14 minute read
Is the Crisis Pregnancy Centre of Winnipeg dishonest?
By Juergen Severloh
The honesty of crisis pregnancy centres was questioned during the September 2021 Canadian national election when the Liberal Party, in their “Forward. For Everyone.” platform, promised that if re-elected they would “no longer provide charity status to anti-abortion organizations (for example, Crisis Pregnancy Centres) that provide dishonest counselling to women about their rights and about the options available to them at all stages of the pregnancy.”
Honesty is a reasonable expectation. All charities and all counselling should be truthful and honest. In fact, the government of Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) already have laws and policies that not only require such honesty, but severely penalize violators. Over the past 30 years the CRA has, due to their audit results, revoked over 500 registered charities, and although crisis pregnancy centres have been audited during those 30 years, no centre has had its charity status revoked. In this article I would like to clearly address the question of honesty and truthfulness within the Winnipeg CPC.
We love everyone
The CPC of Winnipeg is a Christian-based charity, which means we follow the biblical teachings about being truthful, being gentle and kind to those who are in distress, and loving your neighbour—which, of course, means loving everyone. Because we believe that everyone has intrinsic worth, we are life-affirming. We value all life, without qualifiers. Regardless of who you are, or what you’ve done or will do, we truly love and respect you.
We believe what we wrote on our website: “If a client of our Centre obtains an abortion, we love her. If she carries-to-term, we love her. If she releases the child in an adoption, we love her. If she grieves after her abortion, with zero judgment, we will mourn with her. If she is in need during parenting, we will care for her. If she struggles after the adoption, we will support her.” We also believe what Paul says in the Bible, “Even if you can speak brilliantly, with great persuasion and eloquence, if what you say is not both true and also conveyed with deep love, then your words are meaningless” (1 Corinthians 13:1–5, my paraphrase).
“Our mission is to preserve and foster family life as the essential element of the community by creating a safe and secure environment for women, their children, and their partners. Assisting them in whatever way we can by encouraging healthy relationships and the nurturing of their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Our charity respects and serves every individual seeking our help—people of all races and ethnicity, women, men, non-binary, the young and elderly, indigenous, immigrant, secular, atheist, agnostic, and people of any religious faith. We honour single parents, non-nuclear families, and chosen families.” – CPC of Winnipeg mission statement
Counselling and dishonesty
As the founding executive director of the Winnipeg CPC, I have a deep commitment to working and caring for clients. I spent my formative years in social service at a locked residential treatment institution. After six years I transitioned to work directly with Child and Family Services in residential homes helping stabilize families.
My entire social service career of 40-plus years has involved assisting vulnerable women and children—many of whom were in the worst possible situations. I learned it was important to be truthful and honest. Vulnerable people want to be heard. They want to be understood. They want the truth. I think everyone wants this. Being dishonest or manipulative is never helpful; it is always destructive. Our Centre is all about building relationships. Not including hundreds of emails, texts, and phone calls, every year we have well over a thousand client visits, from six to eight per day, and our only wish is to love and care for those who come to us for help. Dishonesty would destroy those relationships.
During our Centre’s almost 40 years, we have always used a brilliant counselling model called “Responsible For vs Responsible To.” Counselling often involves discussing very serious concerns, and the energy or impact of those discussions can be difficult for the counsellor to experience. This is true for all important counselling sessions, including life-altering situations such as divorce, abuse recovery, and complicated trauma. This can also be true for women who are experiencing an unplanned pregnancy.
One of the important aspects of the “Responsible For vs Responsible To” model is how it demonstrates and encourages counsellors to create appropriate boundaries. It is, of course, essential that the counsellor is compassionately and engagingly concerned about their client. It is equally important that the counsellor does not carry the weight of the client’s perspective or actions. The counsellor needs to be able to rationally and emotionally release the client to their own future—regardless of whether the counsellor believes that the client’s decisions are ultimately helpful or harmful.
Many of our clients make their decisions based on external pressures; in the middle of a crisis this is understandable. However, making decisions based on what someone else wants or thinks is a psychologically detrimental way of deciding important and life-changing decisions. These types of decisions need to be based on internal beliefs and reasons.
Crisis, by its very nature, creates a kind of intellectual and psychological tunnel vision which may create a heightened sense of urgency and panic, and important decisions should not be made in panic, without proper reflection.
