How to ID a Fake Clinic

What they do
Fake clinics, or "crisis pregnancy centres," exist to dissuade pregnant people from having abortions. They pretend to be medial clinics or helpful advice agencies.

They are not. They are the front line of anti-choice. Too often they are literal Christian missions out to deny pregnant people's rights, and ultimately to ban abortion.

They lie. About the stage of pregnancy ("too late to have an abortion"). About the risks of abortion. The consequences of abortion. They promise help that doesn't materialize. There have been many undercover exposés of what they do.

Because of their deception, they can be hard to spot -- which is part of their plan.

Name
The term "crisis pregnancy centre" has acquired quite a stink. So now they call themselves "pregnancy care centres," "pregnancy support services," or "pregnancy resource centres." They often use the words "choice" and "options."

Umbrella Group
In Canada, many belong to an umbrella group, Canadian Association of Pregnancy Support Services (CAPSS). (The "C" used to be "Christian.") CAPSS lists its members here.

Location/Signage
One of their tactics is to "co-locate" near real reproductive health clinics, sometimes using similar names. The hope here is that distraught "clients" might mistake the fake clinic for the real one. And people do.

Advertising
Real clinics rarely advertise. Transit ads saying "Pregnant? Confused?" are from fake clinics. Ads also target men as "victims of abortion."

Website
Check "services." The tell here is "post-abortion trauma counselling." Another tell is "self-administered pregnancy tests." Yes, the pee-on-a-stick kind because these are not medical clinics; they have no medical staff.

There may be a disclaimer. (You'll have to look hard for it.) It may say: "We do not refer for abortion or contraception." Or not.

There may be a statement about its mission: "We are a Christian organization..." Or not.

What to do
People have been known to carry sticky notes with "FAKE CLINIC" on them to slap on deceitful advertising. Similarly, "FAKE CLINIC" warning signs have been posted near their locations.

Inform your friends and colleagues. If you are at school, use handouts or bulletin boards. These outfits often target college and university students.

Check out local businesses' "partnerships." If you find a business or communal charity supporting a fake clinic, find out if the sponsor knows the real purpose of the seemingly innocuous "charity."

A US group called Expose Fake Clinics has other actions you can take. It is quite an activist group. You may not want to get so involved, but you can "like" honest reviews and report false advertising.

In Canada, Advertising Standards has an
on-line complaint submission process.

Fake clinics are deliberately deceptive rights-denying, discriminatory outfits. They need to be identified and called out for what they are.

O CAPSS, Where Art Thou?

An umbrella group for fake clinics in Canada is Canadian (formerly Christian) Association of Pregnancy Support Services (CAPSS). It used to have its "core documents" online but pulled them sometime recently. Nonetheless, we at DJ! have obtained copies.

Here is its "Code of Counselling Ethics." Note numbers 6 and 12. They seem to conflict a bit, don't they? But number 12 is pretty straightforward.

"12. I will preserve the client's right to confidentially, and will not release any identifying information verbally or in writing without the client's signed permission (excepting the threat of suicide, homicide, suspected child abuse, or when required by law).

I tweeted that document last night and co-blogger deBeauxOs made this observation.

ah, but #antichoice believe that abortion = murder. There's their loophole. https://t.co/cYma8HgwtX

— deBeauxOs (@deBeauxOs1) July 7, 2016

First Step Options, the Pembroke Ontario outfit that appears to have supplied information THREE TIMES to Faytene Grasseschi's latest scam, "No, Not This One" is a CAPSS member and, therefore, supposedly subscribes to its code of counselling. (Alerts number 5, 9, and 19 here.)

So, last night I had some questions for @CAPSS_RD.

Hey @CAPSS_RD, what do you think of CPCs providing confidential information to #NoNotThisOne? https://t.co/pHoeZ3a7Qh

— Fern Hill (@fernhilldammit) July 7, 2016

.@CAPSS_RD Did you approve this? https://t.co/fJRKKgLjiK Using "tips" from #CPC s to violate clients' privacy. #CrisisPregnancyCentres

— Fern Hill (@fernhilldammit) July 7, 2016

.@CAPSS_RD Do your member #CrisisPregnancyCentres abide by 10 Privacy Principles? https://t.co/UO6hpBjC6x

— Fern Hill (@fernhilldammit) July 7, 2016

.@CAPSS_RD "Personal information shall not be used or disclosed for purposes other than those for which it was collected." Prayer excepted?

