I already contacted snopes.com to investigate this. I mentioned that I don't believe it because:
1) I know people at a CPC, and they're not like this
2) nobody at PP noticed this center and tried some court action against it? hard to believe.
3) the article doesn't specifically mention what PP center or CPC by name
4) if there was harassment at school, how would they have documented this, and wouldn't it already be an open lawsuit on multiple charges? wouldn't there have been real news coverage, not emails, about this?
5) the email ends with a plea to stop government funding, not to stop the "false advertising" of these CPCs - that's a cop-out that the real point of the email is the supposed $60 million that CPCs receive from gov't grants (as opposed to the $254.4 million PP received in 2003).
I also debated this at the Feministe site with these comments. Enjoy!
(Zuzu at Feministe responded that my comments must be performance art, because she doesn't understand them. Go fig - they don't understand actual logic, but totally believe an urban legend email.)
JivinJ,
Thanks for your continued good coverage on this matter.
I've just posted an entry on the Generations for Life blog that casts yet more serious doubt on the "evil CPC" story.
I called the Indianapolis Police Department this morning, and they had no record of any police report that would corroborate Planned Parenthood's version of events.
The post is here:
http://generationsforlife.org/20...evil-cpc-story/
Why are you so obsessed with abortion? Why cant you understand that women are capable of making their own decisions without others deciding it for them?
Hi Deepa,
Thanks for commenting. I guess you could say I'm "obsessed" with abortion because intentionally takes the life of an innocent human being.
I'm perfectly aware that women can make a variety of decisions and I'm all in favor of women making decisions about almost everything in their lives but I'm not in favor of anyone being able to decide whether they want to take the life of an innocent human being.
Good job, John.
I cross-posted this info at my blog. I, too, am curious to see if they will admit to the truth when it stares them in the face, or if they will follow their father (see John 8:44).
doh! I failed to shut off the hyperlink tag.
Sorry...
"I'm not in favor of anyone being able to decide whether they want to take the life of an innocent human being."
Thats was decided by biology.
"Thats was decided by biology."
"Why cant you understand that women are
capable of making their own decisions
without others deciding it for them?"
Deepa
Biology doesn't decide to take another human life, as you well stated in your comment when you first came in. And having personally counseled dozens of men and women, what I hear time after time is most women reluctantly and later, regretfully, make that decision - usually under great pressure from a boyfriend, parents, etc.
Abortion ends the life of a baby while in the womb. It hurts - for a long time. The grief one feels afterward is the same as any other death; although, many women (and men) stay in the denial stage for many years. But it never goes away.
Most of the men and women my wife and I see have deep regrets, but don't deal with it for 20 years or more. Most go through unexplained periods of depression, sickness, suicidal tendencies, bouts with drugs, alcohol, abuse, relational issues, problems with intimacy, difficulty conecting with thier other children, a fear of loss - I could go on and on.
So the decision men and women make to terminate the life of one who does not have a choice (i.e, the baby) affects not only the woman. It has life-long effects on the parents, grandparents, marriages, families, and generations to come.
I regret taking part of a decision that ended my baby's life 26 years ago. While I have dealt with the grief, and brought closure to the death, there is not a day that goes by that I don't think of how I missed seeing his first steps, his smile, his words, and his growing into a man. And I think about how he might have given me grandkids by now, and how they might be playing with thier cousins - and how my heart aches knowing my daughter missed out on an older brother, and my parents missed out on another grandchild.
That's why I am obsessed - because I am intimately close to the matter - and I hear it over and over. There's a lot of hurting people out there because of decisions made without all the facts.
Here's a fact - in the crisis pregnance center that my wife directs, 98% of abortion-minded women who see thier baby on an ultrasound decide to keep thier baby to full term. Just like with any decision, when one has more facts - and good information - they make better decisions. Usually the choice is FOR life when all the facts and options are presented. The problem we have with the "pro-choice" (anti-life) folks is that they only present one choice. Abortion is a multi-million dollar industry that is centered on profit - not choice.
"...that's a cop-out that the real point of the email is the supposed $60 million that CPCs receive from gov't grants..." Orthodoxy
For the record, most CPCs receive no government funding, as it would then position them to come under government restrictions - i.e., separation of church/state...
Most CPCs are totally funded through private donors - not government grants.
Pauly,
That's why I wrote "the supposed $60 million" - that's the number that PP is throwing around. By their own annual report, though, they received $254.4 million in federal dollars alone in 2003, over 4x what they claim CPCs receive.
BTW, I sent the email below to the following people:
- U.S. Senator Bayh of Indiana
- U.S. Senator Breaux of Indiana
- U.S. Representative Julia Carson of Indiana
- Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana
- Indiana Representative Day
- Indiana Representative Allen
I also submitted it to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center website. I just need to print up the evidence, so they have it in paper form.
