Donor Beware: Ottawa Senators' Fake Clinic Charity Re-Visited

'Tis the (ever earlier) season when you'll be hit up by various good causes. In light of the revelation that unbeknownst to Ontario gamblers they were helping to fund a religious anti-choice fake clinic, let's revisit the grandmother of anti-abortion trickery stories in Canada.

I was reminded of it by commenter Sub-Boreal, who reports a similar situation.

And it's not just lottery funds that end up funding the fake crisis centres. Example: I was horrified to discover a couple of years ago that my credit union gave a few thousand to a local centre after polling members on how to divvy up a fund among some charities. I hadn't been a very attentive member, so I'm not sure how the shortlist of charities had been compiled, but I'll be much more vigilant the next time any similar process gets announced.

For the holidays of 2007, the wives and girlfriends -- known as the Better Halves (awww) -- of the Ottawa Senators sponsored a charity dealie with three worthy charities the intended recipients of funds extorted exhorted from loyal Sens fans.

Planned Parenthood raised the alarm that one of the charities, First Place Pregnancy Centre, now rebranded (as they are wont to do) First Place Options, was a lying-liar outfit of the first order.

Before DJ!, deBeauxOs and I blogged at Birth Pangs. We were all over the story as were other bloggers, notably JJ at Unrepentant Old Hippie.

CBC got on it in the person of Heather Mallick. (Her original story has vaporized, as has the re-issue at rabble.)

I found a link to the meaty bit of the story -- her phone conversation with the Senators Foundation prez as they went through the links on First Place's website.

I had an initially cheerful phone interview with Sens Foundation president Dave Ready, who said the Better Halves, when asked to choose three charities, chose: First Place, Kids Help Phone [and] Harmony House (a women's shelter).

First Place was “in line with our mandate,” he said. “We did due diligence and checked that it's a charity.”

“You went to the website?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Did you check on the links?”

“No.”

We went through the First Place site links together. There's a standard disclaimer but First Place hopes we'll find them “helpful.” I told Ready that some of the news headlines appeared to be libellous, particularly the ones linking corporations that make birth control drugs to the Jewish Holocaust and one drug itself to Nazi death camps. Others were grotesque: “One baby in 30 left alive after medical abortion” turns out to be an absurd, unsubstantiated anonymous “news story” in a British entertainment magazine.

You're also guided to a donation page for the American Life League, a hardline group based outside Washington. There's a shop, admittedly very funny, that sells “Abortion is mean” T-shirts for two-year-olds.

They offer booklets explaining that abortion is wrong even in the case of incest. They tell members to scare away raped children outside abortion clinics. They call RU-486 “the anti-human pesticide.” They offer sample letters to the editor to send to outlets that employ, I imagine, columnists like me. One begins: “Planned Parenthood is not 'a good guy.'”

Ready gets more and more quiet as we track this. Soon he is desperate to get off the phone. He will not let me talk to a Better Half, who might well explain that she hadn't known that First Place is financed by the Bethel Pentecostal Church (external - login to view) in Ottawa and its mission — declared on the Bethel website but nowhere on the First Place site — is not just anti-abortion but anti-birth control.

In short, the Sens' Better Halves had stepped in some deep doo-doo.

Sens fans were wondering WTF? Pro-choicers (especially of the Leaf Nation variety) were pointing and laughing.

And bloggers were having a ball.

But before things could get any poopier, the lying liars pulled out. (This was characterized as a "gracious" move by the Fetus Freak Media. Ha. Right.)

We never learned how the Better Halves chose that charity. Was it an inside job? Were they duped?

There was one more move. First Place sued Planned Parenthood for "defamation over comments that the Centre is 'anti-choice'." As that blogger points out, it was pretty odd for one charity to sue another, and likely to be very expensive for both.

We don't know what happened there either since some kind of settlement was reached.

For us, it was lots of fun, especially as we were dubbed by LifeShite Vicious Abortion Crusaders, a title we wear with pride to this day.

But there's another more important takeaway: When someone asks you for dough, ask for details.

(It also explains why fake clinic websites don't link to their more lunatic, racist fellow travellers anymore. In public at least. We know from undercover investigations that they still spew the most outrageous nonsense once they have a live vulnerable woman in their fake clinics.)

