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shadowvictorian
shadowvictorian
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I'm a feminist vegitarian pacifist liberal. And that's as far as I'll go with the labelling. I love art. I love literature. I love passion.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 11:28:00 PM EDT
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The Feminist Majority Campus Team has declared the week of Halloween (October 25-31) The CPC Week of Action, aimed at exposing Crisis Pregnancy Centers for what they really are: Pro-life organizations preying on vulnerable women and feeding them fear and guilt when it comes to abortion.

Seriously, these organizations will do anything.

Starting in kindergarten, and continuing on through middle school, I went to a catholic school. In front of our school was always a sign for one of these centers, with a picture of the Virgin Mary and the promise of someone who will "really listen to you." It turns out this center is run by my local Catholic Pro-Life Organization, a group that holds candle vigils outside Planned Parenthoods and who try to say abortion will give you breast cancer and leave you suicidal, guilty, and hating life.

They post so-called "facts" on their website, such as:
 
"93% of teens feel that they should be given a strong message that abstinence is the best choice."
 
Where did they get that figure? Does that seem right to anybody? The strong majority of high school students I know believe comprehensive sex education that includes information about birth control is the best choice. Here's another "fact:"
 
"Condoms don't prevent pregnancy. They have an annual contraceptive failure rate of 17.4% among teens, 36.3% among unmarried minority women, and 44.5% among unmarried Hispanics."
 
Does this not sound incredibely racist to you? They're basically saying minority women don't know how to use condoms. I wonder why that is? Maybe because they're being fed abstinence-only sex ed!
 
Join me and the Feminist Majority in the fight against CPCs. Information should be objective and factual, not guilt-driven and in some cases, prejudiced. We have the right to choose what to do with our bodies, and we don't need to put up with this.

Comments
The 93% comes from a survey in 2000 conducted among youth with an average age of 14.5.  They were responding to the question, "How important do you think it is for teens to receive a strong message from society that they should abstain from sex at least until they are out of high school?"    93% answered that it was "important" (that is, 71% said very important., 22% said somewhat important).  Additionally, no questions about receiving information about contraception and condoms were asked on the survey.    So, take the 93 percent with a grain of salt. 

But more than that - according to the CDC's nationwide survey of high school students, almost half of all students have already had sex, with the percentage going up to 65% for seniors. So, while of course most people would agree that it is important to learn about abstinence as a 100% effective method of preventing pregnancy and STIs, it's also important for the students who are already having sex to know how to protect themselves!

You're right about the racism inherent in the phrasing of the statement about condoms.  But also, I can't even figure out what it came from; I googled the sentence to see what sights have it and they all use a fake citation (that is, one that does not support the claim).   So, ???   Gross on so many levels




# Posted By  AFY_EmilyB | 10/21/09 08:36 AM | Report | Reply

The site I got it from, http://www.prolifedallas.org/pages/education_dyk cite the source as the 1996 issue of "Family Planning Perspectives."

Shows how current and hip they can be XD

# Posted By shadowvictorian | 10/21/09 09:29 PM | Report | Reply
I know, and the cite isn't in that issue, I looked!  Weaselly
# Posted By  AFY_EmilyB | 10/22/09 08:25 AM | Report | Reply
Oh my... That's really sketchy.
# Posted By shadowvictorian | 10/22/09 08:07 PM | Report | Reply
It's terrible that CPCs and ab-only programs are lying to people. We need to do everything we can to expose their lies.
# Posted By Mahayana | 10/21/09 10:49 PM | Report | Reply
 I'm participating in the Week of Action, too. I just got done jumping through hoops. We're doing a poster campaign to raise awareness about what CPCs are and some of the lies they've told members of my group. Student Health made us get rid of any posters referencing abortion (things like "Don't get tricked - abortion doesn't cause infertility!" or "Don't get tricked - abortion is a common, safe procedure!") or specific CPCs if we wanted to include the Student Health phone number. We went from 20 different posters down to 8. They also had an issue with us including the Planned Parenthood number, but I refused to get rid of that.

And then the people in the Union who give posters approval stamps almost refused to approve them because "they have some writing in marker!" Which is funny, because her boss had approved all of them - even abortion-related ones - before I had to go to Student Health and jump through their hoops. Being a feminist in SD is fuuuuuuuun... </rant> 
# Posted By ecjeppesen | 10/22/09 05:03 PM | Report | Reply
They wouldn't let you reference abortion?! That's insane.
I've been told before that it's too touchy an issue so therefore I shouldn't make public statements about it. But it's extremely common, so why should we let the issue lurk in the shadows? :P
# Posted By shadowvictorian | 10/22/09 08:06 PM | Report | Reply
 That's almost exactly what she said and what I thought. She even said she was pro-choice and liked the one about abortion being common, but she thought we shouldn't "burn any bridges" with CPCs. I don't think she understands that there wasn't a bridge to begin with and that we're trying to get the Alpha Center and the like shut down!
# Posted By ecjeppesen | 10/24/09 10:13 AM | Report | Reply
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