Did Crossroads Clinic Cross Its Fingers?

I'm confused. Is Crossroads Clinic pro-choice or anti-choice?

Or maybe, just, um, flexible.


Here they are trumpeting their involvement in The Sexual Assault Response Network.

The Sexual Assault Response Network (SARN) is a collaboration of seven partners including the Sexual Assault Response Committee (SARC), Crossroads Clinic, Cantara Safe House, RCMP, Southern Alberta Child & Family Services (Brooks Office), Victim Service Unit, and Alberta Health Services (AHS) Emergency, Sexual Health Unit, and Social Worker Unit. These agencies have banded together to address an overwhelming need of support for an estimated 3,400 victims of sexual assault in the City of Brooks alone.

Crossroads Clinic, the lead partner, was awarded a grant by the Community Foundation of Southeastern Alberta. This grant allows them to provide training for those working with the program from the various agencies, as well as purchasing a phone and phone plan for the Support Line. Crossroads Clinic staff mans the support line during the day and Cantara Safe House operates the phone during non-business hours.

I checked at the Community Foundation of Southeastern Alberta and found that yes, indeed, Crossroads Clinic Association (Brooks Pregnancy Care Centre) got a grant in Fall 2013 of $6,048 ($1,639 for Crisis Line Phone and $4,409 for Training for Crisis Line).

Since it is the standard of care to provide emergency contraception (EC, or Plan B) after rape/sexual assault, it seemed that this disclaimer sorted rather badly with Crossroads' new role as sexual abuse counsellor.

Note: Crossroads Clinic provides limited medical services. We provide free medical confirmation of pregnancy and Sexual Transmitted Infections screening and limited treatment for women. We do not provide ongoing prenatal care, abortions, birth control or contraceptives.

Kathy Dawson asked the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services on Twitter if Crossroads were a member. Nope.

@fernhilldammit @blueskies366 TY for the tweets. #CrossroadsClinic not an @aasasmembership service under our umbrella http://t.co/bQACkwa5SC

— AASAS (@aasasmembership) February 23, 2015

I emailed two of the legit-looking organizations in the "network," Cantara Safe House and the Sexual Assault Response Committee (SARC) of Medicine Hat, to ask a) is it true that Crossroads is a partner and b) WTF -- do they know that Crossroads is an anti-choice crisis pregnancy centre?

Then I found that SARC has a twitter account. So I asked.

@fernhilldammit SARC is prochoice all of our partners have agreed to refer to AHS Sexual Health for

— Sarcmedicinehat (@SARCmedicinehat) February 23, 2015

@fernhilldammit for options counselling, plan B and medical care

— Sarcmedicinehat (@SARCmedicinehat) February 23, 2015

They call it "options counselling," do they? And EC/Plan B too?

But but but, Plan B is an ABORTIFACIENT!!!!!! Well, according to fetus freaks it is. (Sane people understand how EC actually works.)

So, now we're wondering. If, for the purposes of reaching out to a new group of potential "patients" and/or the six thousand bucks, Crossroads has agreed to act as if it's prochoice, do its fetus-freak donors know? More importantly, does the Canadian (formerly Christian) Association of Pregnancy Support Services know?

If they crossed their fingers behind their backs when agreeing to the prochoice protocols, do the other organizations in the network know and how are they keeping tabs on them?

Crossroads, crossed fingers. . . what's the diff?

Lawless Abortion Round-Up

Our planned blog-burst/tweet-fest to celebrate 26 years of lawless abortion in Canada got somewhat drowned out yesterday by Bell's cause marketing gimmick to benefit mental health. It's a very clever campaign, but I loathe the practice. (Hm, it seems I blogged about it last year.)

There were some blogs: here, one by deBeauxOs and one by me.

Luna weighed in with a thoughtful post on CONtrol, pointing out what programs actually pro-life people would support.

Kev linked to an older and very succinct post of his. It's so succinct, here it is in its entirety.

#M408 Here we go again

This may be the shortest post I'll ever write. When it comes to a woman's right to choose I am entirely closed minded, there is nothing to debate, no concessions to be made. A women has the inviolable right to choose if and when to have an abortion. I may not agree with her choice but so effin what, it isn't my body it's hers.

Medical Students for Choice posted some links to useful information on the chronology of abortion in Canada and on the current situation on access to it. (Spoiler: not as good as it should be.)

The mainstream media contributed some timely stories. One on the state of play on Health Canada's long overdue decision on RU-486 and another on the political reaction.

Mulcair said the mifepristone application is taking longer than normal.

"I certainly hope that politics is not in play," Mulcair said.

"I know that Madame Ambrose has a history on this particular file, so I hope that her personal opinions are not stopping a health solution for some women who want to have [a medical abortion]."

Justin Trudeau again demonstrated his party's unswerving commitment to namby-pambiness on women's rights.