— Fern Hill (@fernhilldammit) July 7, 2016

.@CAPSS_RD Look what I found. CAPSS's own code of counselling ethics. Look at no. 12. pic.twitter.com/Nxy7loXH4T

— Fern Hill (@fernhilldammit) July 7, 2016

.@CAPSS_RD Gee, First Step Options in Pembroke is a member. https://t.co/MFRXh2MjoR Might need to talk to them. https://t.co/14ljQTQYFG

— Fern Hill (@fernhilldammit) July 7, 2016

Does @Faytene @NoNotThisOneCAN know she is asking @CAPSS_RD members to violate own code? pic.twitter.com/41VtWV65p2

— Fern Hill (@fernhilldammit) July 7, 2016

.@CAPSS_RD Here's a still from @NoNotThisOneCAN video. Note "CPC" over bldg and "Tips come in". #PrivacyViolation pic.twitter.com/pYcAESfg03

— Fern Hill (@fernhilldammit) July 7, 2016

@CAPSS_RD You see why some of us want #fakeclinics #CPC s regulated and licensed? So #privacyviolations like this can be STOPPED. @Faytene

— Fern Hill (@fernhilldammit) July 7, 2016

Astonishingly, CAPSS has not replied. Whyever not? Last year, CAPSS singled me and Joyce Arthur of Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada out for a prayer assault. You'd think they would take this opportunity to convert me with their rectitude.

Ah well, I live in hope.

INCOMING! (And I totally missed it)

It's hot and I'm having a shitty day. So out of boredom and in need of distraction, I googled "fern hill dammit janet" and look what I found from Canadian (formerly "Christian") Association of Pregnancy Support Services, aka fake clinics/crisis pregnancy centres.

We are excited to be holding the first annual CAPSS National day of Prayer on Thursday, April 2, 2015

There's a lot a jeezuzy stuff, then things get specific. Joyce Arthur of Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada and I are targeted for prayer assaults.

Joyce's many crimes against truth, science, and good care for women are listed -- of course with an emphasis on how successful she'd been lately at fucking up fake clinics' work -- are listed.

Then there's me.

In November 2014, the Ontario Trillium Foundation rescinded the second half ($41,500) of a $83,000 donation to the Lambton, Ontario Crisis Pregnancy Centre due to complaints by Fern Hill of the Dammit Janet blogspot: http://scathinglywrongrightwingnutz.blogspot.ca/.  Fern Hill is the pen name for the blogger and her real identity is anonymous.  If you read through her twitter account she is bent on attacking every CPC across Canada and her current target is the Kamloops Crisis Pregnancy Centre.  Fern Hill and Joyce Arthur are collaborating together to get the charitable status of the Crisis Pregnancy Centres revoked.

In what's gotta be a first for this gang, that description is accurate.

And finally I'm getting my due recognition for it.

The page goes on to instruct the faithful on which particular failings Joyce and I need to improve.

Joyce Arthur & Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada

• For the Holy Spirit to hover over her and to move her towards her own healing journey
• For ARCC members’ eyes be open and see the truth about abortion
• For Joyce Arthur and ARCC members to experience firsthand the love of our Father
• For Joyce Arthur and ARCC members’ eyes to be open to the truth of abortion
• For God to open Joyce Arthur’s eyes to see that Centres and CAPSS does not give out anti-choice misinformation and harassment – that Centres and CAPSS are  not her or ARCC’s enemy
 
 



Fern Hill and her Dammit Janet Blog

• For Fern Hill to experience firsthand the love of our Father
• For Fern Hill’s eyes to be open to the truth of abortion
• That God will nullify the influence that she has
• That as people read her blog that they will read it in light of their own experience and have the courage to speak out

Interesting differences. Joyce gets both the Holy Spirit and "our Father." I get the attention of only "our Father." We both need our eyes opened.

