Pro-Choice on Campus: Update from Virginia Commonwealth University

This fall 2012 semester at Virginia Commonwealth University has been an active one in terms of pro-choice advocacy and activism. It started off with a rally at the Virginia Board of Health on September 14^th, to show Virginia legislators that won’t put up with this TRAP (Targeted Regulations for Abortion Providers). Despite our efforts, the Board voted to approve legislation that will greatly diminish access to abortion in the future, and because of this, VCU students are riled up and want to know more. As VCU campus intern for NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, I reigned in that energy and answered many questions. 

I spent the next month, before the voter registration cut-off date, talking to students about pro-choice representation and the power of the youth vote.  I teamed up with some of our campus’ social justice organizations that were tabling in the campus commons—while they were registering students to vote, I chatted with them about anti-choice laws in Virginia and in the nation.

In November, I held a documentary showing of 12^th & Delaware, a documentary showing the hardships of women tricked into going into a Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC) across the street from an abortion clinic and of women trying to get into the abortion clinic, past the protesters from the CPC. After the showing, the many attendees’ questions were answered and a lively discussion was had about those who end up going to Crisis Pregnancy Centers in Virginia as a huge barrier to reproductive freedom.

Since VCU has a big art school and thriving art community, In December I created a gallery style infoshop in the Student Art Space in the student commons. Students, on their way to and from class or on their way to study for exams, popped in to see the display I had set up. Dangling from the ceiling, near the entrance of the art space, I printed out and hung stories of women facing barriers to abortion services in Virginia. On the wall hung the eleven common lies that Crisis Pregnancy Centers tell to women with unwanted pregnancies in order to convince them out of abortions. On pedastals throught the gallery, there were spreads of pamphlets and stickers from NARAL Pro-Choice’s #TruthFail campaign. Curious students were shocked by the outlandish lies of CPCs and touched by the real women’s stories. The info displayed in the info/art show provoked many great conversations about the realities of abortion access.

At the very end of the semester I wrote an opinion piece for the school newspaper, The Commonwealth Times. For the 2012/2013 school year, the student handbook/calendar had two advertisements of local Crisis Pregnancy Centers. Since CPCs prey on college-aged students, I let it be known that such ads are inappropriate and unwanted. My goal in writing the piece was to urge students and administrators alike to speak out against advertisements for fake clinics that could potentially jeopardize the health of VCU students.

This semester, as I worked to raise awareness of issues I am passionate about, I turns out I learned a lot myself. I learned how easy it is to forget that while many are in the know about issues surrounding abortion access, many still aren’t. I learned how easy it is to engage people in a conversation about issues they might not know to be relevant to them. I learned how fun it is to work hard advocating for reproductive health and raising awareness about the barriers to abortion that exist regardless of law. As many consciousness-raising conversations as I had with other students on my campus, there is still much work to be done in the quest for true reproductive freedom.

We Have a New YouTube Channel—Check it Out!!!

By Brooke

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia has a new YouTube Channel! Use it to stay up to date with all of our projects and events. In the last year we have exposed Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s War on Women, released videos detailing our investigation of Crisis Pregnancy Centers, sent highlights from the General Assembly session and more! Click here to subscribe to our channel and keep up with the latest NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia news.

Governor McDonnell’s War on Women: By the Numbers

What I learned at a Crisis Pregnancy Center

Respect and access are key

By Autumn

I promised my husband a date at the movies this past Tuesday night. What he didn’t know was that I was taking him to see 12^th and Delaware which was being screened in a lecture room at Virginia Commonwealth University, courtesy of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia Foundation, NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation and the VCU Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies. It was hardly the kind of place where a guy can do the fake yawn move, but I think that in the end he enjoyed the show. We grabbed some bottles of water and a handful of Starburst candy, gratis, and squeezed into our plastic lecture hall chairs to await the dimming of the lights.

The movie, which features a women’s health clinic and a crisis pregnancy center (CPC) that share the corner of 12^th and Delaware in a Florida town, was extremely well done and completely free of narration, leaving the viewer to simply observe the operations of both organizations as they interact with patients and each other. Observation was all that it took to make me want to scream. The CPC used all their usual harassing and deceptive tactics, including misinforming of the gestational age of the fetus and providing medically-inaccurate information about contraception. My personal *headdesk* moment occurred toward the end of the movie. The film crew visits with 15 year-old Widline whom we met at the CPC in the beginning of the film. In a voiceover, Widline tells us that she decided to keep her baby because the CPC told her she’d be infertile if she aborted. Widline tells us that rather than get a safe abortion, she drinks vinegar and tries to miscarry. Of course, the audience knows that Widline will most likely give birth to a child which she is unable, physically or psychologically to care for.

