Who doesn’t love a good protest?

The Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) recently launched a campaign to shut down Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) and prevent them from advertising on college campuses.

The organization has also declared next Monday to be National Crisis Pregnancy Center Protest Day.

Why?

According to FMF’s Web site, the goal is to expose “fake clinics” that “coerce and intimidate women out of considering abortion as an option and prevent women from receiving neutral and comprehensive medical advice.” FMF adds that these fake clinics are “typically run by anti-abortion volunteers who are not licensed medical professionals.”

Just as I believe abortion clinics ought to comply with the law and with human decency in reporting the rape of under age girls (see my Feb. 17 column), I believe that on the opposite end of the spectrum, CPCs ought not to coerce women into a decision or disseminate false medical information.

Clinics in both camps should be held to a higher standard.

I imagine those who will be protesting next Monday would agree with me. I don’t think they really want to shut the clinics down, not if they are truly for abortion rights.

Without these CPCs, many women who want to keep their child may be out an option.

I know that if a woman comes into Planned Parenthood for a pregnancy test and decides to keep her child, she is often referred to one of the local pregnancy resource centers. I imagine and hope that is the case at other independent abortion clinics, as well.

These CPCs provide parenting classes, pre-natal care and education, medical and financial assistance, adoption assistance, housing alternatives and material supplies like diapers and clothing for up to one year after the child’s birth.

They also provide many services that overlap with those offered by Planned Parenthood and other women’s health clinics, such as STD screenings and well-woman exams, at little or no cost to their clients.

I have visited or volunteered at many of these local pregnancy resource centers. All of them have been staffed with licensed medical professionals, many of whom donate their time and skills.

I know of local obstetrician who volunteers at one of these clinics that provides 14 prenatal visits and delivers the baby — all at no charge — for women without access to adequate health care.

These clinics and organizations offer women the practical means to keep her child — a worthy goal, indeed. I think we can all agree that we want to reduce the number of abortions.

With these CPCs, a woman truly has a choice. After all, if her only practical option is abortion, is she really choosing?

But if the Feminist Majority Foundation is successful, thousands of women will be left without the support they need to follow through on their choice to keep their child.

To the FMF and the protesters next week: Is this what you want? Do you really want to shut down these clinics?

From an organization that works to protect women’s reproductive choice, this seems like an incoherent, politically motivated move that does not have women’s best interests in mind.

Andrea wants to make up her own holidays, too. Send her suggestions at andrea.summers@asu.edu.