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I heard about it from This RHRealityCheck Article, but the story is mostly here.

Basically, Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-14) has introduced The “Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women’s Services Act” (H.R. 247 cool , which would aim to prevent CPCs from implying in their advertising that they are legitimate health centers that provide a full range of options and an unbiased view.

If you want to read the bill itself, it is towards the bottom of the page on the second link I provided. It's short and easy to read, but it will open in an annoying PDF window.

If the bill gets passed there shall be free internet cookies for all 3nodding

Thank God. I need to write her a Thank you letter! heart heart

Yes! I hope this passes... and Bush doesn't veto it.

I'm really not bothered by the most basic idea of a crisis pregnancy center. I think a place that gives women a home and some help when they are in a frightening and difficult situation is a great idea.

However, these centers are currently not being done in a way that truly RESPECTS these women. They don't feel that they can trust them with any real medical information, they don't feel that these women are competent to make a decision for themselves, so they don't give them the full range of options. They may try to help, but I think they do more harm than good by degrading, insulting, manipulating and outright lying to these women.

If there was some sort of a shelter that offered unbiased, REAL information as well as financial, medical, and emotional support and let these women make up their own minds and really take charge of their destinies, it would be a wonderful place. But as far as I know, nobody's offering women with crisis pregnancies this kind of help for truly noble reasons. All the CPCs I've ever heard of are just using these women and taking advantage of their vulnerability to push their own agenda.

Elections are in November 2008. End of his term is January 21 (I think. It's January 20-something) 2009.

Woo woo woo!

Honestly, I don't mind the idea of a Pro-Life place that provides assistance to pregnant women. In fact, I'm completely behind such a concept. There are countless women who don't want to have abortions and need help. There are countless mothers out there who need assistance. If the Pro-Lifer will help these women, that's a win for everyone involved. Hell, I'm even sure that there are women out there who wouldn't abort if they had more assistance, meaning the Pro-Lifers could even accomplish their goal of getting women to not abort just by helping these women.

What I'm not ok with is the deception that goes on the CPCs right now. Pretending they are abortion providers, giving out old/incorrect/misleading information on abortions, pretending their staff members are trained medical professions when they aren't, there is just too much lying going on. I want the lying to stop.

Furthermore, I hope that the Pro-Lifers will also get behind this bill because I would think that what these centers are doing would horrifying to Pro-Lifers as well. The section of the Pro-Life movement that is engaging in these deceptive practices is giving the whole movement a bad name. It's saying, "Pro-life arguments can't stand on their own merits, so we'll lie to make our points look stronger. We're willing to lie so that you'll do what we want, so you can't trust us." If I found out a Pro-Choice group was lying to get people to support the Pro-Choice position, I would want to get them to stop lying ASAP. Allowing them to lie would just weaken my credibility.