Anti-abortion Crisis Pregnancy Centers

One of the changes the Alpha Center was required to make by the Poudre School District after the 2001-2002 school year presentations, was full disclosure to parents and students about what kind of organization they are, that is Christian-based, and what the services are that they provide and do not provide.

First, regarding disclosure in the classroom. While in all the presentations I observed, the Alpha Center volunteer displayed an overhead that did state what services they provide and don't provide including that they do not provide abortions or birth control nor referrals to an abortion provider or for birth control, the volunteers did not always note or point out from the overhead that they were a Christian based organization. That is important because their religious beliefs and bias determine what information they withhold from students and the accuracy of information they give to students.

Second, as a result of the complaint I made in 2001, Rocky Mountain High School seemed to be the most prepared with a Parent Opt-Out Form (Copy enclosed) that gave virtually the same information to parents

as what the overhead gave to students in the classroom including that the Alpha Center is Christian-based and doesn't provide abortions and birth control nor make referrals for either.

The teachers in the two presentations I observed at Rocky Mountain High did read the disclosure statement prior to the beginning of the presentations that they had sent home to parents, which included the above disclosure.

However, I am skeptical that the Alpha Center provides students with the overhead when they are not being observed by either an outside person or district administration official. My skepticism is defined by a couple of things the first being my knowledge of their political agenda which is to prevent as many "abortion-minded" women as they can from having an abortion. Female teenagers in the classroom who may become pregnant and become an "abortion-minded woman" someday, would not necessarily choose to seek the Alpha Center out as a resource if they were seriously considering abortion and knew the Alpha Center would not refer them to an abortion provider even if they asked.

"Classroom presentations {by the Alpha Center} are being strategically used to make contact with unsuspecting future, if not current, 'abortion-minded' young girls.
At the Center Magazine, a Christian magazine
supporting crisis pregnancy centers, (CPC's).says,
"CPC's were originally organized to reach the abortion-minded woman."

The first and primary reason for the existence of crisis pregnancy centers is to persuade "abortion-minded" women not to have an abortion. Their religious belief is that abortion is murder and immoral. At The Center, is a Christian magazine supporting crisis pregnancy centers (CPC's). Jerry Thacker, a Bob Jones University alumnus who in January pulled his name from consideration for President Bush's advisory panel on AIDS because of anti-gay remarks, publishes it. Its winter 2000 issue said the number of abortion-minded women coming into CPC's was significantly decreasing and needed to be reversed because, "CPC's were originally organized to reach the abortion-minded woman."

Classroom presentations are being strategically used to make contact with unsuspecting future, if not current, "abortion-minded" young girls. That is precisely why, in addition to the disclosures the district required in 2002, the Alpha Center should have been required to be totally honest with students and disclose that because they are religiously and philosophically opposed to abortion, that if given the opportunity their intention would be to talk a woman out of

having an abortion. In fact, that is the sole reason crisis pregnancy centers like the Alpha Center, are taking steps to now turn their centers into state licensed medical clinics. Becoming a state certified medical clinic is necessary if they want to utilize ultrasound equipment. The new strategy to persuade abortion-minded women not to have an abortion is the use of ultrasound technology. A little further on in this report I will address in depth my specific concerns regarding the Alpha Center's lack of full disclosure to students as it pertains to this new service they offer women and teenagers faced with a crisis pregnancy.

Last year when I confronted the Alpha Center about the lack of full disclosure to parents and students in a letter to the editor in the Fort Collins Coloradoan, executive director Sharon Hindman's response was to say, "This is not what abstinence programs are about," which did not at all speak to the organizations wanton failure to provide full disclosure, especially a Christian-based family values organization who wholeheartedly supports parental notice for minors seeking an abortion.

Also, district officials, after my initial encounter with the Alpha Center's abstinence-only till marriage curriculum and after observing the Alpha Center's presentations, had demanded full-disclosure from the Alpha Center. District officials told me that the Alpha Center expressed some reluctance in doing so, fearing parents would then opt their children out of their presentations.

Secondly, there was absolutely no consistency in the statement of disclosure to parents that was utilized between schools or even teachers within a given school. The Rocky Mountain High School form was the best parent permission form of the two I saw, however, it did not let parents know when the materials to be used in the sex education class would be available for scrutiny by parents, nor that as a fundamentally Christian-based organization, Alpha Center's sex education curriculum is driven and framed by a religious bias. That is a very necessary disclosure to parents. It is information they need to make an informed decision about including or excluding their child from their presentations.

