NARAL Pro-Choice America has issued a not entirely surprising follow up to its report on so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) in Virginia that should give pause to Rhode Island legislators and citizens who supported the “Choose Life” license plate bill (wisely vetoed by Governor Chafee) that would have provided funds to similar organizations in our own state. NARAL sent women undercover into Virginia CPCs and recorded counselors telling women that “the birth-control pill causes breast cancer and that condoms ‘don’t work.’“
Centers like these receive funding from a variety of sources including “Choose Life” license plates available through the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. [Governor] Ken Cuccinelli – whose anti-choice activism has helped shut down legitimate women’s health clinics across the state – has said he was the “proud sponsor” of the legislation behind the license plates when he served in the State Senate.
Highlights from the recording include the following insane lies and admissions:
Condoms are “naturally porous” and do not protect against STDs.
Women who have taken the birth-control pill for four years prior to their first pregnancy have a 46% increased risk of breast cancer.
Having an abortion will damage all of your future relationships.
“I try to talk women out of taking birth control.”
If you have an abortion, you will see that child’s soul again in the future: “At the end of the world you’re gonna know that was my child that I choose to kill.”
Though the audio recordings made by NARAL are new, their previous reports, are not. It has long been well known that CPCs give out medically unreliable and dangerous information. Under the active guidance of Senate President M Teresa Paiva Weed the “Choose Life” license plate legislation was passed in Rhode Island with a last second change in the bill substituting a crisis pregnancy center for the Knights of Columbus while the Senate Committee was in the midst of soliciting public commentary.
This amounts to practical, if not actually illegal legislative misconduct, but importantly this shows that real oversight and commentary was not wanted: Despite knowing how dangerous CPCs are to the health and wellbeing of Rhode Island women, anti-choice legislators pushed this legislation through anyway.
Crisis Pregnancy Centers, are essentially practicing medicine without a license. These places are distributing false and potentially deadly information to young women who are at the most vulnerable point in their lives. Instead of supporting these places with public funding the General Assembly should be looking into ways to hold these centers accountable, and shutting them down if they are in the business of giving out false medical information.
Thankfully, Rhode Island has avoided the pitfall of funding such places… for now.
]]>“Why do we have birthdays instead of conception days?” Ahlquist asked rhetorically. “Because we know that upon being born is when you are a person. you are separated from your mother and we know consider you to be an entity.
“The idea that human life begins at conception kind of … There is human life in our blood, in our skin, we are all genetically human. To say that a fetus or a fertilized egg is a human being … there is a potential here, there is a potential to be human here.
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Governor Lincoln Chafee wisely vetoed the “Choose Life” license plate bill last night, holding fast to his oath to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States.
The bill, which would have put the state of Rhode Island in the dubious position of passing the collection plate for CareNet, an Evangelical church posing as a crisis pregnancy center, was hastily cobbled together and forced through the General Assembly at the 11th hour by Senate President M Teresa Paiva-Weed as a sop to religiously conservative groups still sore about the passage of marriage equality.
Not only did Governor Chafee veto a bad piece of legislation, he also sent a strong rebuke to a Senate President and General Assembly that plays fast and loose with rules when doing so becomes politically expedient and self-serving.
Some conservative religious figures in Rhode Island have been busy rationalizing the bill and obfuscating the meaning of the First Amendment and the principle of separation of church and state, sowing confusion in the hopes that their anti-American, theocratic agenda can gain a foothold in our legal system. It is fortunate that Governor Chafee stood strong against this bill because the lawsuit that would inevitably arise has the potential to go all the way to the Supreme Court. Defending the “Choose Life” license plates would put taxpayers on the hook for this defense, to the tune of potentially millions of dollars. Under this analysis vetoing the bill becomes a form of fiscal prudence.
Governor Chafee, in vetoing this bill, also stood by women and his pro-choice values. Women’s rights and access to reproductive health care are under serious attack across the country. A “Pro-Choice” license plate is small potatoes when compared to some of the legislative outrages occurring in Texas, North Carolina and elsewhere, but it is telling that a bill like this could be passed by the Rhode Island General Assembly in the same year that a bill that sought to increase funding for women’s health failed. The priorities of the General Assembly are profoundly out of whack, and the Governor’s veto may serve as a needed corrective.
Here in Rhode Island, we not only respect the core American principles of freedom of (and from) religion and freedom of conscience, we invented them. The founder of our state, Roger Williams, ensured that Rhode Island was the first government, anywhere on Earth, that separated the church from the state. This radical principle has helped transform the world from one in which a person’s beliefs were forced upon them by a theocratic and capricious government under threat of banishment, imprisonment or death to one where free thought and free expression are the norm.
Governor Chafee did a small thing when he added his signature to that veto yesterday, but he also did a great thing, when he defended your right to conscience and expression.
Thank you, Governor Chafee.
]]>Here’s the text of Chafee’s veto message:
]]>In accordance With the provisions of Section 14, Article IX of the Constitution of the State of Rhode Island and Section 43-1-4 of the Rhode Island General Laws, I transmit, with my disapproval, 2013 H 5053, Substitute A, “An Act Relating to Motor and Other Vehicles – Registration of Vehicles.”
