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Deceptive Crisis Pregnancy Centers in our
Schools
Spring 2002 Newsletter
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Deceptive anti-abortion so-called crisis pregnancy centers
take their
lies and deception into our public schools and how one parent
exposed them and caused the school district to stop the deception.
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| There are approximately
45 antiabortion and so-called crisis pregnancy centers
in Colorado and according to the National Abortion
and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) in
April of 2000; there were more than 3,200 of these
centers nationwide. According to the antiabortion
organization Family Research Council they outnumber
abortion providers by a 4 to 3 margin. We know these
so-called crisis pregnancy centers are fundamentally
Christian based, don't believe in abortion and their
primary goal is to stop as many women as possible
from having an abortion, which of course means they
have to get women into their centers who are considering
an abortion but don't know they are antiabortion
and anti-birth control. These centers won't refer
a woman, even if asked, to not only an abortion
provider in the community but to a doctor for birth
control. It's only been in the last few years that
they've been required to advertise in the phone
book under the title "Abortion |
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| Alternatives," because
of their deceptive advertising practices that mislead
women, including calling their center by names that
don't sound like an antiabortion organization like,
Woman's Resource Center "because it has a much higher
appeal among abortion rights women." says the antiabortion
organization Family Research Council. You can view
a list of so-called crisis pregnancy centers in
your state by going to the web site, www.pregnancycenters.org.
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| In Fort Collins, Colorado
this so-called crisis pregnancy center is called
Alpha Center for Women. They have offices in Fort
Collins and one on the Colorado State University
Campus in Fort Collins. Their name would never indicate
that they are antiabortion. I've known about them
since I came to Fort Collins but it wasn't until
the fall of 2000 that I discovered they'd been bringing
their inaccurate and false information and deception
into our public school system. |
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The Alpha Center (now known
as The Alpha Pregnancy Resource Center)
presenters told our children they were a 24-hour crisis pregnancy
center, never disclosing that they were a Christian antiabortion
organization.
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| In October 2000 they were
invited into my oldest daughter's ninth grade health
class to do a three-day abstinence education presentation.
I let the teacher know I would be observing their
entire presentation (I was the only parent there)
and I was concerned about many things including
their abstinence till marriage message. The teacher
told the Alpha Center they needed to speak to our
children in terms of abstinence until they were
in a committed adult relationship. The Alpha Center
presenters placed their name and number on the board
and told our children they were a 24-hour crisis
pregnancy center, with free pregnancy testing and
support groups for teens and could provide help
if they kept their baby, but they never disclosed
they were a Christian antiabortion organization.
Their presentation troubled me because I wasn't
sure of all the facts they were presenting to our
children. On day two, a nurse affiliated with the
Alpha Center claimed she was quoting the CDC in
one instance when discussing STDS and I've since
found out she lied. |
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| A recent letter to the
editor of the Fort Collins Coloradoan said, "Does
{Loonan} think the Alpha Center makes ups these
statistics and facts?" I replied in a letter of
response, "Yes, I do." Bruce Mirken, Colorado Springs
Independent Newspaper, August 16, 2001 discussing
abstinence-only education programs said, "Sometimes
the information is flat wrong.the curriculum, Choosing
the Best, warns kids about syphilis, stating that
over 100,000 new cases {are} reported each year,
according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
when in fact according to the CDC's STD Surveillance,
only 6,657 cases of primary and secondary syphilis
were reported in 1999." Alpha Center's 2000 presentation
to my daughter's ninth grade class, quoted the CDC
saying, "there are 101,000 cases annually of syphilis."
I wish now that I had taken my concerns to the principal,
the district, and my school board representative
before they got the opportunity to speak in another
one of daughter's classes but I didn't. |
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The school district representatives were
troubled by the Alpha
Center's presentation and by the lack of disclosure too.
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| In October 2001 the Alpha
Center was asked to make a one-day presentation
in my daughters tenth grade health class. I also
was the only parent sitting in on that presentation.
This time their presentation was a little different.
A volunteer gave the entire presentation and quoted
no statistics or studies about anything she laid
out there as fact. She also placed her name and
Alpha Center's number on the board letting our children
know that they were a resource for them if they
ever faced an unintended pregnancy. I was again
extremely troubled by that because never in that
presentation did they disclose to our children they
were Christian based, antiabortion and anti-birth
control. |
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| But that wasn't all that
troubled me. The presenter said, "Condoms aren't
meant to protect you from HIV, just from pregnancy."