The “Responsible To vs Responsible For” model acknowledges that clients have full agency in their decision-making. Consequently, the counsellor has the freedom to love and care for the client regardless of what decisions they make.
Client exit interviews are overwhelmingly positive
One of the mechanisms used by crisis pregnancy centres to determine the effectiveness of their counselling are client exit interviews. After their session is over, the client is left alone to fill out a simple half-page form titled “Helping Us Do Our Best.” It would not be surprising to perhaps find negative or dissatisfied reviews and comments; all human interaction has this possibility. No matter how much someone tries to do their best, there will usually be bad reviews.
What has delighted us at the Centre is the overwhelmingly positive feedback we have received over the years. Some 95 percent of all client reviews, including from those considering abortion, gave us the highest possible rating; and although we did get one neutral review, we didn’t receive even one bad review.
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Some overstep their boundaries
I believe the vast majority of counsellors and professionals who work with pregnant clients in this country are individuals whose motives are wholesome and whose interactions are wellintentioned. But every so often there are people who overstep their boundaries and let the passion of their beliefs distort their professional duty-of-care. Unchecked, a counsellor’s strong convictions can be coercive and manipulating. This has happened in both the anti-abortion community and in the pro-choice community.
I am aware of one so-called “pro-life” centre in New York City which, when a person would call and ask if that centre would provide them with an abortion, they would simply state how much an abortion costs, implying that their centre did perform abortions by giving that detail. This is an appalling ethical violation that is not only dishonest, but also manipulative and cruel. Why purposefully conceal the truth? The client will find out the falsehood as soon as she arrives at their centre.
I have heard “pro-life” individuals tell women who were distressed about their pregnancy that they should carry-to-term because it would be easier than getting an abortion. This is a misleading simplification. There are hardships that accompany all decisions surrounding pregnancy—whether you carry-to-term, have an abortion, or relinquish your child in adoption. In all these difficult pregnancy options there are women who have celebrated their decision and those who have regretted their decision.
In our own city, the Women’s Health Clinic provides abortion services. Prior to the abortion this clinic will conduct an ultrasound with their pregnant patients but will not permit the patient to view the ultrasound. Why don’t they allow the woman to observe? It is her own body, it is her choice, and she needs all the accurate, honest information she can get to make this life-altering decision. The missing medical and ethical principle here is informed consent.
It reminds me of Sallie Tisdale’s abortionaffirming article in Harper’s Magazine, “We Do Abortions Here: A Nurse’s Tale,” where the nurse has this exchange with a pregnant patient: “I am speaking in a matter-of-fact voice about ‘the tissue’ and ‘the contents’ when the woman suddenly catches my eye and asks, ‘How big is the baby now?’ These words suggest a quiet need for a definition of the boundaries being drawn. It isn’t so odd, after all, that she feels relief when I describe the growing bud’s bulbous shape, its miniature nature. Again I gauge, and sometimes lie a little, weaseling around its infantile features until its clinging power slackens.”
As a counsellor this disturbs me: “Sometimes lie a little, weaseling around its infantile features until its clinging power slackens.” The nurse is purposefully misleading and manipulating (“We Do Abortions Here,” https://lib.tcu. edu/staff/bellinger/abortion/tisdale.htm). At our Centre, we believe that the client should investigate everything she needs to, or wants to, to make an informed choice. We encourage her to talk to people, to research her options online, to meet with trusted friends and mentors. This is one of the biggest and most consequential decisions she will ever make.
Client release forms are required
Because of the potential for misunderstanding, especially in the middle of a crisis, all clients seeking services at our Centre are required to sign a Client Release Form explaining who we are, and what we do and don’t provide before they can speak with a counsellor. Here are a few excerpts from that form:
• “It is also important that you understand that we are not a ‘medical clinic.’”
• “We cannot offer you medical advice or counsel, and therefore cannot provide or assist in arranging abortions.”
• “Regardless of whether the results of your pregnancy test are positive, negative, or inconclusive, we recommend that you see a physician to confirm that result.”
• “Understanding the sensitive nature of your situation, we respectfully urge you to share only those aspects of your circumstances which you are comfortable disclosing to us.”
• “You will not be obliged to undergo a pregnancy test or view any material which you do not wish to.”
• “You may terminate your appointment at any time.”