The panel discussion afterward featured Senator Donald McEachin, D-Henrico, Shelley Abrams, an owner of several women’s health centers in the southern U.S., Vanessa Wellbery from NARAL Pro-Choice America and Joey Richards from NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia. The discussion was very lively from the start and took on a life of its own. In fact, the main topic of the evening was something not even covered in the documentary – the race-based attacks that the anti-choice movement is now disseminating to African-American communities. Senator McEachin noted the entire community must be involved in combating these tactics, and called for greater involvement by pro-choice proponents in refuting these attacks. (For example, see some of the great work by Trust Black Women.)

I would go a step farther. In addition to fighting racist tactics from anti-choice groups, we need to do a better job of explaining the need for choice to the next generation. One way to do this is to ensure that we have comprehensive sex education in our schools, so our young people can learn to make lifelong, healthy choices. Get involved, find out what your school or your child’s school is teaching and make it clear that you want medically-accurate and age-appropriate facts taught.

Everyone deserves respect. And everyone deserves access.

Women deserve respect

By Tannis

I’ve wanted to see 12th & Delaware since I first started reading about it several months ago. So when the national tour to expose crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) stopped in Richmond, VA last Tuesday, I was excited to attend. I was looking forward to the documentary by Academy Award-nominated directors Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, to see what actually goes on behind the doors at a CPC.

It did not disappoint. I walked away feeling sad and angry at the way these centers willfully manipulate, and deceive women in need.

The documentary tells the story of an intersection in Fort Pierce, Florida. On one side of the street there is clinic that provides abortions, on the other a CPC. The directors of the film call these clinics the frontline of the abortion debate.

There are a number of heartbreaking and angering scenes in the film. The viewers see CPC director, Ann, talk about women as “abortion minded” as if they are pawns to be manipulated. At a training, we see her encourage staffers to leave women alone in counseling rooms so that they will read the false anti-abortion propaganda that the CPC sets out for them. In fact she says something to the effect of, “It’s okay to let them sit. If they’re sitting what are they going to do? They’re going to read. And what are they going to read? They’re going to read the information that we want them to read.”

We see her teach staff how to handle a phone call from a patient wanting to know if the CPC performs abortions. She tells her trainees to evade the question and get the patient talking. To “start a conversation,” by asking if the woman is calling for herself or a friend. To ask if the woman has taken a pregnancy test. To then schedule an appointment with the caller to further discuss the pregnancy. She says, “Hook them.” As if women are fish to be caught.

We see the abortion clinic shuttle physicians to and from undisclosed locations, literally cloaked under a sheet to preserve their anonymity, and their safety. We also see an anti-choice protester follow the shuttle and “stake-out” the provider’s car, left for the day in a Wal-Mart parking lot. The directors blur the physician’s license plate, but the harasser makes it clear he has it written down, and that he will do what he can to expose the provider’s identity.

At the abortion clinic we are shown a woman who was lied to by the CPC about the gestational age of her fetus. During her appointment at the clinic the woman is informed that she is closer to 20 weeks pregnant than the ten weeks the CPC told her. Ultrasounds early on in pregnancy are very accurate at determining fetal age, so either the ultrasound technician at the CPC is incompetent, or patients who might be “abortion minded” are intentionally given inaccurate information so that their time to decide simply expires, and they are forced to carry the pregnancy to term.

The final scene in the film was perhaps the most angering. A woman entering the abortion clinic covers her head with a sweatshirt to shield herself from the protesters. She is told by these protestors that they are speaking for her unborn child and that she knows in her heart that she does not want to do this. They begin to offer her support and money. One protestor tells her, “If you need money, I will go to the bank RIGHT NOW, and get whatever you need.” They successfully dissuade the woman from entering the clinic, and the film ends as we watch the woman walk into the CPC where she is encouraged to “pick a stuffed animal, any stuffed animal for your baby.” I’m wondering how a stuffed animal is going to help this woman raise her seventh child.

