoting sexual restraint before marriage and in cases where patients are pregnant, they encourage motherhood. In turn, Christianity plays a huge role in promoting and providing services for Crisis Abortion Clinics. Two major Christian non-profit organization that support Crisis Abortion Clinics are Focus on the Family and the Southern Baptist Convention. These organizations provide the clinics with financial assistance to purchase equipment to further provide service to patients. Another form of Christianity involvement would be promotion of clinic’s in magazine articles. The articles would promote clinic’s work of maintaining motherhood and disapproval of abortion.[8]


Overview

CPC's use many methods to persuade women to progress the pregnancy. One example is sonograms[1][9], which use sound waves to show pictures of a fetus in utero. The intent of providing sonograms is to show the women that the fetus is a living thing, hopefully deterring them from an abortion. Other approaches include using false medical information to put off an abortion. Some clinics have been caught over estimating the progress of the pregnancy, leading the woman to believe her pregnancy is further along than it actually is. Others have explained that contraceptives are related to cancer and that condoms do not protect against life threatening sexually transmitted infections.[10] A common method CPC counsellors use when discouraging abortion to their clients is falsely stating the correlation between abortions and breast cancer.[11] As stated by the American Cancer Society, there is no research to support this claim.[12] They reiterate that abortions are more dangerous than carrying a baby to term, which is in fact not true. Another tactic they employ is along the same lines of deception, falsely correlating abortion with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.[13] Care Net, a pro-life advocate that hosts a band of CPC's, states that through their clinics "Lives are saved and women and families are spared the painful effects of abortion."[14] On their website, they also quote a feminist writer named Frederica Mathewes-Green. The quote is as follows: "Abortion is a tragic attempt to escape a desperate situation by an act of violence and self-loss."[14]

Religious Affiliation

Many CPC's are affiliated with Christian practices, either directly or indirectly. One major example is Care Net. Their Vision Statement is as follows: "Our vision is a culture where lives are transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and every woman chooses life for herself and her unborn child."[15] Many other Pro-Life advocates are affiliated with Christianity, including but not limited to: Heartbeat International[16], The Canadian Association of Pregnancy Support Services[17] and the aforementioned Care Net. [14]

Perhaps you could include a section or somehow incorporate how this topic relates to gender, race, or sexuality.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Committee on Government Reform—Minority Staff Special Investigations Division (July 2006). "False and Misleading Health Information Provided by Federally Funded Pregnancy Resource Centers". United States House of Representatives.
  2. Belluck, Pam (2013-01-04). "Pregnancy Centers Gain Influence in Anti-Abortion Arena". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  3. Khandaker, Tamara (June 26, 2013). PHONY ABORTION CLINICS IN CANADA ARE SCARING WOMEN WITH LIES. Vice News.
  4. National Abortion Federation, 2006. Crisis Pregnancy Centres: An Affront To Choice. National Abortion Federation.
  5. Crisis Pregnancy Centres. Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc. (2014) Retrieved April 3 2015 from http://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/pregnancy/crisis-pregnancy-centers
  6. 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 Rosen, J. D. (2012). The Public Health Risks of Crisis Pregnancy Centers. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health Perspect Sex Repro H, 44(3), 201-205.
  7. Committee on Government Reform—Minority Staff Special Investigations Division (July 2006). "False and Misleading Health Information Provided by Federally Funded Pregnancy Resource Centers". United States House of Representatives.
  8. Kelly, K. (2012). In the Name of the Mother: Renegotiating Conservative Women’s Authority in the Crisis Pregnancy Center Movement. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 38(1), 203-230. doi:10.1086/665807
  9. Chandler, Michael Alison (2006-09-09). "Antiabortion Centers Offer Sonograms to Further Cause". Washington Post (Washington Post). p. html. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  10. Bancroft, Caitlin (2013). What I Learned Undercover at a Crisis Pregnancy Center. Huffington Post. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  11. Smith, Joanna (August 7, 2010). "Deception used in counselling women against abortion". Toronto Star.
  12. The American Cancer Society (2014-06-19). Is Abortion Linked to Breast Cancer Retrieved 2014-10-20.
  13. Khandaker, Tamara (June 26, 2013). PHONY ABORTION CLINICS IN CANADA ARE SCARING WOMEN WITH LIES. Vice News.
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 Care Net. About Us Retrieved 2014-11-20.
  15. Care Net. "CareNet: Mission/Vision" Retrieved 2014-11-20.
  16. Heartbeat International About: Our Passion Retrieved 2014-11-20.
  17. CAPSS. About Us:Our Mission Retrieved 2014-11-20.