Don't Get Tricked, Get Treated - A Musical Interlude!

The east coast campus organizers are really excited about the Exposing Fake Clinics Week of Action VIDEO CONTEST! So, we decided to compose a little ditty and put together a video - we can't wait to see what you've come up with!

Check out our amusing attempt below:


They’re creepy and they’re kooky, CPCs are spooky
They’re all together ooky, they lie to you and me

Their clinic’s a museum, where women go to see em
They really make you scream, they lie to you and me

But we believe in choices, so raise up your voices
You need to come and join us, we’re exposing CPCs

Happy Halloween from the Feminist Majority Foundation!

Click here to send an e-card to your friends about CPCs!

Click here for information about our video contest!

Exposing Fake Clinics Action Series Step 8: Create a Haunted Clinic

Attention feminist art majors, set design gurus, and those with a general love for Halloween: we have got a super creative Campaign to Expose Fake Clinics "Don't Get Tricked, Get Treated" Action idea for you!

Create a Haunted Clinic on campus! It's like a haunted house, but with creepy fake doctors and nurses making false medical claims about abortion!

All you need is a classroom, a study lounge, or other space on campus. You can even use a tent or canopy outdoors. If you can't get your hands on any of the above, you can improvise with a table.

Next, you'll need some spooky Halloween decorations (you know, cobwebs, spiders, and the like), some doctor and nurse costumes (like a nurse hat, a stethoscope, a lab coat...whatever is easiest to get a hold of), and lastly, if you're able to round up any supplies to make your haunted house extra spooky, like a fog machine, black lights, strobe lights, or just trash bags to cover the walls, go for it!

Be sure to publicize your haunted clinic, and when students come through, have the fake doctors and nurses make the totally creepy (but all too real) false medical claims made at CPCs.

Our Campaign to Expose Fake Clinics Kit, Investigative Videos, and this Ms. Magazine article should supply you with plenty of material to work with!

Be sure to use your Haunted Clinic as an opportunity to educate students who come through. Consider screening the Investigative Videos inside the haunted "clinic", holding a discussion session, passing out flyers, or even just asking folks to sign the Petition to Stop Deceptive Advertising and Federal Funding of Fake Women's Health Clinics.

Get creative and be sure to share your ideas with us!!

Don't forget about all the other great ideas we've got for the Don't Get Tricked, Get Treated Week of Action. Don't miss the Campaign to Expose Fake Clinics Video Contest Deadline - Nov. 1 is quickly approaching!

Exposing Fake Clinics Action Series! Step 4: Make an Action Video

Are you getting ready for our national week of action to expose fake clinics?

In case you've been in a cave, the campus organizers are giving you action ideas in our Exposing Fake Clinics Action Series. Check out Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3 in case you've missed out!

In this installment, I'll be talking to you about our Campaign to Expose Fake Clinics Video Contest!

Maybe you have a creative way to expose fake clinics that we haven't thought of yet. Perhaps you or someone you know wants to share a personal experiences with a CPC. Maybe you have already done some amazing action on exposing clinics and want to show us. Well, WE WANT TO SEE IT.

Plan a video, script it, find your crew and start filming! We want innovative ideas, powerful interviews, and touching interactions.

Let us know what you are doing to get the word out!

Create a You-tube Style video less than 10 minutes long and email your submissions to jsun@feminist.org by November 1st, 2009.

The winner will get their video featured at our Western Regional Feminist Campus Leadership Conference (register today!!!) as well as our National Young Feminist Leadership Conference, March 20-22 in Washington DC, with an introduction by feminist actor, Amy Brenneman.

So get rolling!

Keep in mind that surreptitious phone and video recordings inside a CPC or of CPC staff are strictly prohibited. Some CPCs will require you to sign a confidentiality agreement which may be enforceable by law. Make sure that no one on your video has signed one.

Week of Action: Don't Get Tricked, Get Treated.

Campuses across the nation are gearing up for our national week of action to expose Crisis Pregnancy Centers. It is going to be the week of Halloween, October 25-31st,2009 and its called "Don't Get Tricked, Get Treated."


Now, as our campus groups are going back to school and mobilizing on exposing fake clinics, they are asking what they can do before and during our week of action. The campus team has come up with great ideas that you may want to take on!

1. Create education flyers and posters identifying comprehensive women's health clinics and waring people are fake clinics in your area.
2. Talk to your Campus Health Center, and ask if they refer students to CPCs. Almost half of 4-year universities in the US do! If your Health Center on campus refers women to CPCs, make them stop!
3. Host a screening of FMF's two videos on the deception of Crisis Pregnancy Centers, which can be found here.
4. Stage a protest at your nearest CPC, warning women about their deceptive practices.
5. Host a "haunted clinic" at your school. Instead of ghosts and gouls, emulate what goes on inside a creepy CPC.
6. Photo campaign! Take pictures of people holding up signs with what they want to say about CPCs. This can be easily done when tabling and informing people about CPCs. Some ideas: "I don't want to be lied to." "CPCs deceive women." "Abortions DO NOT cause breast cancer." "My women's health clinic should give accurate information about birth control and abortion." "My body, my choice." You get the idea. Take these photos and post them on campus, in a facebook album, create a photo blog, or send it to your legislators!
7. Burma Shave Signs. These are consecutive signs posted one after another at a visible place on campus. Here is an example:

• You wouldn't want your dentist telling you that brushing your teeth will give you cavities.
• So why would you want (insert name of local CPC) saying that birth control is ineffective?
• or that abortion will give you breast cancer?
• or make you infertile?
• or make you more likely to commit suicide?
• Crisis Pregnancy Centers deceive women!

These are just some ideas. Feel free to come up with your own. We'd love to hear about it! Share your ideas and actions with us. Email the campus team at campusteam@feminist.org

Lastly! Let me announce that FMF is having a video contest! Make a video showing us what your campus is doing to expose fake clinics. Do you have a great idea to get to word out? Personal experiences? Want to share how you feel about CPCs? We want to see it. The winner will have their video screened at the Western Regional Feminist Campus Leadership Conference as well as the National Conference in the Spring, and be presented by feminst actor, Amy Brenneman! Deadline to submit videos is November 1st. Please send your submissions to me, Jacqueline Sun, jsun@feminist.org. And remember to keep your videos less than 10 minutes long!

Now just because Don't Get Tricked, Get Treated isn't until Halloween doesn't mean you shouldn't be taking action before and after this week of action on exposing fake clinics! The more visibility you create, the more success we have at exposing fake clinics.

photo courtesy of flickr.com/ereneta.