Happy giving season!

Stay Classy, Sens Fans

I just watched the first home playoff game for the Ottawa Senators tonight.

The first time it happened I thought there must be something else going on. Then again. Then again.

No. Sens fans were booing when Crosby touched the puck.

Yeah, that Crosby. Scorer of winning goal in the Olympics.

Yeah, that nation's capital. Of Canada. Winner of gold in Olympic hockey.

What classless turds Sens fans are.

Oh. And karma sux, doesn't it? Sens down 2-1 in the series.

Pro-lie movement totally peaceful, eh?

Over at SUZY's Bar and 24-Hour Source of Fetal Pron, there's a stupid argument -- well is there any other kind with pro-liars? -- going on in the comments on who's more vulture-like, us or them. (My co-blogger eloquently responded to that idiocy here.)

So, let's have another look at pro-lie peace, love, and grooviness as demonstrated at the Forced Pregnancy March in Ottawa, shall we?



Yah. No hate there, atall-atall. No violence. No death. Nope.

Shhh . . . Fetus Fetishists Celebrate MASSIVE Victory!

Back in May, we reported that the lying whiners poor little charity, First Place Pregnancy Centre, was suing Planned Parenthood over its role in helping Ottawa Senators fans find out where their donations were being directed by the Senators' wives and girlfriends.

Well, it appears that the matter was quietly settled on September 16.

The two sides issued a joint press release with very few details.

However, that does not deter the spinners at Lifeshite and other Xian organs.

Don Hutchinson, the vice president of the Centre for Faith and Public Life and legal counsel for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, commented on the settlement in a recent editorial and says he thinks the language of the press release makes it appear First Place got the better end of the settlement.

Pull the other one, Don. You really think the fetus fetishists would agree to STFU if they actually 'got the better end of the settlement'?

Because that's what they've done. If Planned Parenthood was so skeert that it ponied up any contrition let alone actual dough, it would have been skeert enough to agree to whatever conditions the fetus fetishists set.

And the fetus fetishists would not have stipulated that there would be nothing more said. There would have been crowing and shrieeking all over the fetus-fetishizing blogosphere. And it wouldn't have taken more than three weeks to come to anyone's attention.

Ah well, we at Birth Pangs don't know what happened and so will not speculate further.

But there is one further good outcome of this snafu. From Christianity.ca:

Unfortunately, caught in the crossfire were the Sens’ Better Halves, a group of women who stood by their cause even after the publicity broke nearly a year ago. Like the army of Saul before Goliath, the Ottawa Senators management and foundation shook in fear and have determined that the Sens’ Better Halves will no longer have the privilege extended other NHL team wives and girlfriends. The Sens’ Better Halves have been told that their fundraising days with the team are over. Apparently, the team’s management hasn’t taken to heart the lesson that King Saul might have learned in order to prevent the kingdom being taken from him. We commend the Sens’ Better Halves for their courage.

We don't understand that stuff about King Saul. We do understand: 'Fool the Sens' management once, shame on you. You do not get the chance to embarrass them twice'.

UPPITY-DATE: Wow. The Canadian LifeShite didn't even try to spin the story, though there is some stupidity about 'charges'.

First published at Birth Pangs.

OK, If we haaaave to. . .

This member of the Birth Pangs team is relatively new to blogging. So, we ask, do we haaaaave to answer an idiotic blogpost that links to us and calls us a liar?* Is that a rule?

All right, all right.

He (we now know it is a 'he' thanks to comments made to this post) says:

That the Sens Better Halves didn't boot the FPPC off the tree raffle charity, as Fern Hill dishonestly suggests here:

"We feminazis didn’t deny anyone funding. It was the Ottawa Senators’ fans — private individuals — who denied the anti-choicers their hard-earned dough."

Um. We're not sure quite what he's saying there. But we don't like that 'dishonestly'.

Poor Little 'Charity' vs. Evul Feminazis, Part 2

Yes indeedy, the story about the poor little 'charity' suing the big evul Planned Parenthood is trying to grow legs. Again, we want to help.

The splendidly named blog, Nexus of Assholery, is fuming.

But before we get to that, a small factual matter. S/He refers to us (without a linky-link, very rude that) and questions our veracity.

