Most agencies that counsel pregnant women are actually anti-abortion Christian ministries. Their main goal is to stop women from having abortions. These centres are generally not medical facilities, and most of their "counsellors" are volunteers who are not medical professionals and have no recognized training in counselling. Some of these centres are called Crisis Pregnancy Centres or "CPCs", although many of them have different names.
. . .
Previous studies have shown that most CPCs misinform and try to intimidate women out of having abortions. Women describe being harassed, bullied, and given blatantly false information. Counseling techniques used by CPCs frequently induce anxiety and emotional trauma in women considering abortion. Many women say their confidentiality has been violated, and that mistreatment by CPCs has threatened their health.
We wanted to find out what these centres were doing and saying to women in BC, and whether they were engaging in the same type of deceptive or harmful practices. Indeed, we found that they tend to hide their true agenda from women, and dispense inaccurate information about abortion, some of it dangerous.
Download a PDF of the report here.
Here are her recommendations for action:
* Stop deceptive advertising and false representations of CPCs in the media.
* Remove CPCs from referral lists used by the medical profession or social services.
* Ensure that the medical profession and social services have accurate information so they can refer women for abortion appropriately.
* Create more pro-choice counselling in communities, both options and post-abortion.
* Lobby governments and public foundations to stop funding CPCs.
* Ask Canada Revenue Agency to revoke the charity status of CPCs that have it.
Ah, that second-last one reminds me. The Trillium Foundation hasn't got back to me about funding fetus fetishists. I'll get on it.
Great work, Joyce and the Pro-Choice Action Network!
UPDATE: May 15, 2011. Updated to fix link for PDF of the report.
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