Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Crisis Pregnancy Centers
April 8, 2018 11:56 PM - Season 5, Episode 7 - Subscribe
This week (see inside for expanded contents)....
Expanded contents (to keep the front page less cluttered):
The Trump Administration: "Where 70% of Americans have served at least two months in a cabinet-level position."
Hungary: "Located between the beautiful Eastern European nations of Don't-Care-Never-Will and I Get It, I'm Bad At Geography."
Viktor Orban: "Henchman #3 in a direct-to-video Steven Segal movie."
Pepsi: "Sad Coke."
Mini Cooper: "Clown cars for regular people."
F.37: "Unfollowus," MARK ZUCKERBERG
Fake Hungary political parties that existed just to get campaign money: The Party for the Poor, the Party for All the Poor, the Hungarian Party of Poor People, and the Hungarian Party of People Who Want to Do. There's also the joke party, the Two-Tailed Dog Party.
Crisis Pregnancy Centers:
- CPCs in the US: 2,752. Abortion clinics: 1,671.
- There are 38 of them in Mississippi, and just one abortion clinic.
- Anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson, addressing the Heartbeat International Annual Conference on March 27, 2012: "We want to appear neutral on the outside. The best call, the best client you ever get is one that thinks they're walking into an abortion clinic. Okay? Those are the best clients that could ever walk in your door or call your center--the ones that think you provide abortions."
- They often have the word "choice" in their names.
- They also try to get locations near or even adjacent to actual abortion clinics.
- Some have busses which they park outside of abortion clinics.
- Heartbeat International supplies a handbook to CPCs stating things like "35 percent of suicidal behaviors (among women) may be attributable to abortion," that "abortion almost doubles the risk of breast cancer," and claiming that after abortions, parts of the fetus have been found in "like, the lungs or the heart."
- Often they have the trappings of a health care facility while not being one, including giving free ultrasounds, not for medical reasons but for emotional manipulation, including writing messages on ultrasound machines like "Hi Mommy and Daddy."
- They can and have misled women about how far along a pregnancy they are, and have delayed women to the point past where it's possible.
- For all their efforts to prevent abortions, they basically never give women access to birth control, and even tell women things like condoms have a 20% failure rate when used correctly.
- CPCs are very careful to stop just short of being health care providers and thus be liable for giving false medical advice.
- CPCs can be government funded. It's possible for them to get tax money, and sixteen states fund them directly: New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Montana, Louisiana, Georgia, Floridia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Minnisota, Wisconson, Michigan and North Dakota.
- Trump Administration news: EPA head Scott Pruitt comes under fire for wasteful spending.
- Hungary right-wing PM Viktor Orban is expected to win his fourth term.
- And Now: Coming Up On "The Doctors."
- Main story: Crisis Pregnancy Centers, facilities that exist to talk women out of getting abortions, are cagey about admitting their purpose, and now greatly outnumber actual abortion providers in the U.S. LWT founds "Our Lady of Choosing Choice" to show how easy it is to start such a non-profit, which is eligable for federal funding.
Expanded contents (to keep the front page less cluttered):
- Trump Administration news: EPA head Scott Pruitt comes under fire for wasteful spending, which turns out to be just the beginning of the weird events surrounding him, which culminate in a $2,400 charge to replace a door his security broke down and a 911 call to wake him when he was taking a nap.
- Hungary right-wing PM Viktor Orban is expected to win his fourth term. His main opposition was the Jobbik party, a further-right party that once denied the Holocaust and some on the left supported out of spite. Hungary also has a large number of joke parties, some of which were probably actually better choices than the front-runners.
- And Now: Coming Up On "The Doctors." Examples: "Stress is bad, but did you know it's actually shrinking our brains?!" "Farting to avoid flirting?!" "Bring out the poop wheel!"
- Main story: Crisis Pregnancy Centers, facilities that exist to talk women out of getting abortions, are cagey about admitting their purpose, and now greatly outnumber actual abortion providers in the U.S. To illustrate how easy it can be for a religious organization to pose as a CPC, LWT's own church Our Lady of Perpetual Exception, filed to create their own non-profit CPC, "Our Lady of Choosing Choice, Inc.," run from a van marked "Vanned Parenthood." Oliver's "wife" Wanda Jo Oliver shows up again! John: "In this van we are allowed to tell women whatever dubious information wanders into our heads, isn't that right m'Wanda?" Wanda: "That's right, m'John! We tell women that if they don't get an abortion, it'll make a ghost baby that'll haunt their hoohah forever! Wooo!"
