This one is a doozy. Via RH Reality Check, we find that the American Pregnancy Association is not only linked to crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), but was originally one itself. Heather Corinna of Scarleteen did the research:
According to the 1999 site archive, the Helpline was established by Mike and Anne Sheaffer in 1995. The couple advertised their desire to adopt a baby on two billboards in Dallas and set up a hotline to respond to the calls from pregnant women the billboards provoked. . . The Schaeffers started the CPC called America's Crisis Pregnancy Helpline in 1995; that CPC was later renamed America's Pregnancy Helpline. In 2003, that organization spawned the American Pregnancy Association. Both the Helpline and the APA continued to exist, ostensibly as separate entities; in reality, at one call center, at the same address.(Emphasis mine)
Corinna discovered this when she unknowingly referred an inquiring teen to the APA's American Pregnancy Helpline and later did some digging only to find more than enough information to link them to anti-choice resources. The sites themselves are suspect enough, using language like "partial birth abortion" and giving implications that breast cancer and infertility could be side effects. And calling the Helpline resulted in the anticipated result; the operator refused to give a Scarleteen volunteer any referrals to abortion services, but gave her a number to a local CPC.
The scariest thing about this is that the reproductive health community at large has been in the dark about this, with many reproductive rights organizations linking to APA on their websites obviously without knowledge of its history, including the popular Medline Plus, which is a project of the National Library of Medicine. The thing is that at first glance, the website offers all accurate information; it's the most insidious of efforts I've seen from a CPC. And I don't doubt we will only find more.
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Can someone tell me what the big deal about CPC's are? Isn't it just an alternative for women who don't want to raise a child but neither want to abort? Why is that an issue?
why don't you check out the rh reality check stories for yourself?
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/tag/cpcs
this is a good primer:
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/07/31/get-real-should-i-visit-a-crisis-pregnancy-center
so, yeah, i'd say being deceptive about critical health issues in the interest of forwarding a political agenda is a big deal.
also, they don't always put themselves forward as "an alternative for women who don't want to raise a child but neither want to abort." they often target populations of people who are considering abortion and try to convince them otherwise, sometimes with questionable information.
Sly, while Planned Parenthood and other women's health providers do provide women with information and resources to exercise all their choices, including adoption and parenthood, both through services they provides such as prenatal care, and through referrals, CPC's are vehemently anti-choice and only provide women with one option. They use coercion and deception to prevent women from getting abortions, regardless of the women's desires. They have also been implicated in forcing women to give up children for adoption.
While CPC's sometimes provide women with some material support, those resources are usually very limited. Also, because CPC's are not medical facilities, they cannot provide women with the services that any woman carrying a pregnancy to term needs.
Here is a comprehensive overview, if you're interested: http://www.prochoice.org/policy/policyreports/cpc.html
That's really a bummer. I've used that site for info on my (wanted) pregnancies, and thought I did enough digging to determine that they didn't have a stance on abortion. Guess I was wrong. If anyone has any suggestions for a good online pregnancy resource, please let me know!
Like "double_jen", in the comment above, i've also used APA as a resource and would love to find out about alternative pregnancy forums.
It's ironic that this feministing post should come today though. Just this morning a young woman posted on the site for advice from other pregnant women. She was concerned that she'd smoked a joint before she knew she was pregnant and was seeking concrete info about what the consequences might be for the baby. When she got lectured by other users for the pot use, she added that she was also worried about how the pregnancy would affect her life and that she was considering an abortion. She was absolutely pummeled by users of the site for considering an abortion.
Anyway, yes. If anyone knows of a feminist pregnancy forum out there, please share the details!
Check out the National Advocates for Pregnant Women:
http://www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org/