"You Have a Choice" -- The discussion

[Weird Harold]

From the poll I posted a week ago:
"You Have A Choice" -- Really?
http://optionline.org/

The site above has posters in about half of the bus shelters around here with huge lettering, "Pregnant? You have a choice." The only other information on the posters is the 800 number and the website.

The picture is of a girl in her late teens sitting on a bench looking lost.


Obviously, this is a moderate pro-choice site, right?

As I post this, exactly half of the 56 votes say this site is "obviously pro-life" with the rest split between "Obviously Pro-choice" and "Neutral" with only two "no opinion" votes.

I think it is no surprise to anyone that one of the "obviously pro-life" votes was mine.

I raised the question about this site as a prelude to a discussion about "Bait and Switch" tactics and whether this sort of site/organization is really an example of such.

To be perfectly frank, the choices presented and most of the information is essentially factual and nearly the same list of choices I'd present to someone who came to for me advice.

The emphasis on the hazards of abortions and the placement of the images are artfully done but baised, IMHO, towards maximizing any guilt if an abortion is chosen -- not that they'd provide any assistance for that choice except for "post-abortion guilt tripping" -- AKA "counseling."

"Bait and Switch" advertising is illegal in many, if not most, jurisdictions -- Would this site qualify if the "product" were anything other than "pregnancy counseling?"

Should laws against Bait and Switch advertising apply to sites like this one that only deliver about half of what is implied is offered? (and the half that is delivered is biased.)

This site is actually very moderate compared to some pro-life sites-- at least on the surface; I have no idea what kind of experience someone would undergo if they went further than the website. I suspect that it would be very heavily weighted towards making abortion sound as bad and dangerous as possible, but that is just a hunch.

I wouldn't any problems with this site or their advertising posters if they were worded "abortion isn't your only option."

 

[minsue]

Agreed on all counts, WH. Reminds me of commercials that used to run here a couple of years ago for an organization, possibly the same one, that listed among the things they could help you with: your abortion questions and your adoption decision. Yup, no agenda there.

 

[Boxlicker101]

As I post this, exactly half of the 56 votes say this site is "obviously pro-life" with the rest split between "Obviously Pro-choice" and "Neutral" with only two "no opinion" votes.

I think it is no surprise to anyone that one of the "obviously pro-life" votes was mine.

I raised the question about this site as a prelude to a discussion about "Bait and Switch" tactics and whether this sort of site/organization is really an example of such.

To be perfectly frank, the choices presented and most of the information is essentially factual and nearly the same list of choices I'd present to someone who came to for me advice.

The emphasis on the hazards of abortions and the placement of the images are artfully done but baised, IMHO, towards maximizing any guilt if an abortion is chosen -- not that they'd provide any assistance for that choice except for "post-abortion guilt tripping" -- AKA "counseling."

"Bait and Switch" advertising is illegal in many, if not most, jurisdictions -- Would this site qualify if the "product" were anything other than "pregnancy counseling?"

Should laws against Bait and Switch advertising apply to sites like this one that only deliver about half of what is implied is offered? (and the half that is delivered is biased.)

This site is actually very moderate compared to some pro-life sites-- at least on the surface; I have no idea what kind of experience someone would undergo if they went further than the website. I suspect that it would be very heavily weighted towards making abortion sound as bad and dangerous as possible, but that is just a hunch.

I wouldn't any problems with this site or their advertising posters if they were worded "abortion isn't your only option."

Hi, Harold, I suspected that the site was actually pro-life or else it wouldn't have in a post here but I disregarded that and read it as if I had run across it while surfing. I had the impression that it had been written by a person opposed to abortion, who had been hired to write copy for a site that offered unbiased counseling and the copywriter slanted it toward his or her own way of thinking.

I am familiar with the bait and switch tactic also, as probably everybody is, but I don't think this would be considered to be that. Bait and switch usually is somebody offering goods or services at a low price and then saying the low price is no longer available and trying to sell a customer on something more expensive. I don't think that's what they are doing here although they probably are misleading people.

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: Re: "You Have a Choice" -- The discussion

I disregarded that and read it as if I had run across it while surfing. I had the impression that it had been written by a person opposed to abortion, who had been hired to write copy for a site that offered unbiased counseling and the copywriter slanted it toward his or her own way of thinking.

If it weren't for the small print on the location search page that says, "these do not provide abortion services or abortion referals" I might agree with you.

I don't think an organization that wanted to provide unbiased counseling would accept the relatively obvious anti-abortion bias in the presentation. It's not blatant bias, but if it was blatant, it wouldn't suck in unsuspecting young women looking for unbiased information, would it?

I'm really conflicted about this site -- as opposed to the orgnization behind it -- because it IS a source of relatively accurate information on choices other than abortion, but There's no indiction that they'll actually DO anything to help implement ANY choice.

They explicitly say they don't provide abortions or abortion referals, but they only hint that they might provide some assistance in arranging adoptions, and say nothing at all about how to make any of the other options practical. There's no suggestion they'll actually help with pre-natal medical care or Lamaze classes or anything like that.

I think in the end, I have to say that the site itself is the only good thing about the organization -- It has enough truth and information to be useful, but it smells like a scam otherwise to me.

I think I'd recommend the site with a warning that the organization behind it probably isn't worth contacting.