Birth Pangs' blogger Fern Hill insists that the links were later removed from the site (something which actually is in the realm of possibility, but hard to accept without proof that they existed in the first place).

Here is the relevant quote from the Communist Broadcasting Corporation (note: this is a news story, not a column by the Devil Incarnate, aka Heather Mallick):

This week, the centre pulled some controversial links about abortion and birth control from its website after articles such as one by CBC.ca columnist Heather Mallick, who reported the links included a story comparing corporations that make birth control drugs to the Jewish Holocaust and a story by an anonymous author with the headline: "One baby in 30 left alive after medical abortion."

Crisis Pregnancy Centre Sues Planned Parenthood

This story -- First Place Pregnancy Centre sues Planned Parenthood of Ottawa -- is trying to grow legs. We at Birth Pangs want to help. (Berlynn and deBeauxOs began our coverage.)

Yesterday LifeShite got into it. Here's its account:

The Crisis Pregnancy Centre of Ottawa, operating under the registered business name First Place Pregnancy Centre, issued a Statement of Claim Tuesday against Planned Parenthood Ottawa and two of its representatives before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. First Place alleges that Planned Parenthood Ottawa interfered with critical funding and defamed their charity putting the charity and the women they serve at risk.

On Monday, November 26th, 2007 the wives and girlfriends of the Ottawa Senators announced the launch of their holiday fundraiser, the "SENSational Tree Raffle", naming First Place as one of three chosen charities. The following day, Planned Parenthood Ottawa issued a press release in which it is alleged that they made false and defamatory statements about First Place. Planned Parenthood's actions caused First Place to withdraw from the fundraiser and forego the thousands of dollars that could have assisted First Place and its clients.

Terri Mazik, Executive Director of First Place Pregnancy Centre asks, "Why did Planned Parenthood Ottawa interfere in this way? While we do not refer for abortion we provide and have always provided nonjudgmental support to women facing an unintended pregnancy in order for them to make an informed decision. We have an obligation to our clients and to the community to realize our mandate and we have therefore decided to take legal action to protect our ability to do so."

Why did Planned Parenthood interfere?

Simple. To let the people buying raffle tickets know where the money was going to go. (The other two recipients were Kids Help Phone and a women's shelter.)

Yeah. Right.

Yeah. Right. The crisis pregnancy centre voluntarily withdrew from receiving one-third of a projected $100,000.

Well, that's what the Fetus Fetishizing News would like to believe.

A Canadian pregnancy center that helps women in difficult pregnancy situations has withdrawn from a fundraiser organized by the wives of the Ottawa Senators hockey team. The move comes after Planned Parenthood officials publicly attacked First Place Pregnancy Centre and falsely accused it of misleading women.

And, of course, LifeShite chimes in (dig the headline):

Pro-Life Crisis Pregnancy Centre Bullied out of Fundraiser by Vicious Abortion Crusaders

Ottawa's First Place Pregnancy Centre has told the charitable foundation of the Ottawa Senators hockey team that it will be pulling out of a fundraising scheme because of negative publicity after attacks in the press on its pro-life position.

Well, we at Birth Pangs are shalled and appocked. We want credit!

As our pal matttbastard said here:

Dammit, it was you and
JJ who lead the unfair persecution!!1

We are the Bullies! We are the Vicious Abortion Crusaders! We are the Unfair Persecutors!

Sheesh. What’s a feminazi got to do to get any respect?

(First published at Birth Pangs.)

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, GOO-OODBYE!

The CBC is on it.

An Ottawa pregnancy centre has pulled links to controversial opinions and assertions about birth control and abortion from its website after media coverage about the funding it receives from Ottawa Senators hockey fans.

First Place Pregnancy Centre made the changes to its website after articles such as one by CBC.ca columnist Heather Mallick, who reported the links included a story comparing corporations that make birth control drugs to the Jewish Holocaust and a story by an anonymous author with the headline: "One baby in 30 left alive after medical abortion."

The centre, which describes itself as a "non-profit and non-political" agency that offers support to people facing unplanned pregnancy, is among three charities that will receive funds raised from raffle tickets sold at Ottawa Senators hockey games between Nov. 29 and Dec. 22.The fundraiser is put on by the Sens Better Halves, the hockey players' wives and girlfriends. The proceeds raised will be matched by the Ottawa Senators Foundation.

