By now most of us are familiar with crisis pregnancy centers, which masquerade as women's health clinics but do not provide abortions, contraception, or other medical care. Apparently they're also misleading women online. Recently a faux-clinic in Wisconsin purchased a URL that was nearly identical to the URL for the website of Family Planning Health Services, the local women's health clinic -- so women who unwittingly typed in the wrong address were redirected to the anti-choice site.
That's called cybersquatting, and here at Feministing, we're quite familiar with this concept, as some devoted anti-feminists created a parody of our site using a nearly identical URL -- though it now seems to be defunct.
But back to the faux-clinics misleading women online:
Hope Pregnancy Resource Center, which opposes abortion and doesn't offer contraceptives, banked on the fact that some people switch up the ".com"s and ".org"s when typing in Web addresses.Hope bought the domain name www.fphs.com about one year ago, Board Chairman Rick Orrick confirmed.
That address is very similar to www.fphs.org, which is the site owned by Family Planning Health Services, the reproductive health services clinic.
Last week Hope took down the Web site after a reporter for the local paper, City Pages, began asking questions.
In other words, people who intended to get this site actually got this one.
Want to bet that some women who were misdirected to the faux-clinic's site actually ended up going to the wrong clinic in real life (after copying down the phone number and address from the website)? The women's health clinic is pretty sure this has happened:
Coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago I received an email from a friend in the community. He told me that the daughter of one of their employees had gone to one of our family planning clinics. The staff prayed with her for an hour, convinced her that she was a sinner, gave her a Bible and sent her home. He asked if this was a new requirement for our federal grant. (Witty guy)We investigated.
My third thought (after the ‘Someone’s had a breakdown’ and ‘We’ve hired a ringer.’) was that the young woman had visited the phony fphs.com website and been misdirected to the Crisis Pregnancy Center.
The crisis-pregnancy center has changed the similar URL so it no longer redirects visitors, but its own website is still up and running, including this awesomely hypocritical quote: "Remember an informed and empowered woman is one who has taken the time to get good, unbiased, factual information." This from a crisis-pregnancy center that provides misleading information but presents itself -- online and in real life -- as a clinic that provides actual health care for women? Real nice.
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Why is it that these websites always seem to have really snazzy designs? The level of thought that has to go into something that well executed is just sad. I wonder if the place that designed the site (and incidentally, has a link from the site to their own in the bottom corner- Moxie Creative Studio) wouldn't want to hear about the sneakiness. As a designer, I'd be pissed about it.
It pains me that Family Planning Health Services did not register the .com when they registered the .org. It should have just been common sense. When registering a .org, you must get the .com and probably the .net as well. That's about $15 a year and an expense totally worthwhile to avoid incidences such as this.
These places give me hives.
My neighborhood café is run by a local church and it is run to support "several charities." It took me much digging to find out that the non-profit café actually funds a crisis pregnancy center. Arghhhh. Even the funding stream is dishonest and deceptive.
I roast my own coffee and stay home now. Nonetheless, I keep wanting to go do something mean to their sidewalk. Problem is, If I marked them for what they are, my neighbors would likely be even more strongly in favor of them.
"If you are facing an unplanned pregnancy,
you deserve to be accurately informed about
all of your options. We believe women are
strong and capable of making informed
choices. You need to know what kind of help
is available to empower you to make the
decision that’s best for you." - From the opening page
This quote from the site's first page would be hilarious if women and girls knew what they were getting themselves into. The sex ed section reads like an abstinence only manifesto (surprise, surprise.) If I were actually looking for help or health care and found myself at a place like this, I'd be terrified out of my wits.
lilianna28, they have such awesome web design because, unlike providing women with actual health care, there's relatively little cost associated with running a crisis-pregnancy center. It's basically just a PR outfit. So they have a lot of cash to pour into things like flashy web design and landscaping (so they can talk about how pretty their building is next to the run-down abortion clinic next door).
So this CPC (and probably many others) use the same tactic as people who want unsuspecting children to visit their porn sites. Lovely.
I think it's kind of self-defeating to have misleading URLs or names for their CPCs. Doesn't it imply that they know women want abortions and other reproductive health care services and accurate sexuality education? If they really thought they were in the right with this, they'd put a giant picture of a bloody still birth under the word "ABORTION!" instead of "FREE PREGNANCY TESTS!" outside their establishments. They have to be deceptive because, deep down (maybe not even so deep down), they know that nobody would buy their bullshit if they were honest about what they do.
"They have to be deceptive because, deep down (maybe not even so deep down), they know that nobody would buy their bullshit if they were honest about what they do."
Exactly! While they go unexposed, they silently erode womens proper access to reproductive choices and legit health care. If their shanagans were exposed more often in the media, the pro-choice side could build a strong foundation for breaking them down. If more of the public knew how conniving and irrational these zealots are, they would avoid them. I mean, they dont even make a legit effort to show they give a shit about womens reproductive health. Most womenfolk in this nation dont like quacks, especially when you mix it with ones own health and life quality. Especially, since all of this is done simply for propagandist reasons. I know, most of the country would turn on them.
An outfit called Birthright has had ads inside the city buses in my town for at least the last 10 years.
Quotes from their webpage include:
"We are here to help you in making a decision about your pregnancy."
and
"We want you to know the many options available to you."
Pretty words, but what they don't say explicitly is that they're a Pro-Life organisation.
What surprised me when I Googled them is that they're international, with offices here (in Canada), the U.S., Columbia, and South Africa. Their posters are very simple and homey which made me think it was a small local operation - perhaps that's the image they're trying to promote.
How incredibly deceptive. The place sounds lovely until you start picking up on things that sound just so wrong - like someone above said, go to the prevention page and all it says is abstinence is the only way to prevent STIs. Or how about the list of symptoms for "Post-Abortion Stress"...Fearful of God's Punishment. That actually made me laugh.
And this one pisses me off:
"Is this a medical clinic?
Yes, we provide a free limited ultrasound to confirm that you have a viable intrauterine pregnancy."
How terrible for young women to have to deal with these nuts who are the least likely to believe that a woman is "strong and capable of making informed choices." Ha! What bullshit.
And this one pisses me off:
"Is this a medical clinic?
Yes, we provide a free limited ultrasound to confirm that you have a viable intrauterine pregnancy."
That's insane. First of all, I don't think anyone with a "viable intrauterine pregnancy" needs an ultrasound to confirm that. I'm pretty sure the extra 60 pounds you're carrying around is confirmation enough. But to flat out lie and say that they provide medical services should be illegal. I was going to ask Ann if you can say something is a healthcare center if they don't actually provide medical services, but I guess you can.
Every time I see something about "crisis pregnancy centers," I can't help but wonder...
Can't we have "crisis military recruiting centers" -- wherein we actually give accurate information about a) alternatives to military conscription [like jobs] b) how the military misleads recruits c) how the military lies in general?
Really, the "crisis center" is a great idea. Too bad that "cpregnancycs" engage in misinformation, religious xian hegemony, general insane asshattery, and flat lies. However, the model could work for good?...
It occurs to me that perhaps these crooks need a dose of the treatment they subject real women's clinics to on a daily basis (except for the murder and terrorism, of course; we can leave those to the pro-"life" crowd). Pickets, vigils, perhaps the occasional direct action. A sign or two saying QUACKS or Medical Care? Not here!.
Perhaps it's time to start giving agita rather than just receiving it.