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Anti-abortion
Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPC's)
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Specific Concerns: Ultrasound
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| In all the presentations
I observed at both Rocky Mountain and Poudre High
Schools, and Lesher and Lincoln Junior Highs, I
was concerned with how the Alpha Center handled
information about the "limited ultrasound" their
center, now a Medical Clinic, offers women. |
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| One volunteer didn't know
what "limited" meant and deferred the question to
Andrea Barber, the center's education director,
who said limited meant through the first three months
of pregnancy but she did not tell students what
it was used for. Two volunteers, using vague language
addressed what the ultrasound was used for. One
volunteer said, in two out of three presentations
he made, that the ultrasound was so you can "see
inside - what's going on "see if a baby- so you
can see what's going |
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on inside you." Andrea
Barber said to students in her presentation at Lincoln
Junior High that they "recommend an ultrasound to
be sure how far along the pregnancy is."
But that is not the whole truth. |
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| The reason full disclosure
about what the ultrasound is used for is so important,
and which teachers and administrators not familiar
with the Alpha Center's anti-abortion bias would
not know, is that the ultrasound is a new strategy
used by crisis pregnancy centers in their effort
to lure abortion-minded women into their center
and prevent as many women as possible from deciding
to have an abortion. The Alpha Center uses the ultrasound
as the leverage to guilt, often unsuspecting, abortion-minded
women into not having an abortion. |
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"Andrea Barber {of the Alpha Center} said
to students.they 'recommend an ultrasound to be sure how far
along the pregnancy is.' But that is not the whole truth.The
Alpha Center uses the ultrasound as the leverage to guilt,
often unsuspecting, abortion-minded women into not having
an abortion."
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| At The Center magazine,
a Christian-based publication designed as a resource
for crisis pregnancy centers, said in its premiere
issue in late 2000, "A major challenge to life-affirming
pregnancy help centers in the next decade will be
to find new methods to attract abortion-minded women.
CPC's {Crisis Pregnancy Centers} are reporting a
disturbing trend. Each year, statistics reveal a
decreasing number of truly abortion-vulnerable women
as clients. Interestingly enough, however, there
has been an increase in the number of clients who
are not abortion-vulnerable, but simply want material
resources such as furniture, maternity clothes,
or baby accessories. Of course, every woman in need
who comes to a pregnancy help center is important,
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| regardless of her attitude
toward abortion and should be helped. However, CPC's
were originally organized to reach the abortion-minded
woman and save her and her baby from abortion. The
concern is that CPC's may no longer be attracting
as many of their potential clients as they once
did. The good news is that leaders of CPC's that
have made the conversion to medical clinics are
providing new services that attract abortion-vulnerable
women.with the use of ultrasound to confirm pregnancies
and the Doppler to allow the woman to hear her baby's
heartbeat, clinics find that there is often an immediate
bonding between the mother and her unborn baby.
That bonding between mother and baby becomes a powerful
force to persuade the mother to choose life." |
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"At the Center Magazine {a resource for
CPC's like the Alpha Center} said
'Because of the powerful impact the ultrasound images have
upon a woman's choice, many pregnancy help centers are now
seriously looking into
providing ultrasound examinations to their abortion-minded
clients.'
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| The Spring 2001 issue
of At the Center Magazine, said in an article titled:
The Language of Life vs. the Language of Choice
by Thomas Glessner, the President of the National
Institute of Family and Life Advocates, accessed
9/2/02 online, "The role of the pregnancy help center
in the life of an abortion-minded woman is to empower
her to choose life. One of the best tools for empowering
women to choose life is the provision of the medical
service of an ultrasound examination. This view
into the amniotic chamber inside her introduces
the mother to her unborn child. In the vast majority
of cases, once such a connection and bonding are
made, the mother chooses life. The National Institute
of Family and Life Advocates recently launched a
program that incorporates the Biblical concept of
choosing life. It is called The Life Choice Project
(TLC). TLC provides pregnancy help centers with
all of the necessary resources, including an ultrasound
machine, to provide medical services to clients
and to empower them to choose life." |
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| And an article in The
Spring 2000 issue of At The Center on their web
site titled: Providing |
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| Limited Obstetrical Ultrasound
said, "The powerful impact of an ultrasound examination
upon a woman contemplating an abortion cannot be
overstated. Because of the powerful impact the ultrasound
images have upon a woman's choice, many pregnancy
help centers are now seriously looking into providing
ultrasound examinations to their abortion-minded
clients." |
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| And in an article entitled
"Now is the Time to Go Medical," in the Autumn 2001
issue of At The Center Magazine, Thomas A. Glessner,
J.D, says, "Pregnancy medical centers are able to
use ultrasound to confirm pregnancy and, in doing
so, introduce the abortion-minded client to her
unborn child. Centers which have made this step
to the next level of operation are finding: (1)
an increase in the number of truly abortion-minded
clients coming to the center and seeking a pregnancy
diagnosis to determine if they are pregnant; and
(2) an increase in the percentage of these abortion-minded
women who change their minds and choose life after
seeing their unborn child on the ultrasound screen."
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| While Andrea Barber offered
no further explanation to students about what "limited
ultrasound" means, the same web page cited above
offers a more precise explanation saying, "A 'limited
ultrasound examination' is one in which an exam
is given to provide specific limited information
regarding the pregnancy.so that the client will
be given adequate information to make a well-informed
decision. For the abortion-minded client, such an
examination can be undertaken to provide information
to confirm the existence of a viable pregnancy and
the existence of a fetal heartbeat." |
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| By not fully disclosing
to students the reason they have now licensed themselves
as Medical Clinics to offer limited ultrasound,
the Alpha Center is once again being deceptive with
an audience that is young, vulnerable, and trusting,
especially of sources their teachers allow into
the classroom. This lack of full-disclosure is as
problematic as the Alpha Center's reluctance last
year to disclose what kind of organization they
were and what services they did or did not provide
because both goes to deceiving what might be one
day "abortion-minded" women or in this case, abortion-minded
teenagers. |
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| Additionally and very
troubling is the fact that parents were again left
totally in the dark about the Alpha Center's new
anti-abortion strategy aimed squarely at their children.
Andrea Barber said to students in one of her presentations
that not only did the Alpha Center provide confidentiality
from parents, but also that a majority of persons
they see are teenagers. Parents are left in the
dark because Poudre School District is out of compliance
with stated district policy requiring such and Article
25 of the Colorado Revised Statues requiring full
disclosure to parents of the curriculum and materials
to be presented. |
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| It is clear that the primary
function of ultrasound screening at the Alpha Center
is to act in creating the opportunity to guilt unsuspecting
abortion-minded women and teenagers, which Ms. Barber
said is the major population they serve, into not
having an abortion. The Alpha Center, which is still
presenting in the Poudre school district, has no
place presenting in the classrooms, if fully disclosing
their purpose in providing limited ultrasound in
their Medical Clinic is not acceptable to them.
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