Thursday 1 April 2010

Lilith Fair to Fund Crisis Pregnancy Centres??!?!!

When I read this, I hoped it was a sick April Fool's prank.

But no. It seems some hamhanded Googling got them into this weird fix.

Remember Lilith Fair?

Lilith Fair is a concert tour and traveling music festival, founded by Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan, Nettwerk Music Group's Dan Fraser and Terry McBride, and New York talent agent Marty Diamond, which took place during the summers of 1997 to 1999. Its website says that it will return in 2010. It consisted solely of female solo artists and female-led bands. In its 3 years, Lilith Fair raised over $10M for women's charities throughout North America, helping to pave the way for female musicians the world over.

It is coming back this year.

But with a twist. In a laudable effort to have fans choose the lucky charities in each venue, organizers 'pre-selected' some lady-friendly sounding outfits and made the lists voteable.

That pre-selection pissed off potential fans in Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Seattle, and Kansas City when they clicked on their towns and recognized known Crisis Pregnancy Centers, aka Fake Clinics. Also, weirdly, group homes for pregnant teens and religious-based adoption agencies.

So they started a Facebook group to protest.

The RH Reality Check article says that the CPCs were taken off then put back in with a peculiar statement:
The Lilith organizers opened the local charity selection process up to the public because we strongly value and respect your input, and feel you should have a voice in what your money will support. We understand that no one knows these communities better than those who reside in them. In the coming days, we'll open up this selection process even further by allowing you to suggest charities you feel should be recognized and included in the Choose Your Charity campaign. Stay tuned for more information.

Whaaa?

Sarah McLachlan is quite the philanthropist, but I seriously question whether she'd want dough from Lilith Fair to go to these lying, manipulative, Christo-Talibannies.

Aside: I was pleased to see no Christo-Talibannies on Toronto's list.

12 comments:

Saraline said...

Crisis pregnancy centres are the biggest violators of women's rights? WTF, facebook group?

I don't get it. If they didn't want their money to go to these organizations, they could just vote for another organization or not go to Lilith Fair. People are nuts.

fern hill said...

What they're pissed about, Saraline, is that Lilith Fair has always been a pro-woman, even forthrightly feminist organization. Why on earth this weird turn-about?

And the fetus fetishists are merrily freeping the vote, as they always do, trying to promote their cause. There are some excellent charities for women that may lose out.

deBeauxOs said...

In the US, crisis pregnancy centres managed by christozealots are used to coerce women in staying pregnant. When they give birth, support is withdrawn.

As well, these centres become the focus of "solutions" presented to politicians who may be privately pro-choice but play both sides to win votes. Look at the US, see how the christozealots use the centres when they lobby for regulations that restrict access to contraception and abortion.

Cliff said...

The guy who assasinated Doctor Tiller was affiliated with one when he was arressted for kidnapping a teenage girl across state lines to keep her from having an abortion.

Their favorite tactic is to string vulnerable pregnant women along, never flatly telling them that they will NEVER refer them to an abortion provider - until its too late and the woman is past the point of a legal abortion. They also offer a guilt based 'therapy' program designed to make women who have had abortions hate themselves.

They are a sleazy deceptive front group who could not function at all if they were forthright about who they represent and what services they will and will not ever offer. If they were straight up about being a fundamentalist group opposed to abortion and even contraception with every woman who came through their door I would have no problem with them. But they are actively deliberately deceptive.

And they have also capet-bombed google with astroturf sites so it can take a few pages of searching before you find the truth.

fern hill said...

Great minds and all that, Cliff. I just blogged on the CPC battle in Baltimore.

And, I agree, of all their despicable tactics, the run-around is the most directly harmful. When women do find out they are never going to get the help they thought they were getting, it is often too late to get a relatively inexpensive early abortion, so either they unwillingly carry it to term or go for a SHRIEEEK! LATE! TERM! ABORTION!

The fetus fetishists moan about late-term abortions and they are the ones who are creating some of them with these CPC tactics and also with the endless slew of mandatory ultrasounds, mandatory waiting periods, mandatory bullshit lectures. . .

Saraline said...

Woops, I thought that pregnancy crisis centres=abortion clinics. I thought the facebook group was saying that abortion clinics are anti-woman. Reading comprehension FAIL.

Saraline said...

Now that everyone thinks that I'm a pro-choice zealot, I'm trying to wrap my head around the term "pregnancy crisis centre." It's very misleading. Someone who considers their pregnancy a crisis probably doesn't want to go full-term with it. The term "pregnancy crisis centre" certainly fooled me!

deBeauxOs said...

And that's why the christozealots call them "pregnancy crisis centres".

I knew that you're a pro-mom, pro-child & pro-choice feminist Saraline. We put your blog on a list when you first started posting. Welcome back!

fern hill said...

Sorry, Saraline. We here at DJ! (OK, mostly me) have a bit of an obsession with fake clinics and sometimes I forget to put in explanatory links for people new to the evil concept.

Start here with wiki. Then try searching our site for the term. You'll find some hair-raising deception practised by these Christianists on vulnerable women.

fern hill said...

And they are not just in the US. We've got them here too. But in Canada, thanks to our socialist medicare, women can go to real clinics for pregnancy tests and pre-natal care or birth control and abortion and aren't forced by cost to go to fake clinics as they are in the US.

Saraline said...

Well, I'm glad that that's been cleared up! How awful though, that most of them don't even offer any medical care. Even if a pregnant woman wanted to keep her baby, they don't offer prenatal care? Just bible class? That's not right.

deBeauxOs said...

When they contact the PCCs, women are assessed on the likelihood that they will carry their pregnancy to term.

Those who have decided upon abortion are pressured and often gifted with expensive baby stuff.

Those who want to stay pregnant from the outset but have few resources get the leftovers, because the staff must invest their resources on convincing the uncommitted to continue with their unwanted, unplanned pregnancies.

Here's one post I wrote and another one from fern hill.

Search this blogsite using the term "pregnancy crisis centres".

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