7/31/2019 What Happens at a Pregnancy Help Center_ARTICLE
1/2
12/1/11 11:ARAL Pro-Choice Texas : News : Related News
Page
ttp://www.prochoicetexas.org/news/headlines/201103241.shtml
What Happens at a Pregnancy Help Center?
Modified:03/28/2011
By Brian Palmer
Slate
March 24, 2011
A new South Dakota law requires women to seek pro-life
counseling at a "pregnancy help center" before
obtaining an abortion. What happens at a pregnancy help
center?
Sonograms, persuasion, and sometimes misinformation. A visit to
a pregnancy help centersometimes called
a crisis pregnancy center or CPCtypically begins with a urine
pregnancy test. In some centers, the counseling
starts during that brief period of uncertainty. In others, they
wait for a positive result. A counselor asks what
options the client is considering, and what her concerns might
be. These talks aren't necessarily limited to
arguments against abortion. Counselors may discuss adoption and
services available to the woman should she
decide to keep the baby. They talk about pregnancy and the
delivery process. In the overwhelming majority of
facilities, the counseling is religious in nature, and there may
be explicit proselytizing. Well-funded clinics also
offer an ultrasound. (Anti-abortion advocates say the procedure
is necessary to confirm the positive test.
Critics argue that CPCs push ultrasounds because they believe a
woman who sees her fetus is more likely to
carry it to term.) The visit can be over within a few minutes,
or it can last several hours, depending on the
client.
This is just a general framework, however. There is tremendous
variation among the 3,000-or-so pregnancy
help centers nationwide. Most of the facilities are affiliated
with one or more of three national groupsCare
Net, Heartbeat International, and the National Institute of
Family and Life Advocates, all of which are led by
mostly evangelical Protestants or Roman Catholics. The umbrella
organizations set some loose standards and
provide around 20 hours of training to the volunteer counseling
staff. But the local affiliates make most of the
decisions, and there are philosophical differences among them.
Some of the more faith-based centers strongly
advise against single motherhood. They counsel the woman to
either marry the father or choose adoption. A
handful of organizations on the other end of the spectrum won't
discuss religion at all unless the client brings
it up first.
Some facilities have even been caught offering bad medical
information to pregnant women. In a 2006
congressional investigation (PDF), several centers told women
over the phone that abortions would increase
their risk for breast cancer and undermine their chances to get
pregnant in the future, even though medical
studies have debunked these claims. Furthermore, certain local
groups have also been accused of questionable
practices such as dressing nonmedical personnel in white
coats.
Pregnancy help centers have also attracted controversy by
showing pictures of aborted babies to their clients.
This was common practice in the late 1960s, but many in the
movement eventually came to view this tactic as
a public relations liability. Today, the national groups advise
against springing such pictures on clients withouttheir consent. A
handful of facilities, however, still view them as a vital
tool.
The move to offer ultrasounds has been the biggest change in
pregnancy help centers over the last 20 years.
Early facilities were constructed to look like medical
clinicsthey featured pastel-painted waiting rooms,
magazines, and a receptionist to take down your nameeven though
they offered no medical services. In the
late 1980s, anti-abortion groups funneled money to the pregnancy
centers to expand their offerings. Focus on
the Family, for example, offered to pay 80 percent of the cost
of an ultrasound machine if a local center could
raise the remainder.
http://www.slate.com/id/2289147/http://www.slate.com/id/2289147/
