Partygoers and trick-or-treaters won’t be the only ones masquerading around town this Halloween. Crisis Pregnancy Centers are popping up all over the country in the midst of Planned Parenthoods with the same mission statement to help pregnant women in need. In reality, expectant mothers who visit CPCs are deprived of the professionalism and full range of services offered at other clinics.

Feminist Campus, an organization that supports the side of a woman’s right to choose in the abortion debate, is spreading the word about these centers that they believe are dangers to society. The group is raising awareness during their “Don’t Get Tricked, Get Treated” Week of Action from Oct 25-29.

The campaign urges colleges to host screenings of the pro-life propaganda videos shown at Crisis Pregnancy Centers. Feminist Campus hopes the screenings will outrage students and prompt them to take action against the lack of neutrality found at CPCs.

Pro-choice activists across the nation are upset over the growing number of Crisis Pregnancy Centers in the United States. Opponents of these centers claim they are not run by medical professionals and are extremely biased, built on a Christian agenda that prohibits visitors from terminating their pregnancies.

Women seeking help in dealing with a “crisis pregnancy” have complained about the lack of information presented to them at these centers. Feminists are also outraged over the biased services offered at CPCs. Visits deny both regular and emergency contraception to women in need and exploit mandatory sonograms that persuade doubtful mothers not to abort.

Robert Pearson, who later founded the anti-choice Pearson Foundation, started the first Crisis Pregnancy Center in 1967. The establishments have many different names, but they all perform the same services or lack thereof and teach the same anti-abortion messages.

The online mission statement of an Ohio branch called the Community Pregnancy Center says, “We seek to protect life, both unborn and born. This objective is based upon a commitment to Jesus Christ and expressing His love and concern for others.”

Most are funded by pro-life Christian organizations such as Focus on the Family, the Christian Action Council (now known as Care Net) and the National Institute of Family Life Advocates. CPCs are commonly located near high school and college campuses to influence young people dealing with unwanted pregnancies.

Teenpregnancy.org reports that there are “750,000 teen pregnancies annually. Eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended and 81 percent are to unmarried teens.” These statistics have prompted Crisis Pregnancy Centers to station themselves around campuses where they may deliver their pro-life message to a younger audience. Schools also provide a good venue for CPCs to advertise an abstinence-only method of birth control and nothing else.

Feminist Campus will be rallying colleges to unite in protest from Oct 25-29. For information on how to organize a Crisis Pregnancy Center protest at Mesa, visit: www.feministcampus.org/act/cpc/default.asp.