"I expect that Health Canada will go through the proper procedures, and I'm not a medical expert, so I trust that the scientists will do their work to make sure that it goes through the proper procedures," he said.

Another story reported on a study of the risks posed to women in PEI by the total absence of abortion services there.

On Twitter, people were using the hashtags #Morgentaler26, #RU4Choice, and #LawlessAbortion.

Some trolls came out to play, but not many.

We got a shout-out from Ireland.

Canada has had #LawlessAbortion since 1988. Happy #Morgentaler26

— Abortion Rights IE (@freesafelegal) January 28, 2014

And finally, this surprising development: a crowd-sourcing effort to fund a "dark comedy" about abortion, called "Plan B", being made in Canada.

Here's the trailer.



They want to raise $20,000. Help out if you can. (Imagine the exploding fetus fetishist heads you'd be enabling.)

Thanks to all who blogged, tweeted, and retweeted. If I've missed anything, let me know in the comments.

UPDATE: Alison at Creekside's contribution with cameo appearance from Emma the Embryo.

Liars Gotta Lie

When the morning-after pill was approved, the actual mechanisms weren't well understood. It was thought that one way it worked was to prevent implantation, and since most definitions of pregnancy use implantation as the starting point, Plan B didn't cause an abortion.

But the lying liars insist that a whole complete 'person' is formed at the collision of egg and sperm, and so if implantation of the zygote is disrupted -- ABORTION!

From a report today:

Since then, the science has developed a much clearer picture of the drug's effects. Study after study has conclusively shown that emergency contraception (or EC) actually prevents egg release—and without eggs, naturally, fertilization can't happen, let alone implantation. Other studies have in fact shown that the drug is ineffective when taken after a woman has already ovulated. By this year, the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics issued a statement that the three emergency contraception drugs on the market conclusively "do not inhibit implantation."

Will this shut the liars up about 'abortifacient' drugs?

Fat fucking chance.

Just in Time for the Holiday

A new emergency contraception drug.

I believe that women should be given as many options as possible to help prevent unintended pregnancies.

So I'm keen to spread the news that a new longer-acting emergency contraceptive pill is now available.

The new pill, ellaOne, can be taken up to five days after unprotected sex - that's two days later than the current morning-after pill, Levonelle.

It has been available on prescription since October but few people have heard about it, so I want to let women know it's something they can ask their doctor for in an emergency.

ellaOne is the brand name.Ulipristal acetate is the chemical name.

So far it is available only in in Europe and only with a prescription.

The extra time afforded by this drug may be critical in certain cases -- such as a rape victim too scared to report the crime immediately, or, as Antonia reports, a woman who discovers that her contraception regime is being sabotaged by her partner.

The fetus fetishists -- you know where to find them -- are of course SHRIEEEKING about yet another way we evul Culturists of Death can murder single-celled organisms.

But by offering two more days to act to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, this drug will no doubt prevent abortions.

And isn't that what the fetishists supposedly want?

Yeah. That was rhetorical.

SHRIEEEEKING from across the pond

While Merkin fundies are SHRIEEEKING over the FDA's sensible decision to stop playing politics comply with a court order to make emergency contraception available to 17-year-olds, Brit fundies are SHRIEEEEKING about this.

Furious parents called up radio phone-in shows in their hundreds to complain about the first television ad for the morning-after pill, which broke last night.

AEEIIII! An ad! On telly!



It's kinda odd, isn't it? The cartoon woman's surprise/shock/distress countered by the bouncy music. Not to mention the Pink.

So, the usual lying liars trot out their usual lies.

The ProLife Alliance has also condemned the ad claiming: "It is advertised inaccurately as emergency contraception when in fact its major function is to cause the abortion of an embryo that has already been conceived, not as suggested by the name to prevent conception."

Um. No. That's bullshit.

Anyway, good on ya, Britain. May we see such sense here.

Oh Noes! Fundy Politics at the FDA?

Judge orders FDA to let 17-year-olds use pill

The Food and Drug Administration let politics cloud its judgment when it denied teenage girls over-the-counter access to the Plan B morning-after pill, a federal judge said Monday as he ordered the FDA to let 17-year-olds obtain the medication.

U.S. District Judge Edward Korman blasted the FDA's handling of the issue during the Bush administration, saying it had "repeatedly and unreasonably" delayed issuing a decision on the medication, marketed by Montvale, N.J.-based Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. as Plan B.

Korman's ruling said the FDA in several instances had delayed issuing a ruling for suspect reasons and on two occasions took action only to facilitate the confirmation of acting FDA commissioners whose confirmations had been held up by the repeated delays.

"These political considerations, delays, and implausible justifications for decision-making are not the only evidence of a lack of good faith and reasoned decision-making," Korman said. "Indeed, the record is clear that the FDA's course of conduct regarding Plan B departed in significant ways from the agency's normal procedures regarding similar applications to switch a drug product from prescription to non-prescription use."

Is sanity returning?