Anti-abortion activists eye inner cities

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON - On a street once known as Murder Row, a teen center founded to steer youths away from drugs and crime has become an outpost in another crusade — a nationwide push by anti-abortion activists to expand their foothold in heavily black and Hispanic inner cities.

The campaign involves crisis pregnancy centers, whose counselors seek to dissuade women with unplanned pregnancies from having abortions. There are more than 2,300 centers across America, yet relatively few in inner cities where abortion rates are typically highest.

Now the two largest networks — Care Net and Heartbeat International — have launched initiatives to change that equation. Their sometimes awkward efforts rely on unlikely alliances, as an anti-abortion movement led mostly by conservative, white Republicans interacts with overwhelmingly Democratic, black communities.

"This crusade has been very difficult — having to educate community leaders as to what's really going on without being offensive, without having a political agenda," said Lillie Epps, the only black member of Care Net's senior staff and director of its Urban Initiative.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060820/ap_on_re_us/abortio...

[MountainLaurel]

1. Grrr.

Moving on to new demographics for scared women and girls seeking health care.

[bleedingheart]

2. Will they be opening centers with baby food and diapers and daycare?

When these jerkoffs offer free daycare for poor mothers then they are serious...otherwise they are just meddling in people's affairs and creating more heartache.

[Stargazer99]

3. free daycare?!! Are you kidding! This is a conservative program

conservatives don't recognize what engenders poverty...they think it is just lazyness. Conservative "morality" leaves a lot to be desired when they totally ignore basic human needs after one is born.

[LynneSin]

6. Once the fetus hits human form, they couldn't give a shit about it

It's all about the fetus.

[bleedingheart]

8. that is how I have always felt....they want people to bring

more unwanted children into the world.....and they don't give a shit what happens when those babies breathe their first breath...

[KamaAina]

11. "Life begins at conception and ends at birth"

a motto we made up for the slimeballs years ago.

[KingFlorez]

10. Of course not, that's communist

They only want to tell people what to do, they don't want to helping. To them helping people with diapers and day care is a communist revolution.

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

4. Dirty little secret about anti-abortion agencies

Their intentions behind this is to persuade young girls to give up their babies for adoption, which really doesn't sound like a bad deal till you find out these organizations are working with adoption agencies to place babies. Of course with the 75k-100k that is the going rate for a child, this is big business for these anti-abortion groups. Personally I feel human trafficing like this should be outlawed

[MountainLaurel]

5. Got it in one

Have to keep that steady supply of newborns coming in.

[LynneSin]

7. $75k-$100k is the going rate for healthy white babies

THere are a lots of children in orphanages waiting to be adopted because they aren't white or perhaps they were born with a disability of some form. This is why I am so much for allowing same sex couples to adopt, because so many of those couples are willing to take a chance on kids that regular couples would deem 'unadoptable' (although same sex couples should have the right to adopt the child that they want)

[noonwitch]

9. It all depends on which agencies are sponsoring it

Catholic social service agencies are more likely to provide services to help the moms keep their babies-at least the ones in Detroit do. CSS works with the state in many of their adoptions that involve foster kids, but those adoptions have a lot more oversight than the privately-arranged ones that a lawyer would arrange. Or an adoption handled by a newer "faith-based" agency that doesn't have an established track record in the community.

I have no problem with the crisis pregnancy clinics as long as they are up front about their purpose. It's when they pretend to be abortion clinics to get women in and then try to convince them not to have an abortion that it bugs me. On the other hand, they've been playing these tricks for a long time, long enough that the Yellow Pages lists them separately from abortion clinics. Women do need to read up on clinics before deciding which one to attend, anyways, if they have a lot of options (some women in some areas don't, I understand that).