Crisis Pregnancy Centers

(x-posted to Women@Brown)



One of the things I was working on at NARAL (other than updating pretty much all of their online content) was researching Crisis Pregnancy Centers. During this time, RH Reality Check came out with this great video about the deceptions spread by CPCs.

From NARAL Pro-Choice California's website (i.e. me):

Crisis Pregnancy Centers, also known as CPCs, are fake clinics and counseling centers that often use deception, inaccurate information and intimidation to prevent potentially pregnant women from accessing abortion and/or birth control services. Commonly, their goal is to impose their anti-choice agenda on women especially in so-called “at risk” communities (low income, minority, non-English speaking, etc). Many of these centers also provide sex education services and therefore have received significant funding both at the state and federal levels from abstinence-only education programs. In trying to make an important and constitutionally protected choice, women should have medically accurate information and counseling that is free of political or religious agenda.

It should be a given that women are provided with complete and accurate information before making choices about their bodies and their reproductive health. And yet.

San Francizzle

I am terribly sorry to have abandoned my blog for so long! It's more than a bit ridiculous. There is much to talk about. But for now, I know you've all been waiting for stories from San Francisco...well, I don't want to spend too much time here, so here are a few photos from an amazing summer.

A gayble cable car (but not a real one, shh) decked out for the pride parade.

The lovely Pacific coast.

Posing with my pal Harvey Milk.

Long story short: I had the opportunity to go to an Oscar de la Renta fashion show at Lake Tahoe with the family I was staying with. It was awesome. More importantly, I wore an awesome hat.

Gorgeous Asilomar State Beach, near Monterey.

A sampling of NARAL interns on my last day at the office! (Side note: if you click through that link, you will see how amazingly fantastic the website looks, courtesy of yours truly.)

Alcatraz from the ferry.

Downtown from a distance. And palm trees, which I never did get used to seeing.

Self-explanatory. Unless it's not.

The famous Castro Theatre.

My brother came to visit during my last weekend in San Francisco - definitely one of the highlights of the summer.

Greetings from San Francisco!

The view from my window.

It's been a while since I last updated...but I am currently writing from the city on the hill! I just arrived on Monday and I'm here until the end of August, living with a friend's family in the Sunset District (the trees on the left of the picture mark the edge of Golden Gate Park, which is truly lovely).

The real purpose of my being here, however, is interning at NARAL Pro-Choice California. Unfortunately I won't be able to give a whole lot of details about the experience, as we have to be really careful about confidentiality (because there are a lot of anti-choice crazies out there), but suffice it to say that my first day was awesome and I'm excited to be working there. The people are all incredibly friendly and sweet, and I'm going to get a chance to work on a few different projects, which will be great for figuring out what kinds of areas I enjoy (media, communications, outreach, etc.).

As for San Francisco, I'm already a big fan. We've had great weather so far, though I'm told not to expect this in general - certainly, there has been plenty of fog in the mornings and evenings, but the days have been quite sunny and nice. Proof of the mild climate: there is a lemon tree in the backyard!

Highlight of my wandering around the Financial District (which I have dubbed "Baby Manhattan") alone yesterday: riding a cable car! Definitely an experience that is deserving of the hype.

Oh, and Pride is this weekend! Now I just need to find a friend to go to the parade with me...