In contrast the parent permission form that Poudre High School used (Copy enclosed)

did not fully disclose to parents who the Alpha Center was and what services they did and did not provide including the all-important facts mentioned above that Rocky Mountain High School's form did. Poudre's form noted that the Alpha Center "is a faith-backed organization, which believes in abstinence, but doesn't include any religious connotations in their presentations," but that is misleading at best. Once again the form doesn't note for parents that the Alpha Center's sex education curriculum is driven and framed by their fundamental Christian religious bias. Such disclosure cannot morally or reasonably be withheld from either parents or students.

The form at Poudre High School was an
Opt-In form whereas the Rocky Mountain High School form was an Opt-Out form providing no consistency whatsoever within the district. At Lesher Junior High one teacher gave me a copy of the form used at Rocky Mountain High School that he said his students received before the Alpha Center's presentation. However, another teacher at Lesher said she had never seen that form and had not passed out any permission form to her students. At Lincoln Junior High the same seemed to be the case.

"Such inconsistency within the district and lack of adherence to the spirit and
letter of Article 25 of the Colorado Revised Statutes for fully informing
and disclosing to parents is unacceptable."

I was invited to speak to the girl's health class at Lincoln Junior High about abstinence along with the Alpha Center in mid-May. While I was most pleased to be asked and was ever so delighted to be able to speak to these young ladies about abstinence in a manner I felt was more appropriate and honest than that of the Alpha Center, I don't believe my presence and the details about Life and Liberty for Women was ever disclosed to parents nor were they given the opportunity to Opt-In or Out-out their children. That was as equally disturbing to me as having the Alpha Center asked to speak without the proper disclosure being made to parents.

Such inconsistency within the district and lack of adherence to the spirit and letter of Article 25 of the Colorado Revised Statues for fully informing and disclosing to parents is unacceptable.

Specifically related to the Alpha Center, who is still presenting their abstinence-only till marriage HIV/STD curriculum in the district

this year, the parent disclosure and permission form that I recommend, would seem to me to be the most correct and appropriate to utilize. However, until that or a similar parental permission form is considered, debated, and adopted district wide, the permission form used by Rocky Mountain High School with some modifications including formulating the permission statement from an Op-out to an Opt-In statement could be used.

The reason for changing from an opt-out to an opt-in permission form is that traditionally or most of the time anyway, a parent is asked to sign a permission slip to give permission for their child to be involved in a school activity not to deny their child permission. Again, it should be a desire of the district to make such forms easy for parents to understand what is being asked of them and again, this should be applied district-wide, in an effort to seek the benefits to parents, students, and the district that consistency can provide.

In addition, for the current Opt-In form that was used by Rocky Mountain High School (copy enclosed) to be valid and present with the utmost accuracy for district-wide use for any current Alpha Center presentations, the Rocky Mountain High School form should be further amended to say:

1. In paragraph one, sentence number one the sentence should be amended to say, .an abstinence-only till marriage education presentation.

2. In paragraph one, third sentence, to say, .presentation helps educate students regarding the option of sexual abstinence until marriage as the healthiest choice...

3. In the second paragraph sentence number four, the sentence should be amended to say, .free ultrasound through the first three months of pregnancy used to date the pregnancy and persuade women thinking about having an abortion not to have an abortion.

4. In the second paragraph sentence number three should be amended to say, .The Alpha

Center does not provide nor make referrals for abortion because our religious and philosophical beliefs are that abortion is murder. We do not provide nor make referrals for contraception because our religious and philosophical beliefs are that teens and adults should be abstinent until they are married, that the IUD and many or most hormonal contraceptives cause an abortion by acting after conception has taken place. Our religious and philosophical belief is that condoms will not always protect a person or provide 100% protection from HIV/AIDS or STDs.

5. In the second paragraph sentence number four should be amended to say, .The Alpha Center does provide free pregnancy tests, free limited ultrasound which we recommend for all women and teenage girls coming into the Alpha Center to be sure how far along the pregnancy is and to give those woman or teenage girls considering an abortion the opportunity to see their baby perhaps hear a heart beat and be persuaded not to have an abortion.

6. In the third paragraph sentence number one, the sentence should be amended to say, "If you wish for your child to participate in this presentation."

7. The final paragraph should be amended to read, "I wish for my child to participate in the H.E.A.R.T. Choices abstinence-only till marriage presentation." The second sentence should be omitted.

8. An additional paragraph should be added between the current second and third paragraphs. It should read. "We offer every

woman and teenage girl, complete confidentiality regarding all the services we provide, including from parents."

9. Finally, as I stated in the Recommendations portion of this report, a parental permission form sent home to each child in the district who will be involved in that quarter in the sex education unit, should define specific days and times that all materials to be used in the health class's sex education STD/HIV will be made available at the school for parental inspection.

www.LifeAndLibertyForWomen.org

info@LifeAndLibertyForWomen.org

your donations are greatly appreciated