faith-based pregnancy centers (i.e., all in Texas by law) mislead

[Czolgosz]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Advisers working at some federally funded pregnancy resource centers mislead pregnant teens about the risks of abortion, falsely telling callers it raises the risk of breast cancer, infertility and mental illness, a U.S. congressman said on Monday.

Democratic staff on the House of Representatives Government Reform Committee who called up some faith-based pregnancy resource centers said they received incorrect advice aimed at discouraging abortion.

"Twenty of the 23 centers reached by the investigators (87 percent) provided false or misleading information about the health effects of abortion," California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record) said in a statement.

Waxman, the ranking Democrat on the committee, asked staff to check on pregnancy crisis centers, which were given $24 million in federal funding between 2001 and 2005.

also says that 'Female staffers posed as pregnant 17-year-olds"--then called the "centers that have received grants from the Compassion Capital Fund"

(<http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060717/ts_nm/abortion_dc> courtesy of rodeodance in LBN).

We have a law in Texas that REQUIRES all physicians must provide this MEDICALLY INACCURATE information to all women seeking such reproductive health care services.

The Dallas Morning News asked all the Texas gubernatorial candidates what their position was with regard to issue, AND ONLY CHRIS BELL STOOD UP TO SAY THAT TEXAS SHOULD NOT BE MISINFORMING TEXAS WOMEN SEEKING HEALTH CARE SERVICES AND INFORMATION:

Dallas Morning News: Are Texas laws too restrictive for adult women? Would you favor adding new restrictions or repealing current ones?

Bell: The informed-consent requirements should conform to mainstream medical knowledge, which refutes the link between breast cancer and abortion. Medicaid births cost Texas several hundred million dollars a year; let's spend smart and reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.

Friedman: I have mixed feelings on parental notification. On the counseling requirement, I'm not sure, but I know the less I talk to social workers, the better. No issue with the public-funding restrictions, but I would want to investigate further.

Perry: The governor has worked hard to increase the role of parents and guardians in the major life-changing decisions of their young daughters, and minor abortions have dropped significantly. He recently signed a parental-consent law because he believes it will save young lives by further involving parents.

Strayhorn: Declined to answer.

For those wingnuts who fail to grasp that Kinky Friedman is a Republican (i.e. - he's run for office in the past as a Republican, he's given a campaign interview where he said that he supports Bush's foreign policy and thinks Bush has done well in the Middle East, and he voted for Bush/Cheney in 2004), does this put an end to that NONSENSE?

For those OTHER wingnuts who fail to grasp that Carole Strayhorn is a Republican (i.e. - she's run for office in the past as a Republican, her sons have served as top-level Bush stooges, and she was the tie-breaking vote in favor of Tom DeLay's illegal redistricting/gerrymandering plan), does this put an end to that NONSENSE?