Yesterday a friend asked if anyone would be available today
to crash an anti-choice event on a nearby college campus. I took a long lunch
to sit in on the “Pregnancy on Campus” discussion, which was just a pro-life
lecture and spent only a few seconds discussing pregnancy on campus.
I know little about pregnancy and felt unequipped, so I printed out NARAL’s 11 Most Common Lies Told by Crisis
Pregnancy Centers to bring with me as well as a careful ear for what services
the speakers’ organizations actually provide to women. Representatives from a
nearby “women’s center,” Project Gabriel, and Project Rachel/Rachel Ministries
came to speak to an audience of about 17, nearly half of them members of the
hosting organizations.
Project Gabriel uses a mentor program to provide pregnant
women with emotional and spiritual support and has a discretionary fund to
provide financial support as well, seeking baby items online for women who need
them. The Rachel group focuses on post-abortion counseling services and
retreats for men and women of all ages but requires guardian attendance for teenagers.
So kids who need help but whose parents would beat their asses for getting
knocked up are clearly SOL.
The speaker from the women’s center had a pretty good
presentation, from a PR standpoint. She declared, “There is no war on women”
and said her organization is “pro-women and pro-choicES,” using Wendy Davis as
a role model of a successful woman who had an unexpected pregnancy at 19. At
which point someone from the gallery shouted out, “AND SHE’S PRO-CHOICE!” I
smiled to learn there was someone in the room who shared my views, and at the
end of the presentation, two of the people in attendance who were affiliated
with some of these groups rushed out to stop and thank me effusively for my attendance
and my respectful questions.
The women’s center offers free pregnancy testing, STI
testing and treatment, and sonograms, as well as referrals to pro-life health
care providers as needed. Their speaker emphasized that their goal is to
support all women regardless of what choice they make, “no pressure, no
shaming,” though not without a strong statement about everyone’s constitutional
right to life. Most of her presentation was a slideshow of Reproduction 101:
How Babies Develop.
She said fetuses feel pain at 20 weeks, and in the question
and answer session, I asked if she had a source for this statement because it
was my understanding that this is widely contested. She said the evidence was
presented at the Capitol this year and influenced lawmakers’ decision to ban
abortion after 20 weeks. (It didn't.) So that’s a NO. There is no science to support the fetal pain assertion.
The Gabriel speaker was quick to tell us about the breast
cancer risk and imply that the media gatekeepers are hiding this from us in
some conspiracy. I asked, “This question may be a bit out there, but can
you speculate why the American Cancer Society, the American Medical
Association, and the National Cancer Society all assert that there is no link between breast cancer and abortion?”
'Well, I can’t speculate why SOME organization would say that, but there are real research studies out there that show this is true.'
The AMA has made some boneheaded choices this year,
but the correlational studies that suggest a link are poorly designed to say
the least.
I got a creepy squishy fetus from the event demonstrating the features of a 20-week-old fetus. It’s the same material as real-feel
sex toys. I also picked up a few brochures: The Pill Kills, which explains that
the hormones altered by birth control cause women to choose abusive mates. And:
Planned Parenthood Exploits Teens (for PROFIT!) A: Provide low-cost health care to disadvantaged women on a
sliding scale payment plan. B: ? C: PROFIT!
Same old anti-choice lies with a friendlier face.