--------------------------------------------------
-
Planned Parenthood has been sending emails to their supports that claims that a 17-year-old girl from Indiana was intimidated by a crisis pregnancy center that was pretending to be an abortion clinic. However, the email has several of the marks of an urban legend or a hoax, including:
1) I know people who work and volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center, and the claims of the email are not consistent with the things I know they do, nor would these be things they condone.
2) the article doesn't specifically mention the Planned Parenthood office or crisis pregnancy center by name (similar to the "I heard that this girl and this guy..." - warning signs that it's a rumour, not factual)
3) nobody at Planned Parenthood noticed that this crisis pregnancy center was using a misleading name and tried some court action against it? hard to believe...
4) if there was harassment at school, how would they have documented this, and wouldn't it already be an open lawsuit on multiple charges? wouldn't there have been real news coverage, not emails, about this? even harder to believe...
5) presumably, the story is not widely publicized in order to protect her privacy, yet they mass-email the story for their fundraising purposes
6) the email ends with a plea to stop government funding, not necessarily to stop the "false advertising" or "misleading names" or "intimidation tactics" of these crisis pregnancy centers - that's a cop-out that the real point of the email is to target the supposed $60 million that crisis pregnancy centers receive in government grants (as opposed to the $254.4 million Planned Parenthood received in 2003).
Upon investigating this based on the relatively general details, some facts have been deduced and discovered. It’s clear that the only Planned Parenthood abortion clinic the story could be referring to is the one in Indianapolis, as it’s the only one of the three in the state that shares a parking lot with a crisis pregnancy center.
If, in fact, the Indianapolis Police had shown up at the Planned Parenthood acting on a tip that a girl was being forced to have an abortion, they obviously would have filed a police report.
Since police reports are matters of public record,
(email to FBI and Indiana politicians cont'd)
Since police reports are matters of public record, calls were placed to the Indianapolis Police Department to find out if there was any police report that would corroborate Planned Parenthood’s version of events. None were found. Same thing with a search on the crisis pregnancy center: nothing.
A check was also done of the Marion County Clerk’s Office records to see if any lawsuits had been brought against the CPC. One would certainly think that if Planned Parenthood’s version of events were true, and if the “intimidation and harassment” brought by the CPC were so intense that they made the girl “scared to death to leave her house”, Planned Parenthood wouldn’t have wasted a second in providing the girl an attorney to sue the CPC. This search found, yet again: nothing.
If the crisis pregnancy center really did engage in “a campaign of intimidation and harassment,” it’s rather hard to believe that the police were never contacted and a lawsuit was never filed. If Planned Parenthood cares so much about women, wouldn’t their first move have been to call the police on the girl’s behalf, rather than mass emails?
I feel it is important to bring to your attention that a company with powerful lobbyists that annually receives a quarter of a billion dollars in government funds is engaging in a campaign of libel and deception against their political enemies, and they are persecuting a legitimate business in Indiana to do this.
Please take action on this.
Thank you and God bless.
I reported this to the FBI's internet fraud unit as well. And I complained to my congresscritter.
Hi Deepa,
I'm not sure what you mean by "Thats was decided by biology."
If you're saying that biology determines whether an organism is a human being or not then I certainly agree with you. Science has shown us that at conception, a human life has begun.
I don't see how that helps the pro-choice position, though.
Orthodoxy - As I just pointed out on your blog, there are 37 PP locations in Indiana, not 3.
Noumena,
Yes, but of those 37 there are only 3 Planned Parenthoods which perform abortions in Indiana and only one of those shares a parking lot with a CPC.
I don't see anything in the email from PP that implies abortions are performed at the location in question.
Jivin J - you mean, there are only 3 in Indianapolis, not in Indiana.
BTW, I've already heard back from one congressperson, and they asked me for a copy of the email, so they can hurry the investigation along.
Orthodoxy - As I just pointed out on your blog, there are 37 PP locations in Indiana, not 3.
Noumena,
I'm sorry, but I don't see the comment on my blog.
Where did you post this?
Please let me know if you are unable to post comments to my blog.
Orthodoxy - I may have gotten you confused with Generations for Life blog. Sorry about that.
Noumena,
It's not in the e-mail - check out Planned Parenthood of Indiana's web site which says that Planned Parenthood of Indiana offers abortion services at three location throughout Indiana - one in Indianapolis, one in Bloomington, and one in Merrillville. The one in Indianapolis is the only one of those three which shares a parking lot with a CPC.
So unless Planned Parenthood is talking about another mystical Planned Parenthood in Indiana which performs abortions (but is not mentioned on PP of Indiana's web site) and shares a parking lot with Planned Parenthood - this is it.
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