A link to this form is also prominently displayed on our website’s opening page so that people are fully informed about our services before coming to see us.
We are open and transparent
In the same way that we are openly transparent about the life affirming appreciation we have for the clients that we are privileged to serve, we have also always been open and transparent about who we are as a faith-based charity.
Since our beginnings in the mid-1980s we have invited community social service agencies to join us at our open house events. We feel an appropriately deep satisfaction about the amount of support and services that we provide to our clients and wish to network with other agencies in hopes of further benefiting those clients. We have always included pro-choice clinics and agencies in our invitations to these open house events. We believe that we can best dispel concerns about our Centre by having everyone view our facilities, read our materials, and hear about how we care for our clients.
We care about accuracy and honesty
It has always been an objective of ours to convey accurate and honest information to our clients. We constantly review and revise our client information and facilitate ongoing professional development for our staff. Over the years we have spent significant time and resources on purchasing materials and attending seminars by recognized professionals in a variety of fields, including: Dr. Gabor Maté (stress and childhood trauma), Dr. Alan Wolfelt (loss and complicated grief), Tim Fletcher (addiction and complicated trauma), Klinic Community Health (suicide prevention), Dr. Todd Sellick (crisis intervention), Dr. Tim Keller (spiritual wellness), and numerous individuals concerning how to address Indigenous and cross-cultural community concerns.
Furthermore, to ensure that we were being accurate and up-to-date in discussing abortion with our clients, we had Dr. Richard Boroditsky educate our staff during a two-hour workshop. At the time, Dr. Boroditsky was a professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of Manitoba, was the president of Planned Parenthood Manitoba, and was the most recognized abortion-providing physician in Manitoba. Accuracy and honesty are integral to our Centre. It is the only way that we wish to serve our clients.
We are members of Pregnancy Care Canada
In the mid-1990s a number of crisis pregnancy centre directors, including myself as the Winnipeg CPC director, formed Pregnancy Care Canada (PCC). PCC is a national best-practice association of crisis pregnancy centres. From our beginning, one of the primary PCC objectives was to ensure that every affiliated centre would perform their duties honourably, with honesty and with accuracy, using the “best practices” model as their guide. We recognized there were a few rogue pregnancy centres in North America and we did not want to be associated with them, either relationally or by perception. Therefore, the PCC affiliation membership process is rigorous in its criteria and expectation.
PCC has always proactively ensured that all our affiliated centres have policies and practices that are legal, trustworthy, informative, and compassionate. Furthermore, the information PCC provides to its affiliated centres is critically reviewed by specialized practitioners across Canada, including a wide scope of recognized perinatal nurses, family physicians, obstetricians, gynaecologists, medical ethicists, specialist physicians, doctors of genetics and pharmacology, nurses, therapists, lawyers, accountants, pastors, social workers, teachers, and entrepreneurs involved with our Centre’s development and programming. All of whom are above reproach and none of whom would tolerate dishonesty.
Our Centre has, for over thirty years, been an affiliate with the Canadian Centre for Christian Charities, a national oversight organization that gives professional guidance to charities which then ensures that its affiliates perform in an “exemplary, healthy, and effective way.”
We offer services at no cost to clients
Last year crisis pregnancy centres across Canada served 6,500 new clients, and cared for 5,160 clients who received material support such as diapers, baby formula, baby clothing, maternity clothing and food. Collectively we had almost 32,000 client visits, most of which included providing material necessities and emotional support. We offer an amazing amount of services performed by volunteers and staff, and at no cost to either the clients we serve or the community taxpayers.
Finally, as I have explained throughout this article, regardless of how many women seek our help, we will always treat our clients with respect, honesty, integrity, and grace. Why wouldn’t we? We think people are awesome. Our client guests deserve an abundance of love, compassionate care and resources.
Juergen Severloh has been married to his wonderful wife Janni since September 20, 1980. Together they share two amazing children: Michael and Sarah. Juergen is the executive director of the Crisis Pregnancy Centre of Winnipeg, Man. A Christian life-affirming inner-city ministry, the CPC addresses the relevant issues which encompass pregnancy—including adoption, abortion, postabortion, infant loss, post-birth support, parenting, spiritual-awareness, and healthy sexuality. Juergen is an ordained minister; he attends both Albright Church and St. Benedict’s Table.