I believe that women should be supported in their reproductive decisions, FULL STOP. If a woman chooses to have 15 children, that’s her decision. Conversely, if she chooses to have 15 abortions, that is also her decision. I am in no position to assume I know what is better for any woman than a woman does for herself. It is from this position that CPCs anger me. They willfully and intentionally manipulate, harass and disregard decisions women have made for themselves. They believe themselves, as do most anti-choice advocates, to be more capable arbiters of women’s futures than women themselves. Women become nothing more than incidental participants in their anti-choice war, as they want nothing more than to save a fetus.

Per NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia’s data there are at least 52 CPCs in the state. There are about 20 facilities that provide abortion. This means that a woman seeking pregnancy options is more likely to find herself in a CPC than in a comprehensive healthcare facility. And most CPCs are not regulated by law and receive state money from the sale of “Choose Life” license plates.

Keep putting pressure on them, through support to NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia and through letters to your elected representatives, so that in the future women who are seeking support for their reproductive decisions can be confident that they are getting the best information and resources out there, instead of worrying about being manipulated and lied to.

Ending deceptive practices, one CPC at a time

This ad probably does not give you the help you are looking for.

In fact, this ad is not a health care provider at all. Yet, “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) do their best to pretend they are. They do their best to trick people into their doors often only to present them with lies and shame.

But we’re doing something to change that.

Nearly 400 of you stood up against the deception and signed our petition asking a new CPC in Chesterfield, Virginia to break the mold and reject the misinformation, shaming, and other deceptive practices of CPCs around the state.

And guess what? We just took a step forward.

Following our petition campaign, the Chesterfield CPC has a disclaimer on its homepage saying it does not provide or refer for birth control or abortion!

This may seem like a small accomplishment. However, at a time when CPCs actively mislead women about what services they provide, this is one step in the right direction  toward ending deceptive practices and ensuring that CPCs are honest and upfront in their communication. And we couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks!

This victory goes to show that, by keeping the pressure on and continuing to raise awareness, we can ensure that women and couples facing unintended pregnancies can access accurate information and know which facilities will provide them with medically based and unbiased information, referrals, and counseling for all pregnancy options; and which ones will not.

You can help raise continued awareness of CPCs in Virginia by:

• Submitting a letter to the editor or an op-ed piece to your local newspaper.
• Helping us bring one of our “Crisis Pregnancy Center Road Tour” events to your community.
• Making a contribution to NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia today to invest in our work on this and other reproductive rights and health issues! Sign up to volunteer with us!

Contact joey@naralva.org if you have any questions about getting more involved.

Thanks again for all you do to promote reproductive justice in Virginia!



It’s campaign season again — and not just the one you’re thinking of!

Hey federal government employees – did you know you can support the NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia Foundation through the Combined Federal Campaign? The Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) is a workplace giving program that allows employees of the federal government to easily contribute to charitable organizations, with donations automatically deducted from your paycheck.

The 2010 CFC campaign season started on September 1 and will continue through December 15.  If you participate in the Combined Federal Campaign of the National Capital Area, the Potomac Combined Federal Campaign, or the Combined Federal Campaign of the N. Shendandoah Valley, please designate NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia Foundation, CFC ID #83291, on your pledge form this year!

So you may be asking yourself – just what is the NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia Foundation (NPCVF) and how is it different than just “NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia”?

NPCVF, a 501(c)(3) organization, is our research and educational arm. The Foundation’s mission is support and protect a woman’s right to make the full range of reproductive choices through proactive research and educational initiatives, training programs, and public policy efforts. The Foundation’s program work is a critical complement to the direct political and lobbying work of our main 501(c)(4) organization.

A few of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia Foundation’s current programs include:

Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPC) investigation and awareness:

• A year-long undercover investigation of “crisis pregnancy centers” in Virginia. (Read our report, “Crisis Pregnancy Centers Revealed,” for our findings about the deceptive tactics and misinformation used by these fake clinics.)
• Support Without Shame campus CPC awareness campaign: This past year, a campus intern and campaign at the University of  Mary Washington raised awareness about CPCs in the area and resulted in changes to the Student Health Center’s website and referral policy. (We’re bringing this campaign to more campuses around Virginia this fall!)
• Our Crisis Pregnancy Center Road Tour is traveling around the state sharing the findings of our investigation.
• Check out press coverage of our CPC work in TIME Magazine!

Advocating for comprehensive sex education: We have an organizer working to raise awareness and support for increased comprehensive, medically accurate sex education in the Petersburg, VA school system. (The city of Petersburg has Virginia’s highest teen pregnancy rate and one of the highest rates of HIV/STI infections in the state!)

