#you can claim to support one ideology in public but you can allow yourself contradicting exceptions on the inside

[oflgtfol]

sorry i cant resist actually. and this time i have film evidence. like she fucking stands there as he admits to committing mass murder and espousing fascist beliefs (”i need to be all powerful” - innocuous, maybe, as a one-liner, but this was not the first time he said something like that) and racism (”they’re like animals, i slaughtered them like animals”). and then she marries him. she fucking marries him.

[wtffundiefamilies]

Attleboro Women’s Health Center in Massachusetts, like many abortion clinics, has a website offering information about the steps involved in surgical and medication abortion care, price estimates, reassuring imagery of personnel in white coats, and appointments “to discuss the abortion methods that may be available to you.”

There’s only one hitch.

This center doesn’t offer abortion—or even accurate information about the procedure. Attleboro Women’s Health Center is a crisis pregnancy center, or fake clinic, whose mission is to deter patients from abortion care. The center’s website is registered to Darlene Howard, executive director of Abundant Hope Pregnancy Resource Center, which is a self-described “Christian pro-life ministry.” The two organizations share an address.

Melissa Simas, who lives in the area, told Rewire that she noticed within the past week that the center had installed a green awning with the words “Attleboro Women’s Health Center.”  

The fake clinic is about half a mile from Four Women Health Services, an abortion clinic. (Disclosure: This Rewirereporter worked at Four Women several years ago.) While it’s not unusual for anti-choice centers to try to lure abortion clinic patients by offering the false impression that they provide abortion care, the extent of this center’s efforts shocked pro-choice advocates.

“It’s one of the most egregious cases of deceptive rebranding of a CPC I can personally remember seeing in over a decade of advocating for reproductive freedom,” Rebecca Hart Holder, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, told Rewire, after reviewing the website.

The site, which has been active for months, was recently changed to add tabs on the abortion pill and surgical abortion. It features a detailed breakdown of the procedures for varying gestational ages; unscientific terms like “dismember” and “unborn baby” may alert discerning readers that this is biased information. When a Rewire reporter registered for an appointment and inquired by email about the center’s services, a representative promised the “initial appointment will include a free pregnancy test and an abortion consultation to discuss which methods may be available to you based on your individual circumstances.”

It’s only deep in the “About” section that the center acknowledges it does “not offer, recommend or refer for abortions or abortifacients.”

“Everything that we provide is on our website, so there will be no comment,” Howard said, before hanging up on Rewire.

The website features unsubstantiated claims about the purported psychological risks of abortion—contradicting research that shows abortion does not damage mental health—and a phone number for so-called abortion reversal, a misleading and unproven protocol promoted by anti-choice activists.

Abundant Hope is listed as an affiliate of Heartbeat International, which describes itself as the largest network of crisis pregnancy centers in the world, and instructs these centers to conceal their true intentions by scrapping religious language, for example. (Someone who answered the phone at Attleboro Women’s Health Center acknowledged it is under the same “umbrella” as Abundant Hope.) Attleboro Women’s Health Center’s website claims it “was founded to empower women to make informed decisions about an unplanned pregnancy that support their privacy, dignity and self-respect.”

That’s a near-verbatim repetition of the stated mission of the abortion clinic nearby: “to empower women to make informed decisions that support their privacy, dignity and self-respect.”

While it has relatively few restrictions on abortion care, Massachusetts allows the sale of “Choose Life” license plates and donates a portion of the proceeds to anti-choice organizations—one of 15 states to do so. Crisis pregnancy centers outnumber abortion clinics in the state by more than three to one, with 30 operating across the state, according to a 2011 NARAL report.

“I think it’s wrong for us to fall into the trap of thinking, ‘Well, we’re in a state historically friendly to women’s rights,’ particularly in this climate where we have anti-choice forces emboldened by our leadership on the federal level,” said Holder of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts.

Indeed, these anti-choice fake clinics have found key allies in the Trump administration.

