Suzanne Abdalla, ArborVitae Executive Director – Pro-abortion students at the University of Michigan are at it again. Last year, the Students for Choice staged a five-person picket of ArborVitae, falsely claiming that we lie to women. Now, the College Democrats have stepped up to attack our charitable work.
In a 1/7/10 Michigan Daily article, the University of Michigan “FemDems” - the College Democrats’ Women’s Issues Committee - announced their hope to work with the Ann Arbor City Council to pass a bill regulating pregnancy centers. The incipient bill would force life-affirming centers in the city of Ann Arbor to post signs saying that they do not perform abortions.
ArborVitae Women’s Center is the only life-affirming pregnancy center located in the city of Ann Arbor.
Of course, the FemDems would also like to pursue such statutes in Washtenaw County and on the State level if they are successful here.
The FemDem announcement comes in the wake of a similar law that went into effect in Baltimore, Maryland in November of last year. The Baltimore law requires pregnancy centers to post signs in English and Spanish stating that they do not refer for abortion or birth control - despite the fact that the centers do not claim to do so in any of their advertising or literature.
In fact, almost all pro-life pregnancy centers, including ArborVitae, specifically state in our client consent forms that we do not offer abortion or birth control services or referrals.
On the FemDem blog entitled “Kicking Ass in Ann Arbor,” U of M student Kaitlin Henry declared that she, along with her friend Evan, came to ArborVitae posing as a client seeking birth control information.
Due to confidentiality requirements, I cannot confirm that Henry was ever seen by anyone at ArborVitae Women’s Center. We carefully protect the privacy of all the women who visit ArborVitae. However - for the sake of argument - I’ll refer to her blog as if the contents, while containing gross inaccuracies, may also contain some truth.
She claims she came to ArborVitae to confirm her suspicions that our clients “often have religious doctrine, misinformation, and just plain lies thrust upon them.”
Henry claims her suspicions were confirmed by the fact that, among other things, the birth control information given to her had “natural family planning” as the first option. Also, the lay counselor at ArborVitae asked if she had a religious affiliation and allegedly mentioned the Garden of Eden.
Nowhere in her blog does Henry charge ArborVitae with lying about abortion or birth control referrals. Nowhere does she even accuse us of implying that we make such referrals.
ArborVitae Women’s Center takes pride in offering free pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, pregnancy options consulting, and a wide array of material and spiritual support services. Our website (www.ArborWoman.com) and our publications clearly delineate what we have to offer women who are concerned they may be pregnant.
Our intake forms do ask whether the client identifies with a particular religion. Why (other than the obvious reason of collecting statistics)? Because religion often plays a key part in a pregnant woman’s beliefs about the importance of the unborn life within her, and the moral weight of abortion. How can our counselors offer personalized consultation about pregnancy options and family issues if they don’t know whether the young woman is a practicing Wiccan, Sikh, Jew, Mormon, Baha’i, or Catholic?
When it comes to birth control, the FemDems must also have a wake-up call. Medical studies, including a 2006 Mayo Clinic meta-analysis, are showing that sustained use of hormonal contraception significantly raises the risk of premenopausal breast cancer. It’s also generally known that hormonal birth control causes bad side effects in some women and even kills others - just google “Yaz lawsuits” and see what you find.
What’s wrong with promoting natural family planning: a free, environmentally-friendly, safe, and effective way to work with (not against) a woman’s natural fertility cycle?
This being said… If ArborVitae were in fact pushing a religious agenda and telling lies, how would posting a sign in our waiting room reading, “We do not offer or refer for abortion or birth control” possibly fix the problem?
The reason why the FemDems and Students for Choice cannot show how we lie to women…is that we do not lie to women. We tell women the whole truth about abortion and birth control - a truth that is disconcerting and uncomfortable for proponents of the hookup culture and abortion-on-demand.
Kaitlin Henry and her friend allegedly came to ArborVitae knowing that we do not offer abortion or birth control. If that is what they were seeking… they could have gone elsewhere.
However, there are many women who come to us looking for - and finding - the things that we do offer. These are women who thank us for the accurate fetal development information or the free ultrasound confirming that what they are carrying is “really a baby.”
These are women who feel empowered by our support to tell their boyfriends that they felt pressured to have sex and that they would really like to abstain until marriage.
These are women who have had multiple abortions in their past and who are desperately trying to avoid aborting again this time. Many such women cannot stand the thought of even entering the door of the abortion clinic, so painful are the memories.
ArborVitae Women’s Center proudly proclaims that we are life-affirming, and that we believe women deserve better than the hook-up lifestyle facilitated by abortion and birth control. We’re proud to tell our clients and the public that we do not refer for abortion of artificial birth control.
We do not need the city of Ann Arbor to mandate that we do so.