Emergency Contraception access survey: A survey of the availability of emergency contraception and the accuracy of information shared about EC at pharmacies across Virginia (Report coming soon! See regional maps of the results of our survey here.)

The generous contributions NPCVF received through last year’s CFC have been vital to the success of our Foundation’s research and educational work – and we hope to get even more support this year!  So if you’re a federal employee, please consider designating the NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia Foundation, CFC ID #83291, on your pledge form this year to help us continue and expand our work.

If you’re not a federal employee or your workplace doesn’t participate in one of the campaigns listed above, please share this information with a pro-choice Virginian who is – or you can always make a tax-deductible contribution to support the NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia Foundation yourself!

Pro-choice and pro-woman

You have spoken up Virginia. In only two weeks, nearly 400 of our dedicated supporters and activists have signed our petition encouraging the new Chesterfield County crisis pregnancy center to commit to higher standards of accountability. You are by now familiar with our simple challenge to the “Pregnancy Help Center of Chester”:

Be honest and upfront in advertising and other communication with women.

Share only scientifically and medically accurate information.

Support comprehensive, science-based sex education in their community.

That’s it. This is not a difficult task. Any group that claims to support and assist women should have no problem being upfront with medically accurate, honest information and with what services one does and does not provide. A recent article in TIME Magazine has CPCs pretending to be victims. We know better. We know from our in-depth investigation of CPCs throughout Virginia, that they overwhelmingly promote inaccurate information (such as “all condoms have holes,” and abortion will lead to breast cancer), and purposely advertise as comprehensive health providers when they are anything but. Attempting to convince every woman to carry her pregnancy to term no matter what her circumstances in life or personal convictions, and supporting abstinence as the only acceptable contraceptive method is not comprehensive care. It is, plain and simple, bullying and insensitive propagation of ideology.

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia believes that the women of the commonwealth deserve better. We believe that all women deserve comprehensive, accurate, and unbiased information when making decisions about carrying a pregnancy to term. Some women will choose to carry the pregnancy to term and raise the child; some will choose to carry the pregnancy to term and place the child for adoption; some will choose to terminate the pregnancy. All of these women deserve the right to information and to make their own choice.

Choice is about trusting women. Simple as that. If we believe in the equality of women, and trust that women can and should decide what is best for their own lives, then we support the myriad of choices available to women concerning pregnancy. We support access to and information about all contraceptive methods, sex education, pre-, peri-, and post-natal care, adoption services, abortion services, paid family leave, access to areas for breastfeeding when returning to work after a pregnancy, and many more. Pro-choice is pro-woman, pro-family, pro-information.

This why challenging the “Pregnancy Help Center of Chester” specifically, and CPCs generally, is so important. We trust women, but we must fight to ensure that women have access to accurate and unbiased sources of information. Rhetoric and passion are necessary, but access is essential. Women must be able to go to comprehensive, full service medical providers, not misleading, ideology-based fake “clinics.”

Will the Chester CPC answer the challenge? Will they say and show that they trust women? Or will they be part of the same detrimental, anti-woman dogma? Let’s find out together. Help us protect choice in Virginia and raise awareness of CPCs by:

• Sharing the petition with your friends and family.
• Submitting a letter to the editor or an op-ed piece to your local newspaper.
• Helping us bring one of our “Crisis Pregnancy Center Road Tour” events to your community.
• Making a contribution to NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia today to invest in our work on this and other reproductive rights and health issues!

Contact us at  info@naralva.org if you have any questions about getting more involved.

Yours in choice.

Time magazine misses some key points in story about CPCs

A brand-new TIME article about “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) mentioned our nearly year-long, substantive investigation into identifiable CPCs in the commonwealth of Virginia. If you haven’t read the report, be sure to check out all our findings for yourself. We are excited that national media like TIME magazine are highlighting the amazing work of our volunteers and staff to stop these deceptive facilities. But we don’t think the article painted the whole picture about our amazing work.

