Have you ever seen a flyer that says “Pregnant, Scared, Need Help?”  Have you ever questioned what type of assistance they offer? Well the answer is not simple. 

If they have a name of an organization on them, such as Planned Parenthood, Family Planning Health Services or some other well known supporter of comprehensive sex education and contraceptive rights, then it is likely that you will not be coerced into making one decision over another.  However, keep in mind that some of these places are federally funded (such as FPHS) so they can not merely mention the word abortion or else they will lose their funding.  Now as far as the flyers that do not have a specific name on them or they have a name on them like Crisis Pregnancy Center then it is likely that these services are not going to give you medically accurate information that will allow you to make an informed decision.  Of course this criteria cannot always be followed because confusion and mixing up all of the above is usually the point

Now you may be asking yourself; why in the world are you bringing this up? Well, recently on the University of Cincinnati campus I came across some of these non-labeled flyers.  Now I am a good researcher and before taking any action or saying anything I made sure that it was a center that would not be giving proper information.  So I took down a flyer so that I would have the helpline number later.  Sure enough when I called the “helpline” it was a local center that was recently reprimanded in our Student Newspaper for not providing information about abortion. 

So after my researching, I decided to further look at the current situation of these flyers that were plaguing the parts of campus that I frequent.  It was then I realized they were only in specific areas.  They were placed in our Student Life Center in several areas some of which made me angry and one of which made me laugh until my stomach hurt.  They seemingly were placed right by our Ethnic and Cultural Center, our Women’s Center, and our LGBTQ office.  Can you guess which ones I was angry about and which one I couldn’t help but laugh at?  While it’s a good marketing technique, I think it’s a despicable thing to do to target those specific student groups.  However, I will give them only a B+ in marketing because of the flyers placed right outside of the LGBTQ office. (I mean really I’m pretty sure we aren’t going to need to call the Crisis Counseling Center about pregnacy any time soon.) 

So at this point I would like to offer a confession.  I personally do not believe women should have an abortion unless the pregnancy was caused by rape, incest or if the pregnancy will cause severe medical problems to the mother.  However, I also do not believe it is my right to take away the right of choice to a woman.*  A choice can only be made when all the options are presented equally and fairly, when all positives and negatives are given and someone makes the decision of their own free will.  That is not what these centers are doing.  

Luckily, some of my friends and I who happen to frequent the areas of campus that have been targeted by this centers flyering campaign know that when you are doing research you need many samples.  So, they brought me plenty of sample flyers and after I was done with my “research” I discarded the samples properly right into a recycling bin.

*I would like to point out that I am inevitably Pro-Choice and Pro-Life at the same time which is one more reason for us to call the opposing sides Pro-Choice and Anti-Choice