Exposing Fake Clinics Action Series: Trick or TRUTH!

Over at FMLA of the Claremont Colleges, we’re gearing up for the Don't Get Tricked, Get Treated week of action to try and get the word out to students about CPCs—and we’ve engaged chocolate to help us out.

In my opinion, no one can resist free candy. So in keeping with the “Don’t Get Tricked, Get Treated!” Halloween theme, we decided to set up our own version of “trick or treat.” We’re calling it “Trick or Truth.” On slips of paper, we wrote examples of the kinds of falsehoods that CPCs perpetuate, and then wrote the TRUTH about those false claims. We came up with several of these, and are stapling them to Halloween candy we bought in bulk at Costco.

Here's what we wrote on our "Trick or Truth" treats:

TRICK: CPCs say that abortion causes breast cancer.

TRUTH: Scientists disagree. Organizations such as the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, and the American Cancer Society ALL say that no such link exists.

TRICK: CPCs say that abortion leads to suicide.

TRUTH: An eleven-year longitudinal study of 13,000 women found that women who give birth have the same rate of need for psychological treatment as women who have abortions.

We’re hoping that these little snapshots of CPC scare tactics make students as angry as they make us, and that they help get the word out about the dangers of CPCs. And since we’re pretty strapped for funds at the moment, we needed a way to attract students to the tables we will be setting up in front of dining halls. Chocolate is a pretty powerful (and cheap!) tool.

In addition to using chocolate to get the word out, we also made handy (and informative!) table tents (pictured here) to place on all of the dining hall tables. The table tents identify the CPCs near our campus and warn students about what types of so-called "services" they might receive there.

Lastly, we'll be holding two screenings of the FMF's Investigative Videos, followed by discussion sessions.

I hope you've got a lot of cool plans in store! If you don't, grab some candy, paper and a stapler and get the word out!