Crisis pregnancy centers are deceptive facilities. They purposefully mislead and overwhelmingly provide inaccurate information to women concerning pregnancy-related options. NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia and our supporters and volunteers have worked arduously to promote accurate and science based information and access to all resources for pregnant women. We have worked to ensure that the Virginia “Choose Life” license plate revenue does not go to suspect (and potentially non-existent) entities. (The Washington Post published an article that exposed how one CPC getting money doesn’t even exist.) We have worked to ensure that college campuses do not refer students to centers that will not provide medically accurate information. We have worked to ensure that CPCs do not utilize deception and evasion to trick people into coming into their facilities, by asking student health centers and the state legislature to support and promote policies that simply ask CPCs to be honest about what services they do (and do NOT) provide. This should not be difficult for any organization that truly has nothing to hide.

In addition to this work that we have, and will continue to do, we are challenging any new crisis pregnancy centers to hold themselves accountable. When we learned of a new CPC opening in Chesterfield County, Virginia, we launched a petition asking that the clinic hold themselves to a higher standard and commit to being honest and upfront in their advertising and other communication with women, sharing only scientifically and medically accurate information, and supporting comprehensive, science-based sex education in their community.

As we said from the beginning, no matter where a person stands on the issue of abortion, no one believes women should be mislead about their health-care options.

We will continue to work for the people of Virginia to make sure they have access to accurate information, access to and knowledge of all their options, and access to all choices, whatever they deem appropriate for their own lives.

We are pro-choice  Virginia!

Will Virginia’s newest “crisis pregnancy center” tell the truth?

There are at least 52 crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) in Virginia (See a map here). There are less than half that many comprehensive reproductive health clinics in the state. It’s a sad state of affairs when anti-choice, dishonest, fake clinics outnumber actual providers, especially for the women who are seeking unbiased, accurate healthcare information.

We are sad to report that another CPC is coming to our state. Calling themselves the “Pregnancy Help Center of Chesterfield,” the CPC plans to open in Chesterfield, Virginia (between Richmond and Petersburg) this fall.

We don’t know if this CPC plans to follow in the footsteps of the majority of CPCs across the country but we strongly hope for an honest center that truly aims to help the women they serve, without providing medically inaccurate information and relying on deception and scare-tactics.

Our own study of crisis pregnancy centers had 68% of all Virginian CPCs sharing false information, a congressional study found 87% sharing false information, and many other states have had similar investigations and results.

On the facebook page devoted to the new Chesterfield CPC, one of the organizers writes, “There were more than 700 babies aborted in our county in 2008. An average of 25 girls per each of our 11 high schools got pregnant.” To us, this suggests the need for science-based, comprehensive sex education!

Maybe this CPC can be different and actually advocate for science-based comprehensive sex education, and provide clients with birth control and other contraceptives. Maybe this CPC will break from the norm and provide clients seeking services with access to condoms and true information about all options when faced with an unplanned pregnancy.

We’re putting them up to that challenge. Will you join us? Sign our petition and send it along to a friend! Let’s change the statistics of Chesterfield and hope this new CPC to a new standard!

And the Crisis Pregnancy Center Road Tour Comes to Burke

Here's a flier for the CPC directly across the street from George Mason University. This flier very intentionally misleads women to believe this is a medical facility offering unbiased counseling, STI testing and pregnancy tests.

We’re continuing on in our Crisis Pregnancy Center Road Tour and made a stop yesterday in Burke (photos to follow shortly!) We were invited to present to Burke area residents by one of our wonderful members who invited us into her home.

We were lucky to be joined by not only our hosts, but several  fellow Virginians seeking to learn more about these deceptive facilities in their own communities, as well as 100% Pro-Choice Champion, Delegate Eileen Filler-Corn, who represents the 41^st District in Virginia.

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia’s Deputy Director, Emily Polak, presented the findings of NARAL’s year long investigation into CPC’s in Virginia revealing a disturbing trend of misinformation being provided to women seeking help. In the investigation, we discovered three crisis pregnancy centers in the Burke area (Fairfax and Annandale)that give false information to women: Assist Crisis Pregnancy Center, Life Choices Resource Center, and SLM Pregnancy Help Center.

Given that we were just down the road from George Mason University, the attendees had a great conversation about making sure George Mason students know about the deceptive CPCs in their community. Most importantly, we’re hoping to work with George Mason’s health center in the near future since they currently refer students worried about an unintended pregnancy to crisis pregnancy centers!

Again, let us say that no matter how someone feels about abortion, we think we should all be able to agree on the fact that all women- all Virginians- deserve real information about their reproductive health in order to make educated decisions. And it’s not helping anyone when these fake clinics tell women that condoms have holes, much like our investigators heard at the CPC in Annandale when they were told that ”STD germs go right through the holes in condoms.”