Late night talk show host John Oliver has taken aim at Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPC’s) in his latest tasteless monologue. Oliver made several claims about these centers, insisting that they refuse to offer advice about contraception and are unethical in their tactics – for example, parking a mobile clinic outside an abortion center.
The British comedian also took aim at religious groups, arguing that it is extremely easy to set up a Crisis Pregnancy Center if you are doing so in the name of religion. To prove his point, he personally set up a spoof center, turning this sensitive issue into the punchline for an extraordinarily crass joke.
Oliver insisted that CPCs should love birth control and should be “filling Pez dispensers with birth control pills, giving condoms to trick or treaters, and IUD earrings as hostess gifts.” His mock center, “Vanned Parenthood,” offered patients a list of false facts about abortion, many of which were grossly offensive.
According to Yahoo News, Oliver’s center was named “Our Lady of Choosing Choice.”
“The best part is, just like our church, we are tax-exempt and we could be eligible for government funding,” the comedian added. “Praise discretionary budgets!”
“This is all perfectly legal and there is absolutely nothing stopping us from parking outside an abortion clinic tonight and haranguing people in the morning,” Oliver said. “And frankly, there really fu**** should be.”
Of course, Oliver fails to talk about the brutal abortion procedure, or the self-evident and dubious ethics behind terminating the life of a human child. Instead, he embarks on a relentless smear campaign against those who are attempting to both save lives and support anyone who chooses to keep their baby – painting them as bigoted and clueless religious fanatics who only care about their political agenda.
Despite the comedic attack, which garnered a few weary laughs, most Crisis Pregnancy Centers actually engage in some life-saving and admirable work. According to Crisis Pregnancy Center of CT, for example, their mission is to:
“Assist women to make life-affirming decisions by helping them to make plans to keep and parent their babies, or to make an adoption plan by providing them with compassionate and loving emotional, physical and spiritual support.”
According to it’s website, this center goes above and beyond to help support both young women and expectant mothers make good choices.
“We offer free pregnancy tests, material assistance and teaching materials. We have assisted mothers to become self sufficient by providing them with additional support through our work as liaisons with the schools so that mothers may continue their education. We also provide help with finding housing, child care or getting a job.”
The clinic also highlighted the fruits of its life-saving work.
“Since opening in 1983, we have saved more than 1400 babies through a compassionate presentation about the truth of abortion and the love and saving grace of Jesus Christ. We have ministered to over 4000 women and have seen more than 600 women make decisions for Christ. Additionally we have ministered to more than 800 women through our Post-Abortion Ministry.”
Saving babies from death hardly seems like the devilish, frightening operation Oliver apparently wants his viewers to believe it is. You can watch Oliver’s segment below, but be warned, there is some explicit language.