Both the centre and the Sens Better Halves declined to be interviewed by CBC News Wednesday.

As jj at Unrepentant Old Hippie said:

Sing it, pro-choice hockey fans: Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, GOO-OODBYE!

UPDATE: The story at that CBC link has been updated with even better news.

n Ottawa charity facing controversy over its anti-abortion philosophy says it does not want to hurt the positive image of the Ottawa Senators Foundation, and will therefore turn down funding raised at Ottawa Senators games.
First Place Pregnancy Centre said it recognizes "the incredible work and generosity" of the Sens Better Halves, the wives and girlfriends of the Ottawa Senators, who chose the centre as one of three charities they would support by selling raffle tickets at Senators home games between Nov. 29 and Dec. 22.

(First published at Birth Pangs.)

Lying Liars Recant (Well, a little)

Well, looky here: It seems that First Place Pregnancy Centre has updated its controversial links page. And check out the date of the update.

Resource Disclaimer:
The list of referral agencies is intended solely for your convenience. None of these agencies are affiliated with First Place, and no express or implied warranty is made concerning the quality of services or goods offered by them. You are therefore cautioned to make your own determination as to the fitness of any such agency and of any services or goods offered by them.
We hope you'll find these links helpful.

Last Updated: 2007-12-03

What controversial links? you ask. The ones Heather Mallick went through with Senators Foundation president, Dave Ready.

We went through the First Place site links together. There's a standard disclaimer but First Place hopes we'll find them "helpful." I told Ready that some of the news headlines appeared to be libellous, particularly the ones linking corporations that make birth control drugs to the Jewish Holocaust and one drug itself to Nazi death camps. Others were grotesque: "One baby in 30 left alive after medical abortion" turns out to be an absurd, unsubstantiated anonymous "news story" in a British entertainment magazine.
You're also guided to a donation page for the American Life League, a hardline group based outside Washington. There's a shop, admittedly very funny, that sells "Abortion is mean" T-shirts for two-year-olds.
They offer booklets explaining that abortion is wrong even in the case of incest. They tell members to scare away raped children outside abortion clinics. They call RU-486 "the anti-human pesticide." They offer sample letters to the editor to send to outlets that employ, I imagine, columnists like me. One begins: "Planned Parenthood is not 'a good guy.'"
Ready gets more and more quiet as we track this. Soon he is desperate to get off the phone. He will not let me talk to a Better Half, who might well explain that she hadn't known that First Place is financed by the Bethel Pentecostal Church in Ottawa and its mission — declared on the Bethel website but nowhere on the First Place site — is not just anti-abortion but anti-birth control.

So, as we reported yesterday, while the Sens are still treating their fans as somnolent cash cows, there has been at least one good thing to come out of this PR fiasco -- a little less lying bullshit on the Interwebz.

UPDATE:
More bloggers weigh in: Feministing and Shameless.

(First published at Birth Pangs.)

Sens to Fans, Women, and Fans of Women: PFO

All right, all right. If Unrepentant Old Hippie can do it, so can we.

First Place Pregnancy Centre, one of the recipients of the Ottawa Senators' wives and girlfriends' holiday fundraising efforts is a registered charity, but under another name. (And we wonder as does jj WTF is up with that.)

So, there.

But there are other developments. Over here, we reported on our undercover activities at SensNation, a fan site.

Today, one of the posters there added this from Planned Parenthood Ottawa:

Got some chain email going around now:
----
This morning we learned that the wives and girlfriends of the Ottawa Senators – the Sens Better Halves – have launched a holiday fundraising campaign that will benefit three organizations: First Place Pregnancy Centre, Kids Help Phone, and Harmony House. While not wanting to undermine the tremendous contribution the Senators have made to this community or the wonderful, empowering work of the Kids Help Phone and Harmony House, we are concerned that they have chosen to support First Place Pregnancy Centre. First Place Pregnancy Centre is an anti-choice organization that will not provide women facing an unintended pregnancy with referrals to abortion services. When we contacted the Ottawa Senators with our concerns, we were told that they chose this organization "knowing the values they espouse" and that they "understand what this organization does and does not do as far as services to women".

