Guest Post: Inside a Crisis Pregnancy Center

As you likely have heard, Rick Perry has stated that he would like to cover crisis pregnancy centers under the women's healthcare program. These centers provide little more than pregnancy tests to women, not cancer screenings, not contraception, no healthcare whatsoever. Many are also run by religious organizations and have no medical staff.

You can sign and share the petition at this link. Remember, if you want to help, sharing is key :)

http://www.change.org/petitions/texas-office-of-the-govenor-don-t-cover-crisis-pregnancy-centers-under-whp

An awesome member of our "like" page confirmed what crisis pregnancy centers really do as she volunteered while getting her degree. Her name is Kathy and here is her story. Thank you again Kathy for sharing what goes on inside crisis pregnancy centers.

In the Spring of 1999, I was completing my Master's degree in mental health counseling.

"As part of my internship, I began volunteering for two days a week at a Crisis Pregnancy Center in Louisiana.

I was under the direct impression that I would gain needed counseling experience, while helping women who were pregnant and in a crisis.

What was not revealed to the public, however, was that this was not a "crisis counseling agency" at all. It was managed by a local area church, and its real purpose was to divert women from having abortions, and convert them to Christianity.

But we were never to say this on the phone, to anyone who called.

Any questions over the phone about abortion or contraceptives, were to be answered with "We are not a medical facility. Would you like to make an appointment?"

Once they came in for their appointment, a volunteer would take them into a room, supposedly for "counseling."

Now, as I was training to be a mental health counselor, I was trying to do REAL crisis counseling; After all, these women were pregnant, and in a crisis.

But, management didn't like what I was doing. I was supposed to be trying to convert them to Christianity, and check off the box to indicate whether or not I had successfully led them to accept Jesus as their savior during the session.

The counselor who had "achieved" the most salvations for the month, got their name put on a plaque on the wall.

As I was not focusing on "salvations", I had not "achieved" any by the end of the month, so I was told not to volunteer there anymore.

After the "counseling" session, was the mandatory anti-abortion video, which showed a graphic depiction of an abortion being performed. I had to show them this video, whether they wanted to watch it or not.

Then after the video, I would retrieve the pregnancy test, hand it to them, and tell them to administer it and tell us the results.

Note that we could not legally be a part of the pregnancy test in any way, because we were not a licensed medical facility. There was no medical staff on the premises at any time.

At no time were we to give any information on contraceptives. We had to answer any questions with "We are not a medical facility."

I wasn't there for very long, but understandably, I didn't enjoy my time there. And I never did fit in with the other volunteers, with their plastic smiles glued to their faces at all times.

I thought that what they were doing was unethical. But unfortunately, since they were not a licensed medical facility, they were not regulated by any agency, so they could do whatever they wanted."