This bill Would allow the Division of Motor Vehicles to offer specialty license plates imprinted with the words “Choose Life.” In addition to the regularly prescribed motor vehicle registration fee, “Choose Life” plates Would be subject to a $40.00 surcharge; $20.00 Would be allocated to the general fund and $20.00 would be distributed to Care-Net Rhode Island “to support the alternative choices of infant adoption and Rhode Island’s Safe Haven.”
The function of a license plate is to register and identify a motor vehicle. Rhode Island residents may choose to purchase specialty license plates that support politically neutral secular organizations such as the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, the Friends of the Plum Beach Lighthouse or the Red Sox Foundation. Conversely, Care-Net – Rhode Island is an affiliate of CareNet, a private organization originally founded as the Christian Action Council. On its website, CareNet states that its ultimate aim is to “to share the love and truth of Jesus Christ in Word and
The Framers of the United States and Rhode Island Constitutions constructed strong Walls of separation between church and state. This bill compels the state to collect and distribute funds to an organization that advocates a particular religious and political viewpoint. It is my belief that state participation in the transmission of funds to this organization Would violate the separation of church and state, one of the fundamental principles upon Which our state was founded.
For this reason, I disapprove of this legislation and respectfully urge your support of this Veto.
One of the more controversial bills to pass in the General Assembly, in its last week, would create a special “Choose Life” license plate. This has many folks crying foul. The organization that would benefit from the sale of this special license plate is religiously affiliated. Should the State be collecting funds for a religiously affiliated organization?
The bill was transmitted to the governor’s office on July 10. He has seven days to veto this bill or it becomes law. (Wednesday, July 17)
The Rhode Island Progressive Democrats of America (RIPDA) recently sent the following letter to the governor and we urge other like-minded folks to contact the governor’s office to ask him to veto this legislation. We also ask that you contact the governor at (401) 222-2080 or by email at governor@governor.ri.gov.
]]>Dear Governor Chafee:
Re: S298 Sub A & H5053 Sub A
The Rhode Island Progressive Democrats of America urge you to veto the recently passed legislation that allows the non-profit organization CareNet to benefit from “Choose Life” license plates. It would be in direct conflict with both the RI and US Constitutions for the state of RI to collect and distribute funds to CareNet, whose mission statement is “to share the love and truth of Jesus Christ in both word and deed.” They are also known to spread scientifically inaccurate misinformation about abortion. We are steadfast in our commitment to the separation of church and state and we value our founding ideal that our great state “be maintained with full liberty in religious concernments.” Under this ideal CareNet has the freedom to produce and sell bumper stickers with the message of their choice. The state should not be complicit in proselytizing on the subject of personal reproductive decisions.
Governor, we ask that you veto the “Choose Life” license plate legislation recently passed by the General Assembly!
Respectfully,
The Rhode Island Progressive Democrats of America
Governor Chafee, in a report out from Channel 10 News, said, “he is “very concerned” about legislation to authorize a “Choose Life” license plate.” Though he did not promise a veto, he did say “he’s opposed to using state license plates to support a religious organization.”
The Governor is right to be concerned. This legislation basically puts the state in the position of passing out the collection plate for an evangelical church. CareNet, the recipient of the money, calls itself a faith-based crisis-pregnancy center, but in reality the center is owned and operated by the Cathedral of Life Christian Assembly. Since when has Rhode Island and the United States been in the business of respecting or establishing a religion?
Of course Representative Doreen Costa, who champions the Second Amendment, shows her usual and absolute disregard for the rest of the Constitution, saying, with a decided lack of cleverness, “If you don’t want it, don’t buy it. Nobody’s forcing you to buy this. It’s your decision. Again, it’s your choice.”
Of course, this isn’t about somebody’s right to put a message on the back of their vehicle. This is about the government co-opting a purely religious message in an attempt to fund a purely religious enterprise. If CareNet wants to sell bumper stickers, let them. But the government should not be involved in marketing them.
One more thing: A putative “Christian” organization like CareNet might be expected to conduct itself in a more honest, straightforward way. Deception and dishonesty are not among the many virtues espoused by Jesus, yet in setting themselves up as a crisis pregnancy center, CareNet gives off the look and feel of an organization that provides full and accurate medical information. They do not. They lie to women.
Their website says that “Common After Effects of Abortion” include depression, eating disorders, increase in drug or alcohol use, difficulty sleeping, flashbacks and loss of self esteem. The truth is that mainstream medical opinion and the American Psychological Association agree that there is no such thing as “post-abortion syndrome.” In fact, there is evidence to suggest that to the extent women do encounter these kinds of issues, it is entirely caused by the rhetoric of religious anti-choice activists.
The Christians I know don’t feel the need to lie to make their point. They espouse honesty, and do not seek to shame and psychologically harm women.
The Channel 10 piece included a statement from a CareNet spokeswoman who said that the center “offers counseling for women who choose to abort,” yet the website says “CareNet Pregnancy Center of RI does not… refer for abortions.” All they offer is post-abortion counseling, a new and lucrative market places like CareNet have created out of whole cloth.
Lies.
This entire bill is about lies foisted upon Rhode islanders by a small clique of anti-abortion theocrats who would do anything to take away a woman’s right to choose. The Governor is right to be concerned and so should the rest of us. Ask Governor Chafee to veto this bill.
Contact the Governor and let him know. It takes a minute, and might save the country.
governor@governor.ri.gov (401) 222-2080
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