A completely unanticipated situation has come up for me that will test my level of professionalism against my level of disgust that I have for the spawn of the anti-abortion movement that is the crisis pregnancy center. These are the places that take advantage of young, poor pregnant women and girls with no family support and try to talk them out of having an abortion by telling them it's a sin, all women who have them regret it (they even created a "syndrome" for this affliction), and that it probably causes cancer and who knows what else. "Pregnant? Scared? Alone?" You know the billboards. They masquerade as "clinics" but they are often run by christian ministries and don't really offer health services.
I often try to forget that I live in Texas, but I had a rude reminder yesterday when I got the list of folks who had signed up and paid to participate in a workshop I am giving. It has always been your run of the mill organizations who are trying to do good for all sorts of people. I mean, some programs are poorly run and aren't effecting change very well, but at least I never had any argument with what they were intending to do. So anyway a few people from these centers are coming to my workshop. Having cut my professional teeth in the nicely blue state of Washington, I never imagined this. Should be a growth experience for me.
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Epilogue: Only one of the three people from these centers who had signed up actually came, and she wasn't scary. Fairly vocal, but not in a proselytizing way. I survived the workshop, though by the end I was so exhausted I wasn't answering people's questions very coherently. Three and a half hours of constant on-the-spot questioning while juggling powerpoint slides and handouts can take a lot out of a person!
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