How to get "truth in advertising" legislation passed in your city

Many campuses across the country have done an amazing job getting the word out about "fake clinics," or so called Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs). Raising awareness is key in ensuring that no person enters a CPC without knowing the services that they do and DO NOT provide. Recently, the city of Baltimore set a new precedent in tackling the deceptive practices of CPCs.

A couple of months ago, Baltimore, MD became the first city to pass a city ordinance that required CPCs in the city post disclaimers saying that their facility does not provide or make referrals for abortions or birth control services. This is a huge victory in the fight for choice and the quest for comprehensive women's health services. Many other cities are already introducing similar bills to their city council.

As a new component to our Campaign to Expose Fake Clinics, we want to encourage our campus groups to follow suit by working to get this type of legislation passed in your city. It may seem daunting, but if you follow these simple steps, you too can get a bill that demands "truth in advertising" from CPCs passed in your community.

1. Know the Facts

• First, you need to know the facts about the CPCs near your campus and around your community. Where is the nearest Crisis Pregnancy Center from your campus? Does your Campus Health Center refer women seeking reproductive services to CPCs? If so, get them to stop, or in the very least, make them include a disclaimer in their referral. What deceptive practices do the CPCs in your area use? What do they say about abortion and birth control? Do your research!

2. Contact your Campus Organizer

• Contact your campus organizer! We have many resources that will be helpful to you in this process, including the text of the Baltimore legislation, studies about CPCs, and studies disproving the misinformation CPCs say about the dangers of abortion. We can offer you guidance and connect you with the right resources.

3. Collaborate with other Pro-Choice Organizations, Gain Support Through your Community and Generate Publicity

• Building coalitions with other pro-choice organizations will be extremely helpful. You should look into getting in contact with someone from Planned Parenthood or NARAL, in addition to us at the Feminist Majority Foundation. Also look into local pro-choice orgs in your area. Remember, there are power in numbers!
• Get support for your bill by getting the word out to your campus and community. Print flyers, make announcements in classrooms, get newspapers and other news outlets to cover the story. Make sure people who are about this issue know what's going on. As a collective voice, rally in support of the bill
  

4. Identify a Pro-Choice Member of your City Council

• Find someone of your City Council that you think would be interested in helping with this type of legislation. Arrange a meeting with them.

5. Present the Facts & Make your Case

• Meet with your City Council Member or a member of their staff. Present the facts and signatures from our petition that you have gathered. Let them know the risks that CPCs pose, their threat to your campus, and their deceptive practices. Show them a copy of the Baltimore ordinance and ask your city council representative to sponsor similar legislation. Use this language from the Baltimore ordinance as a guide to create a law requiring a limited-service pregnancy center (or CPC) to clearly provide its clients and potential clients with a statement that their center does not provide or make referral to abortion or birth control services

6. Attend Hearings and Show Support until the Ordinance Passes

• Monitor the progress of your proposal. Follow up, and attend any hearings regarding possible legislation. Continue to show your support and commitment to “truth in advertising” until an ordinance is passed. Mobilize your campus and community supporters to do the same.

It's as easy as that! Be sure the check out our resources pages for all the info you'll need to get you started on this. And be sure to check out our CPC action kit for a handout outlining the points I've just elaborated on.

Join the National grassroots effort to pass laws that would require "truth in advertising" for your city's CPCs!!!

This article was featured in our January 2010 monthly Choices eZine. Sign up for our alerts to stay up-to-date with the latest feminist news and to receive the monthly eZine.

2009 Women of Color Conference a HUGE Success!

The 3rd annual Feminist Majority Foundation Women of Color Conference was our biggest and most diverse Women of Color Conference yet, with 349 attendees from 38 school and 16 states!

Special thanks go out to the Spelman Women's Research & Resource Center, the Spelman Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, Bennett College for Women, and the NYU Women of Color Policy Network for their gracious co-sponsorship and support!

The conversation we began last weekend does not need to end just because the conference is over! Join the Women of Color Conference facebook group to keep in touch with other activists, share ideas, and publicize your events.

Also, as you may know, the Feminist Majority Foundation plans our conferences based on your feedback. If you attended but did not return a conference evaluation on Saturday, please email a copy to Tania at tstewart@feminist.org. Let us know what you loved, what you didn't, and how we can make next year's conference even better

If you're interested in starting a Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance on your campus, let us know! Contact your National Campus Organizer at 866-444-3652 and become a part of the world's largest pro-choice campus network.

And last but not least, save the date for the National Young Feminist Leadership Conference, March 20 & 21 at the University of the District of Columbia in Washington, DC!

It was a privilege and a pleasure to spend this past weekend with you. We left the conference feeling renewed and ready for action, and we hope you did, too! Thank you for making the Third Annual Women of Conference a smashing success, and we will see you next year!

