Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

« Riding In Psych Lanes | Short Film Fridays »

Friday, November 30, 2012

The Ladies Crisis Pregnancy Center Makes Young Mothers "Earn" Baby Supplies Through Bible Classes, Sues Feds for Money to Expand Their Operation

Posted by Cienna Madrid on Fri, Nov 30, 2012 at 9:48 AM

Crisis pregnancy centers are nonmedical, religious nonprofits that lure young pregnant women through their doors under the guise of offering medical services—like free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds—and then barrage those women with medically inaccurate, emotionally manipulative lies about how abortions will increase your risk of breast cancer while turning you into a detached monster who's unable to bond with any hypothetical future offspring.

If that isn't galling enough, now one Vermont crisis pregnancy center is suing the federal government for money to expand its operation:

Should taxpayer funds be used to help a “Christ-centered ministry” buy and renovate a building in which it will offer Bible instruction and other services aimed at preventing abortion?

That’s the question at the center of a lawsuit filed by Care Net Pregnancy Center of Windham County, Vermont, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rejected the center’s application for a federal building loan.

... The USDA denied the group’s loan request due to the “inherently religious” nature of some of its programming.

Care Net’s most troubling offering, as far as USDA officials were concerned, was a rewards-based learning program called “Learn to Earn,” wherein expectant parents had to take a certain number of parenting and Bible study classes in order to receive free baby supplies. (Care Net’s executive director has said the center has since suspended the Bible study requirement.) The center also offers, according to a brochure, a “bible centered program” called “Post Abortive Teaching and Healing” that “enables women to process their abortion-related experiences and emotions with the goal of healing and recovery.” In addition, Care Net conducts an abstinence-only sex-education class called “Why Am I Tempted?” or WAIT.

Care Net also operates in Washington state, where legislators have repeatedly killed bills aimed at making crisis pregnancy centers more transparent about their religious affiliation and what services they provide to patients.

FacebookShare

Comments (15) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

Is it good or bad that this shit somehow still shocks me?

Posted by Cappelletti on November 30, 2012 at 10:08 AM

Fuck christianity. Fuck all religions. Mind control indoctrination brain washing ritualistic cult bullshit.

Posted by Urgutha Forka on November 30, 2012 at 10:18 AM

It's funny, but I don't have a problem with it if the same funding goes to other religions and secular centers.

Posted by Pope Peabrain on November 30, 2012 at 10:23 AM

@3 I don't think public money should be going to anybody who is still doing abstinence only sex-education. That shit has been proven not to work.

Posted by Ken Mehlman on November 30, 2012 at 10:28 AM

When I was about 5 months pregnant a few years ago, I wasn't making much at my job and I went there because I was told they might be able to help with maternity clothes. They told me they could only help me if they were the ones who gave me the pregnancy test that confirmed I was pregnant. They only want scared teenagers who don't know for sure if they're pregnant.

Posted by poor and pregnant on November 30, 2012 at 10:30 AM

I went to the Care Net Clinic in Kirkland, Wa. I felt welcomed and was offered a free ultrasound. I can not complain, then again I never had the idea of abortion in my mind. I participated in the parenting classes and received a plethora of donated items for my daughter. I even considered volunteering myself. I defiantly recommend for those in faith that are in need.

Posted by korimarie on November 30, 2012 at 10:47 AM

This is their facebook page. There is no visible backlash on it (possibly because they are obvious cowards who delete all negative comments.) Post this article on their facebook page. Let's educate anyone who might receive misleading "help" from them.
https://www.facebook.com/carenet?ref=ts&…

Posted by uwwriter1 on November 30, 2012 at 10:55 AM

@6: Welcome to The Stranger, as you have just made an account, and this is your only post!

What a coincidence that you made an account on the day that a relevant article shows up on The Slog!

Astroturf somewhere else.

Posted by Theodore Gorath on November 30, 2012 at 10:59 AM

If you're allowed only one set of scare quotes per headline, I vote for "crisis pregnancy center" over "earn."

Posted by Fred Casely on November 30, 2012 at 11:09 AM

To the question posed by the article: no, the place clearly should not receive tax dollars for what is clearly a religiously-based organization. That's how it works.

@6: Please explain to us how you "defiantly recommend" something.

Also, if you're already buying into the bullshit that is Christianity and you're planning on continuing the pregnancy, it's not an issue, is it? The issue is when a woman is considering ending the pregnancy, or doesn't buy into the demonstrable bullshit that is Christianity and just needs some assistance, sans Jesus. Such women may well have no other support system, and go to these vultures because they have no other option, thanks in part to the GOP's war on women and sex.

You've added nothing to the conversation, but I would "defiantly recommend" you read the piece Cienna linked to at the beginning of the post ("emotionally manipulative lies", in blue), so that you might somewhat educate yourself on the issue.

Posted by Knat on November 30, 2012 at 11:37 AM

@2: <3

Posted by Mischa Vainburg

on November 30, 2012 at 11:55 AM

@6: http://carenetps.org /services/medical-services/limited-ultrasound

Hi you shitty shill of an employee, I appreciate that you "gave" yourself an ultrasound for nonmedical purposes.

Posted by you are not a medical professional on November 30, 2012 at 12:02 PM

I would be extremely upset if I was pregnant, intending to keep the kid, but needed financial help and was forced to attend bible classes to get help. I would be angry if this was funded by the federal government.

If they were simply getting funding to give away baby items with no bullshit strings attached by the government i'd be slightly less angry.

Posted by tigntink on November 30, 2012 at 4:34 PM

13
'intending to keep the kid'?

hahahahaha

who are you kidding?

you'd claw the bastard out with your fingernails if you could.

have yourself fixed.

you are obviously a detached monster who will be unable to bond with any hypothetical future offspring.....

Posted by Yes. It Shows. It Is THAT Obvious.... on December 1, 2012 at 5:05 AM

Hey Cienna - You have probably seen this already, but the Seattle Times ripped off your elephant story from last year!

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld…

Just thought it was weird.

Posted by Narbles on December 1, 2012 at 9:34 PM