Real Alternatives

There is such a need for organizations like this — an organization that serves women and babies in need and lives up to its name.
I personally know a woman who was helped a lot by this program. Because of their support, she did not have to abort her baby. In addition to great counseling, she received practical items such as diapers and formula. She was able to go on and get her RN.
This program gives women a real choice because it offers help not only during the pregnancy but in the whole first year afterward. The counselors help women face their fears. Most women don’t want to have to have an abortion, and this organization offers them real alternatives.
I am glad my tax monies are helping women this way.

I do not want a penny of my tax money to go to these crazies — not one penny!

A critical examination of this organization’s web site reveals a political perspective that embraces abstinence education despite documented evidence of the failure of such a program. While the web site uses images of young women (who are models) in stereotypical poses suggesting stress and shame, their framing of an unplanned pregnancy offers only one option – carry the pregnancy to term. One of the most egregious aspects of the web site is found in their video, The Miracle of LIfe, which reveals 1) the deeper connections this organization has to the Catholic Church and to the state of PA (funding is $ 6.29 million for FY 2013 – 2014) and 2) misinformation about fetal development in an emotionally manipulative and factually deceptive video. In the 3.33 minute long video, a Miracle of Life is visually appealing, yet problematic in that it symbolically annihilates the complexities of a woman’s private reproductive life and crisis pregnancy and offers one solution. That solution is to dutifully embrace the fetus.
In truth, RA combines benevolence with elements of domination and subordination in a paternalistic discourse that limits the freedom of women. Using harmful gender stereotypes about sex that expect young women to be the gatekeepers of chastity and to respond with denial and shame to their own sexual drives, RA alleged noble intentions to help are, instead, a form of rationalized and professionalized control of women. And rather than encourage an unexpectedly-​pregnant woman to think critically about her own decisions in order to shape her future behavior for the better, RA promotes distorted interpretations of the scientific literature and prescriptive counseling that can be misleading and even dangerous to a woman’s health if she makes a decision on false information.