But I love the third incantation for moi.

I'm sitting here feeling quietly INFLUENTIAL. And proud.

But this got me thinking of our old pal and sadly missed sister Vicious Abortion Crusader®, JJ who used to chortle when she was -- pretty regularly -- targetted for prayer assaults. If I were a praying gal myself, I'd lob a few in her direction. Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, JJ, we miss you.

Desperate Crisis Pregnancy Centres: Healthcare or Counselling?

These are trying times for fake abortion centres.

First, the old styling -- "crisis pregnancy centre (CPC)" -- has become so indelibly associated with lies, manipulation, and slut-shaming, they've taken to rebranding themselves as Options/Choice/Life/WhatHaveYou Centres.

Then they were getting dinged by false advertising claims and lawsuits.

According to an analysis by NARAL [US pro-choice organization], 79 percent of the crisis pregnancy centers that advertised on Google indicated that they provided medical services such as abortions, when, in fact, they are focused on counseling services and on providing information about alternatives to abortion.

In response, they began vociferously denying they were medical facilities.

"We aren’t a medical facility,” explains [Lambton Crisis Pregnancy Centre's executive director Kim] LeBlanc.  “We don’t refer people to pediatricians and we don’t refer them to abortion clinics. We aren’t qualified.”

So what then to make of fake clinics acquiring medical equipment and advertising "healthcare services"? Here we reported that we'd found only one such ultrasound-enhanced CPC in Canada.

Now, spurred by a virtual brown envelope over the transom, we report on another, Crossroads Clinic in Brooks, Alberta.

From its Services page:

More than just a pregnancy care center, Crossroads Clinic is a medical facility focusing on all aspects of sexual [!] health.

It lists the usual "Pregnancy Options Counselling," "Abortion Recovery," "Pregnancy Testing" (drugstore pee-on-a-stick type), but also includes "Sexual Abuse or Trauma Recovery" and "STI or STD Testing."

(Anyone ever heard of a CPC offering sexual abuse counselling? Let us know.)

We accessed its charitable status to check on its funding. It reports government funding running at 4-5% of total revenue for the past four years. (No specific sources given.)

Canada Revenue Agency asks its lucky participants to inform them of "new services" and in 2013, Crossroads reported one such.

HEALTH CARE SERVICES ==> Medical professionals provide pregnancy test and sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing and treatment.

Okey-dokey, now they provide healthcare services and indeed ask that "patients" bring their Alberta Health Care number and a photo ID. (Maybe a DJ! reader would like to undertake a query to Alberta Health over that oddity.)

So, beyond aiding patients' peeing on a stick, what do these services entail?

A magic ultrasound machine!

Women come to Crossroads Clinic both to confirm pregnancy and review their options. Having an ultrasound scan by trained medical professionals gives a client the accurate and timely information she needs to make educated decisions about her pregnancy and her future.

We are so blessed to have ultrasound technology on-site.

Blessed, indeed. While its website is all very secular and professional, its Facebook page is way more jesus-y.

As of course it should be since Crossroads is a member of Canadian [formerly Christian] Association of Pregnancy Support Services (CAPSS), whose "core documents" (well worth the read for the Bible verses alone) can be downloaded here.

Regular DJ! readers might remember that it was the affiliation with CAPSS that got the above-mentioned Lambton Crisis Pregnancy Centre stripped of the second part of its Trillium Foundation grant, according to the Sarnia Observer.

Upshot: no matter how they style themselves, what services they try to offer, who they associate with, CPCs in Canada are on the ropes.

And here ends, for now, DJ!'s survey of fake clinics in Alberta.

But we're on a mission here at DAMMIT JANET! We want to see the closure of all fake clinics in Canada.

And we'll do whatever we can to effect that.

Up next, British Columbia, and perhaps more surprisingly, Quebec.

UPDATE: From Jaden Fitzherbert on Twitter: the fake clinic in Fredericton offers ultrasound.