Photo credit: nateOne on flickr.com

Baltimore CPCs Must Disclose Provided Services

This week in Baltimore Maryland, the City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake introduced a bill called the Limited Service Pregnancy Centers Disclaimers Bill. This bill would require Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) to be upfront and provide information about the types of services they do or do not provide as discussed in a recent blog post by RH Reality Check. In Baltimore and all around the county, many CPCs appear neutral and as places women can go to discuss pregnancy concerns. However, these facilities often do not disclose information regarding their limitations of services. They also provide falsified information regarding birth control methods and abortions in attempts to sway women away from them. Rather than helping them, the false information makes it much more difficult for women to get the help they need in tough times.

This measure does not force CPCs to prove any services they do not wish too, it only forces them to be upfront and straightforward about the type of services they will and will not provide, allowing women to make a more informed decision on where to go. This is a step in the right and protective direction, now if only all cities in the US mandated this…

Fortunately there are other groups calling CPCs out. The Feminist Majority Foundation and its Campus Team is working to encourage people to expose such clinics for what they really are in an effort to stop deception. Check out their website at feminist.org for more information.

Photo Credit: Becca's Photostream on Flickr.com

Get involved with the feminist group on campus!

September is here and that means the weather is getting cooler (quite the contrary in Los Angeles), the summer is gently fading, and people are going back to school!

Would you like to take action for women's rights on your college campus? Interested in feminist issues? What to do something to stop violence against women and sexual assault, ensure women have safe and legal access to abortions and birth control, fight for marriage equality, stop negative images of women in the media, narrow the salary gap between the sexes, or expose fake clinics? We hope so.

We at the FMF urge you to get involved with your feminist group on campus if you aren't involved already!

With 7 fabulous national campus organizers, we can put you in contact with the group on your campus, or help you start a new group!

To get involved please contact us! campusteam@feminist.org

Jacqueline Sun Joins the FMF Campus Team!

The FMF family is THRILLED(!!!) to announce that Jacqueline Sun will join the Campus Team as a National Campus Organizer in our Los Angeles office!

Jacqueline graduated with honors from the University of California, Los Angeles where she received her B.A. in Sociology and Psychology. At UCLA, Jacqueline was an Alumni Scholar and a volunteer at the LGBT Resource Center. She was also the club president and captain of the Women’s Club Volleyball team at UCLA.

As a publicity intern at Ms. magazine, Jacqueline helped promote many programs at FMF, including the Campaign to Expose Fake Clinics and extensive work on the No on 4 & 8 campaign during the 2008 election.

Welcome, Jacqueline!!

It's Business Time: End of Semester Reports

It's that time again! At the end of every semester, FMF campus organizers call all their groups for a conversation known formally as the "End of Semester" report. If you are the leader of an FMLA or FMF affiliate, you should probably expect a call or email from your organizer soon...

There is some confusion out there about the purpose of these little interviews. Some students worry that we're calling to check up on them, or find out if they have been "bad feminists" (I definitely felt that way back when I was the leader of an FMLA at my college).  However, I now realize that this is a misinterpretation of the purpose of end of the semester reporting and the campus program as a whole.

When you campus organizer calls you, she is reaching out to help you in any way that she can. We want to hear about both the good AND the bad so that we can help your group grow and also improve the campus program. Love the Afghan Women's Health Campaign? Let us know! Have an idea of how to improve the Campaign to Expose Fake Clinics? Tell us and your idea can be shared with feminist activists around the country. Wish FMF devoted more resources to another women's issue? Let us know about that, too.

The Choices Feminist Campus program should be as grassroots as possible--YOU are the national feminist movement. So let us know what you're doing, how you're doing, and what you need. Be on the lookout for those emails and phone calls, and contact us with any questions!

Getting out HER vote with Patriots and Ninjas!

Day one of our three week travels for FMF's Get Out HER Vote campaign began at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Patrice and I met with one of our affiliated groups, the Pro-Choice Patriots, as well as a new outreach group, the Feminist Ninjas. Both were excited about GOHV, full of enthusiasm about the election and eager to begin a year full of feminist activism at GMU.

The entire campus of George Mason was blanketed with voter registration efforts -- including a campus-driven effort, Mason Votes. They even posted our PSA! We were hard pressed to find a student that was not already registered (which is a good thing!) and spoke with a reporter about FMFs campaign and our efforts to make sure young women and people of color are registered, educated and getting to the polls this election! Check out the article here.

A special thank you to the staff of the Women's and Gender Studies Center, Leah Perry, Dr. Saida Hodzic and Dr. Ingrid Sandole-Staroste for welcoming us with open arms into their classes and onto their comfy sofas as we spent the day criss-crossing campus.

Check out our video right before we spoke to Leah Perry's "Queer Theory" class:

After a very long first day, we recapped the highlights of our visit to GMU before hitting the road to Hollins University (note: we're still working out the kinks with the camera -- we're community organizers, not camera operators! :p):

Oh, and a little visit from our resident (unofficial) mascot, Cami (founding member of Camels for Choice):