While we respect that the Sens "Better Halves" have their own set of values, we are concerned that the public may donate to their fundraising campaign without having a clear picture of where their funding will go. We are asking for your help in raising awareness. If you feel compelled to act, please forward our press release (below and attached) to your contact list and/or join our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6194818286 . We also encourage you to share your concerns directly with the Ottawa Senators by contacting Danielle Robinson, Director of Corporate & Community Services ( robinsond@ottawasenatorsfoundation.com or 613-599-0174).

To which, another poster says:

I wonder if that is going to be the extent of the team's response.

And the original poster replies:

Ya - that was definitely a big PFO from the organization.

Let us repeat what the Senators organization said:

When we contacted the Ottawa Senators with our concerns, we were told that they chose this organization "knowing the values they espouse" and that they "understand what this organization does and does not do as far as services to women".

Got that? PFO!

(First published at Birth Pangs.)

Sens still suck, but their fans are pretty nice

We at Birth Pangs felt that deluded loyal Senators fans should be alerted to the shocking situation that we reported here. We got out the pancake make-up to cover up the Maple Leaf logo tattooed on our forehead and infiltrated the enemy camp.

We had initially added to an existing thread (the link is in the first post) on the 'Better Halves'. A couple of fans took exception to the 'Sens suck' in the title, but some seemed prepared to discuss the matter. One person though asked us to start another thread since the topic of the Sens' support for a fetus fetishizing organization was distracting from the important subject of the upcoming marriage of some player or other. So as a polite noob, we did.

In the discussion there, you'll see that some didn't care that the Sens are lending support and recognition to a fetus fetishizing gang. Others said that as long as the fetus fetishizers weren't actually bombing abortion clinics, it was OK with them too.

It did seem to bother some of them, bless 'em.

We wait on further developments and will report.

UPDATE:
UnrepentantOldHippie weighs in, in her inimitable fashion. And she has an email address for the Sens. Which I could not get to work. :rant:

UPDATE 2:
Beijing York in the comments here brings us the news that Heather Mallick is on the case. And guess what. She finds that First Place Pregnancy Centre is not only, um, economical with the truth to its clients, but also to its supporters. FPPC apparently told the Senators Foundation that it is a registered charity. Well, Heather checked and it is not.

(First published at Birth Pangs.)

Not only do Sens suck, their 'Better Halves' support fetus fetishists

Sports is usually outside the purview of Birth Pangs. But this litle item caught our attention.

The Ottawa Senators' Better Halves are holding a fundraising Tree Raffle.

Tickets will be on sale at home games on Nov. 29, Dec. 1, Dec 15 and Dec. 22. All funds raised through the sale of tickets will be matched by the Sens Foundation and directed to the following charities: First Place Pregnancy Centre, Kids Help Phone Ottawa and Harmony House.

So, what are these charities? Harmony House is a women's shelter. OK. Kids Help Phone, as its name might suggest, offers help to kids in various kinds of distress. Fine. And
First Place Pregnancy Centre is a
Crisis Pregnancy Centre.

Uh-oh.

Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), also known as pregnancy resource centers, are non-profit organizations established by pro-life supporters that work to persuade pregnant women to give birth rather than have abortions, with a focus on women facing unplanned or "crisis" pregnancies. CPCs may advise women regarding parenting and adoption. Some CPCs provide non-medical supportive services to pregnant and parenting women. Most CPCs do not provide medical care.

CPCs are typically supported and staffed by pro-life Christians. Individual CPCs are usually affiliated with a larger pro-life Christian CPC organization, or with a specific Christian church. Some CPCs operate as parachurch organizations. Most are in the United States.

And, it seems, Canada too.

We at Birth Pangs are not the only ones with a teensy problem with this.

A news release from Planned Parenthood Ottawa says:

One of the organizations set to benefit from the money raised is the First Place Pregnancy Centre, an organization in Ottawa that claims to “want you to be empowered to make your choice”, but which will not provide women facing an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy with referrals to abortion services. As a pro-choice organization, Planned Parenthood Ottawa is concerned that generous Senators fans contributing to this fundraising campaign may do so without knowing that a portion of their donations is going to support an anti-choice organization.

So, wittingly or not, the 'Better Halves' (*snerk*) are supporting fetus fetishists.

Generous Sens fans (*snerk*) take note.

(First published at Birth Pangs.)