I was outraged. She also said, without any proof,
that 50% of students in one of our junior highs
was having oral sex, if you engage in premarital
sex you will have difficulties in bonding in the
future, and you will have a higher chance of experiencing
adultery and divorce. At the end of the presentation,
I asked the question that the Alpha Center never
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| wanted to answer. I asked
them to confirm they were a Christian based organization
that wouldn't refer a woman to an abortion provider
or a doctor for birth control even if asked. They
stammered, couldn't deny it but were very reluctant
to admit to it. |
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| After the presentation
I went straight to the principal of my daughter's
high school and expressed my concerns. He listened
intently, understood and seemed as troubled by the
inaccuracies and the failure to disclose the kind
of organization they were as I was. I went home
and contacted my school board representative who
was outraged as well and began to call the proper
district officials. Within a few weeks, the district
had begun to investigate this organization and sit
in on their presentations. They were troubled by
what they heard too and they were troubled by the
lack of disclosure. The district hadn't taken a
look at and updated their health and sexuality curriculum
in a very long time including the approved list
of appropriate outside organizations that can be
asked to speak in our classrooms. Many teachers
and district personnel had no idea exactly who the
Alpha Center was, they were that good at not disclosing
even to teachers exactly who they were. |
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Poudre School District guidelines now require
the Alpha Center to present
an outline of their presentation to parents before entering
the school, and
they must disclose what kind of organization they are to our
children.
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| In the long term, Poudre
School District officials have now begun the process
of updating their curriculum that will be ready
for next school year. In the short term they've
set some guidelines if the Alpha Center is to present
in our classrooms. Alpha Center must present an
outline of their presentation that can be given
to parents. The Alpha Center expressed reluctance
to do that saying they're afraid some parents may
then opt their children out of the presentation.
It would seem that the parental rights sword has
a double edge. |
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| The district also said
they must disclose what kind of organization they
are to our children. The Alpha Center is also reluctant
to do that. In fact in a letter to the editor in
the local newspaper the executive director defending
the center's strategy not to disclose the truth
about their organization to our children said, "{That}
isn't what abstinence programs are about." But that
is deliberately being deceptive because she knows
perfectly well that her center presents themselves
as a place our |
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| children can go if faced
with an unintended pregnancy. That demands they
disclose to our children they're Christian based,
opposed to abortion and wouldn't refer a woman to
an abortion provider or to a doctor to obtain birth
control. So what is up with the Alpha Center's reluctance
to disclose exactly who they are? |
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| It's about getting unsuspecting
abortion-minded women (a term used by a resource
magazine for crisis pregnancy centers) into their
center, including teens who come without parental
knowledge or consent, so they can preach Christianity
and guilt them into not having an abortion. The
Alpha Center, as all other so-called crisis pregnancy
centers, exists first and foremost to prevent as
many women as possible from having an abortion.
Alpha Center knows abortion-minded women aware of
their opposition to abortion wouldn't likely contact
them, so Alpha Center resorts to deception. Abstinence-only
education gets them into the classroom where they
deliberately choose not to disclose to our children
the truth about their organization. |
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It took only one courageous determined parent
to bring to a halt the
deceptive practices of the Alpha Center within our school
district, their
preying upon our children, their placing at risk our children's
lives.
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| The so-called crisis pregnancy
center Alpha Center will no longer be able to operate
within the Poudre School District, in Fort Collins,
Colorado under the radar, setting their deceptive
sights upon our children. They will have to come
clean about who they are and about the facts. It
took only one courageous determined parent to bring
to a halt their deceptive practices within our school
district, their preying upon our children, their
placing at risk our children's lives. It also took
a school board and school district willing to do
the right and moral thing for the sake of our children.
We are lucky in this district. I am aware that others
across the country aren't so lucky. |
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| If you don't know whether
the local so-called crisis pregnancy center in your
area is making deceptive presentations in your school
district find out, for the sake of all our children.
Listen to their presentations at different grade
levels, noting exactly what they say and whether
they make full disclosure about what kind of organization
they are and then take your documented concerns
to your principal and school board representative.
If they aren't responsive to you write letters to
the editor and contact Life and
Liberty for Women. We will help you. |
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| Peggy Loonan, parent |
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Related letters to the
editor
• So-Called
Crisis Pregnancy Centers |
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