The family of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has funneled money to crisis pregnancy centers, including one in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that, like the one in Attleboro, lists detailed information about abortion procedures and touts abortion reversal on its website. Vice President Mike Pence diverted millions intended for needy families to fake clinics while he was Indiana governor. And a Rewire review found the Trump administration has already awarded such clinics millions in taxpayer dollars.

“The deceptive and false things they’re saying [on the Attleboro website] about the harms of abortion are part of this general narrative that has taken hold within many areas in the federal government,” Kelli Garcia, director of reproductive justice initiatives at the National Women’s Law Center, told Rewire.

While a number of states have used public dollars to support fake clinics, Hawaii was the most recent state to attempt to crack down on their deceptive tactics, following California. Both states have faced legal challenges from anti-choice groups over these regulations, as have cities like Baltimore, which defended its truth-in-advertising ordinance in court this week.

Rewire contacted the office of Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey to ask if the Attleboro clinic’s behavior might constitute fraud or other illegal behavior.

“Every woman has a right to make decisions about her own reproductive health care without being subjected to intimidation or harassment,” Emalie Gainey, a spokesperson for Healey, said in an emailed statement. Following aRewire report last year, Healey announced a settlement agreement to prohibit a Boston-based firm hired by anti-choice groups from targeting “abortion-minded women” in Massachusetts with digital propaganda while they visit abortion clinics.

Meanwhile, grassroots groups are taking action. The Expose Fake Clinics campaign, which involves dozens of organizations, including Lady Parts Justice, encourages people to submit and “like” accurate reviews on platforms like Yelp and Google to expose the ideological goals of fake clinics.

“Our whole thing is, you should be up front,” Lizz Winstead, founder of Lady Parts Justice, told Rewire. “If you are a Christian-based organization that would like to encourage people who are pregnant to have a baby, then you should say that’s who you are. But the fact that you don’t leads me to believe that you can’t get people in your doors by saying that about yourself.”

[brennandavidmerrill]

The Unexamined Life

Imagine yourself as a tabula rasa, a blank slate, and you are handed down some small piece of knowledge about a certain ideology, discipline, or philosophy. Now imagine you have been told that this infinitesimal bit of knowledge of which you now acquire is the most profound knowledge throughout existence and due to some credulity on your behalf you allow yourself to believe this claim. Furthermore you have been given the notion that it should be your life’s purpose to disseminate this knowledge to as wide an audience as possible so that others may also learn about it. Let us take this one step further and posit that you are not only motivated to spread the word of this knowledge but considering the communicated significance of this particular knowledge and its ostensible superiority over other knowledges, you are motivated to undervalue those other knowledges regardless of their credibility. You do this because you are convinced that you have the true knowledge and the other people have false knowledge. This scenario eventually unfolds into arguments, feuds and even wars over who is right and who is wrong. The problem in this thought experiment and the only reason it occurs is that we initially accepted a claim as true without considering the credibility of the source, without evaluating the implications of the claim, and without any skepticism over the truth value of the claim. On top of that we sought to impose this knowledge, of which we were only told of its significance, onto others and declare its superiority. Unfortunately this type of scenario has occurred all too often throughout history and still happens in several variations today. This is why it is crucially important that we take an approach of systematically evaluating claims before accepting them and also before refuting them. This is how we examine life. It is a philosophic and scientific endeavor to understand the true nature of things. If we do not analyze life in this way then we risk everything, for as Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living” (Plato 37). 

