NARAL Pro-Choice Texas : News : Related News

12/1/11 10:59 AM

A center of controversy
Posted: 01/16/2011

By Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje San Antonio Express-News January 26, 2011 The front room of A Woman's Haven, a crisis pregnancy center on San Pedro Avenue, looks much like a doctor's office, right down to the soothing pastel decor and sliding partition window But women dealing with unplanned pregnancies who may have visited the center to find standard medical care instead were shown a video that relayed inaccurate information about abortion along with a religious message. A recent visit by a San Antonio Express-News reporter to the small center raised questions about whether it abides by federal funding rules that prohibit the inappropriate promotion of religion as well as its own monitoring agency's rules against the spreading of false information about abortion. When told of the video's use, the director of the Austin-based group that oversees the center said it no longer will be shown. Crisis pregnancy centers have sparked criticism before. In 2009, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas conducted undercover investigations of four of the 19 state-funded CPC clinics and found they violated either the wrong information standard or the religious promotion rule. CPCs have proliferated since 1973, when the Supreme Court's decision in Roe vs. Wade made abortion legal and touched off a culture war that continues to rage. Hundreds of CPCs now operate across Texas, including six in San Antonio. Of the six, only A Women's Haven accepts public funding. While the CPCs provide certain support services to pregnant women, abortion rights advocates claim they serve a larger purpose: To dissuade women from getting abortions. Those who run the centers say their only agenda is to offer compassionate care so that more women might decide to continue their pregnancies. Critics also say some centers use deceptive advertising on unsuspecting pregnant women who are mistakenly led to believe they will be given comprehensive, unbiased care. What they get instead, critics say, is false information and religious indoctrination. Concerned about misrepresentations of services, Austin and some other cities outside Texas have passed ordinances directing the centers to clearly post that they don't provide abortions, abortion referrals or contraception. Centers in Texas that receive taxpayer money are monitored by the Texas Pregnancy Care Network, a nonprofit created to distribute the funding. Vince Friedewald, executive director of the TPCN, said his organization requires the centers to follow stringent rules to receive funding, among them not to promote any religion or philosophy while providing (statefunded) services to the client, and to use only standard, peer-reviewed medical information.

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NARAL Pro-Choice Texas : News : Related News

12/1/11 10:59 AM

Most people agree that helping women find refuge from coercion or pressure to end their pregnancies is decency, not danger, he wrote. But a recent unannounced visit by an Express-News writer who identified herself as a reporter to the center appeared to be consistent with the findings of NARAL investigators. Located on the North Side, A Woman's Haven last year received $11,000 from the state, the bulk of its funding apart from private donations of money and material goods from a local church and other sources, said Iris Perez, the center's director. An interior sign lists the services offered, such as free pregnancy tests, nonjudgmental counseling and education to make an informed decision. It doesn't state that abortion or abortion referrals are not made. No local ordinance requires it to. Prohibited video Perez is a devout Catholic who said she got involved in the anti-abortion movement when Roe vs. Wade passed. Abortion hurts women, not only physically but spiritually and emotionally, said Perez, who said her life mission is saving the unborn. Women weren't created to kill their babies. Women were created to nurture and protect their babies. Abortion, she said, has been linked to higher rates of suicide, breast cancer and now new research that shows a link to uterine cancer. The center on average deals with 100 clients a month, including phone counseling, she said. Most are lowincome women of color. The youngest was 12. She decided to keep her baby, Perez said. Besides counseling, the center offers maternity clothes, baby supplies and parenting and rsum writing classes, all free. A client can receive services until her baby is 6 months old. Clients also are referred to outside social services, such as food stamps and housing programs. Perez said most clients are also shown a video, Choice of a Lifetime, in which a rape victim relates her deep regrets about having an abortion. I thought the rape was my nightmare. The real nightmare is what I did to myself, the tearful woman says. It's easier to forgive my rapist than forgive myself. The video narrator says women who have had abortions show a 50 percent increase in breast cancer, and that post-abortion stress syndrome can result in deep depression and other psychological problems. Both assertions are disputed by mainstream medical groups. A starburst pattern appears on screen and the narrator intones: What does God want you to do? How does God see your unborn child? Friedewald said his office issued orders to contractors in 2007 to not use the material, which was produced by the Christian conservative group Focus on the Family. He confirmed that use of the video violated standards required by the TPCN and the Health and Human Services Commission, which is supposed to approve all educational materials used in state-funded services. According to the federal rules, no public money can go toward religious materials and counseling, which must be kept separate from secular services provided at charities that accept government funding. TPCN-funded centers go a step further, Friedewald said, and require clients to consent in writing before receiving religious services, which must be provided by a separate staff person. Blake Rocap, a spokesman for NARAL, said his group's undercover investigators were rarely asked to sign

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NARAL Pro-Choice Texas : News : Related News

12/1/11 10:59 AM

consent forms before they were given religious services by a different staff person. Apparently, Friedewald said, an oversight caused A Woman's Haven to miss the order about not using the video. He added that in my conversation with A Woman's Haven, they estimated having used the video two to three times in the past two years. Perez, in a later phone interview, said her center has been using the video for years and acquired it through Birthright International, an umbrella group for a worldwide CPC chain. No state money was used in its purchase, she said, adding that she rarely showed the video and only to clients who have signed religious services consent forms. Funding increased Critics argue CPCs shouldn't receive public money, which comes from mostly federal funds originally targeted for low-income women's health and contraceptive programs. In 2005, a rider attached to a health and human services appropriations bill diverted $2.5 million a year over two years from a $55 million family planning budget to a new program called Alternatives to Abortion. In addition to funding the CPCs, the TPCN provides money to maternity homes, adoption agencies and other social services. Most goes to these latter services, Friedewald said. The pregnancy centers get about 36 percent of the funding. Abortion rights advocates said they do not object to funds going to maternity homes and adoption services, which are heavily regulated. But the centers, they charge, are unlicensed operations that masquerade as medical clinics and confuse distressed women who need accurate information about their options. They note that, at a time when funds for other social service programs are shrinking, the budget for Alternatives to Abortion was increased in 2009, from $2.5 million per year to $4 million per year. . Fran Hagerty of the Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas, which represents family planning services, said giving money to the pregnancy centers is redundant. Once women are convinced to not have an abortion, then (CPCs) refer them to already existing state services, she said. Basically what they provide is emotional support and hand-holding, which is wonderful. But it's also very expensive hand-holding and I don't know if the state should be involved.

NARAL Pro-Choice Texas

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