The Trump Administration: "Where 70% of Americans have served at least two months in a cabinet-level position."
Hungary: "Located between the beautiful Eastern European nations of Don't-Care-Never-Will and I Get It, I'm Bad At Geography."
Viktor Orban: "Henchman #3 in a direct-to-video Steven Segal movie."
Pepsi: "Sad Coke."
Mini Cooper: "Clown cars for regular people."
F.37: "Unfollowus," MARK ZUCKERBERG
Fake Hungary political parties that existed just to get campaign money: The Party for the Poor, the Party for All the Poor, the Hungarian Party of Poor People, and the Hungarian Party of People Who Want to Do. There's also the joke party, the Two-Tailed Dog Party.
Crisis Pregnancy Centers:
- CPCs in the US: 2,752. Abortion clinics: 1,671.
- There are 38 of them in Mississippi, and just one abortion clinic.
- Anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson, addressing the Heartbeat International Annual Conference on March 27, 2012: "We want to appear neutral on the outside. The best call, the best client you ever get is one that thinks they're walking into an abortion clinic. Okay? Those are the best clients that could ever walk in your door or call your center--the ones that think you provide abortions."
- They often have the word "choice" in their names.
- They also try to get locations near or even adjacent to actual abortion clinics.
- Some have busses which they park outside of abortion clinics.
- Heartbeat International supplies a handbook to CPCs stating things like "35 percent of suicidal behaviors (among women) may be attributable to abortion," that "abortion almost doubles the risk of breast cancer," and claiming that after abortions, parts of the fetus have been found in "like, the lungs or the heart."
- Often they have the trappings of a health care facility while not being one, including giving free ultrasounds, not for medical reasons but for emotional manipulation, including writing messages on ultrasound machines like "Hi Mommy and Daddy."
- They can and have misled women about how far along a pregnancy they are, and have delayed women to the point past where it's possible.
- For all their efforts to prevent abortions, they basically never give women access to birth control, and even tell women things like condoms have a 20% failure rate when used correctly.
- CPCs are very careful to stop just short of being health care providers and thus be liable for giving false medical advice.
- CPCs can be government funded. It's possible for them to get tax money, and sixteen states fund them directly: New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Montana, Louisiana, Georgia, Floridia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Minnisota, Wisconson, Michigan and North Dakota.
Cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck, cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck. *
* or, "my favourite part was the chicken holding the glasses to read the statement, as the presenter nods"
posted by lmfsilva at 12:06 PM on April 9, 2018 [8 favorites]
* or, "my favourite part was the chicken holding the glasses to read the statement, as the presenter nods"
posted by lmfsilva at 12:06 PM on April 9, 2018 [8 favorites]
The "pregnancy care centres masquerading as abortion clinics" segment was good, but I think Samantha Bee already covered all the same ground on her show in a very similar segment. However, it can't hurt to do it twice. It's just horrifying that they are tricking women into delaying their abortion procedures until it's too late.
posted by orange swan at 7:04 PM on April 9, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by orange swan at 7:04 PM on April 9, 2018 [4 favorites]
Jean-Claude Juncker calling Orban a dictator to his face and then bitch slapping him was amazingly satisfying. And Juncker being the European Commission President (basically the European Commission is the legislative body of the European Union) means there's nothing Orban can really do about it.
Of course, you could say Orban has been bitch-slapping the EU for years now.
Whew. What an episode. It's like it was purpose-built to make me as angry as possible. (I felt that way about most Samantha Bee eps last year, too.)
posted by grandiloquiet at 7:10 AM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]
Of course, you could say Orban has been bitch-slapping the EU for years now.
Whew. What an episode. It's like it was purpose-built to make me as angry as possible. (I felt that way about most Samantha Bee eps last year, too.)
posted by grandiloquiet at 7:10 AM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]
Interesting that the CPC segment didn't at least mention California's Reproductive FACT Act or the lawsuit challenging it, National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra. (I understand that the oral arguments may have occurred after taping but the SCOTUS accepted the case in November.)
posted by MikeKD at 8:10 PM on April 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by MikeKD at 8:10 PM on April 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by numaner at 10:58 AM on April 9, 2018 [1 favorite]