If you have not already surmised the implied topic of the example scenario in the introductory paragraph, it was religion. It can apply to any proselytizing or missionary faith. Before continuing let me preface this discussion with a caveat that I do not intend to be offensive to any religious person or their faith, but simply to attempt a disinterested and objective analysis. Now, back to religion. I do not think it is unreasonable to argue that religion is a flagrant victim of the unexamined life.  Let’s consider how an archetypical monotheistic religion may fall victim. Typically there is a supposition that either a god himself or a surrogate for that god made an appearance to a person whom we might call a prophet. In this exchange there is traditionally an oral dictation of principles, guidelines, laws and histories given from the god to the person and written down as scripture. This god-given doctrine gradually or rapidly disseminates through the population from cult status to religious status. Churches are established, the doctrine is preached and church members are called upon to spread the religion. This continues on in perpetuity. Again, as with in the introduction example, we begin with a person who accepts a claim as truthful without question. Granted this person thinks they are seeing and/or hearing from a god, but since hearing or seeing from a god is not a testable or replicable instance, then we cannot take it for its word and must examine further. It’s also important to mention that the majority of stories in scripture are what academic scholars, also through examination, call biblical history (compared to modern history). This means that much of the histories given in the scriptures are not verifiable by external sources outside the scripture and thus are more likely mythical narratives intended to convey meaning. Choosing to believe a religious worldview can be harmless but it can also be inimical to not only your intelligence but also to people of other faiths or no faith. If we accept something to be true without examining and evaluating it and then it contradicts something that we actually know to be true, this forces us to choose a side. Let’s say science is the other side to religion in this case. If I accept the premises of creation in the Bible as true then how can I believe the findings of scientific research to also be true? This is not an argument between beliefs but rather an argument of a faith-based belief versus an evidence-based knowledge. So we end up in this uncomfortable position that challenges our intelligence all because we made the simple mistake of not critically thinking about our belief system and what it entails before adopting it. Many controversial topics that derive from antiquated religious views often find themselves in the political spectrum today. Let’s take a look at the unexamined life of politics.

It is no surprise that religious dogma can be found in politics. Politicians often use fundamental religious values to sway the opinion of voters in their favor. When it comes to topics such as birth control, education, and marriage rights you will always have politicians on one side or the other. The point I am making here is that it is doubtful that the majority of politicians who claim to side with the more regressive stances actually believe those stances but are doing so to further their political careers. Unfortunately in matters of politics the truth isn’t something valued nearly as much as it should be. Politics thrive on rhetoric and sophistry to garner advancement, and unthinking people who do not examine political topics tend to fall for the rhetoric and simply accept claims because a political figure they admire or side with has promoted the claim. As Socrates commented on politicians, “For the partisan, when he is engaged in a dispute, cares nothing about the rights of the question, but is anxious only to convince his hearers of his own assertions” (Plato 89). Aside from religion and politics let’s briefly see if we can find the unexamined life in the realm of science.

As touched on earlier, science is usually pitted against religion due to the stark dichotomy of their different approaches at explaining life and the cosmos. Science is essentially the discipline of discovering and studying what everything is made of, how everything came to be and what purpose does everything serve. The scientific method is itself a tool of examining life by postulating theoretical explanations, testing those theoretical explanations and either adapting the good theories or disposing of the bad ones and repeating the cycle on and on ad infinitum. It’s difficult to find any faulty reasoning or lack of examination in a system built on error correction and peer review. Some opponents of science may argue that science is filled with errors because humans are errant beings and thus it’s unavoidable. Although this appears a sound argument at first it falls apart because the structure of scientific research is built so as to account for errors. Others may argue that science is pointless because it doesn’t purport to seek supernatural answers and therefore it is void of any ultimate meaning to life. These would argue that it would be best not to examine life and that the unexamined life is worth living. To this I say that the notion of a perfect and ultimate meaning to life is predicated on accepting a belief or worldview without examining it for faults. Examining life is the pursuit of acquiring the truth about reality and nature and purpose. That doesn’t necessarily omit any supernatural explanations but as of yet it has found no reason to support any supernatural explanations. Regardless, without a supernatural explanation life can still have an incredibly meaningful natural explanation. The thrill is figuring it out and we can inch closer and closer by examining the world around us, asking questions, formulating answers to those questions and letting reason guide us forward. 

We have explored what it means to live the examined life, why it is important, and as Plato showed us through Socrates, why it is worth living. I do not see any good reason for not taking a critical look at our lives and the lives around us. I understand that many people may have a worldview or political stance that if shattered upon examination would cause deep sadness or confusion but that is not the aim of examining life and it should not be used in such a harmful way. Let us only use reason and the pursuit of truth to do good and to help people as we begin to examine our lives.

- Brennan Merrill

Bibliography: Plato. The Trial and Death of Socrates. Dover Publications, Inc, 1992.