The site is incrediblymisleading, the tagline literally stating “For your health, choice and future.” The front page has three links labeled “Pregnancy,” “Adoption” and “Abortion.” “Abortion” is not clickable but the other two are. There are three ‘happy client stories’ and only one has talked about deciding to parent, the other two are extremely open-ended and leave a lot up to the person reading the ‘story’ and one even makes it sound like they’re opting for an abortion but ‘haven’t decided yet.’ There is no indication they do not preform abortions aside from a small ‘disclaimer’ stating a list of services they do not provide. The list reads as follows:
“
~All of Positive Options’ services are free of charge; ~Medical services are overseen by licensed medical professionals, some of whom are volunteers; ~Our pregnancy test is 99% accurate 3 to 5 days before a missed period (positive or negative); ~Positive Options recommends clients consult a licensed physician to confirm the results of a pregnancy test or ultrasound; ~Any counsel received at Positive Options is not intended as a substitute for professional counseling; ~The use of electronic recording devices will not be permitted in order to protect client privacy and the privacy of Positive Options staff; ~Any attempt to obtain services or resources under false pretenses will result in the discontinuation of services; and, ~All information is kept confidential and will not be released without a client’s written consent, except if child abuse and/or criminal sexual conduct reporting laws apply or if we believe or hear that a client is in danger of hurting themselves or others. ~Positive Options does not offer annual exams, birth control devices, mid-life services, abortion services or referrals, mammograms or breast screening, in-vitro fertilization services, pre or post-natal care, treatment of infertility, or treatment of reproductive tract infections. ~Clients will receive a referral list of local physicians for continued reproductive care. ~The contents of this website are for information purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. ~In no event shall Positive Options be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on the content of this website.
“
Some items have been bolded because they deserve extra attention and cause suspicion.
This site has an entire page dedicated to abortion and the different types with no indicators that this ‘clinic’ does not offer them. Oh, excuse me, yes they do have a smalldisclaimer at the bottom of the ‘services’ page:
I have gone through the entire site at least four times and only justnoticed this. I couldn’t imagine what a scared, nervous, anxious, or upset pregnant person could miss or interpret.
The ‘medical team’ includes two Nurses (Linda Dykstra RN, Nurse Sonographer and Val Kuipers RN, Nurse Sonographer) and a Nurse Practitioner (Mary Teerman LPN, Nurse Sonographer) and a Doctor Jim Gerard, MD the Medical Director, and a local practicing OB/GYN in West Michigan. Three nurses and one doctor for four locations? My general practitioner has two LPN’s and about six nurses and she’s in a small family practice!
Also this cute line:
“We are dedicated to providing our communities with a wide range of free and confidential services to all.”
Yeah, you mean pee tests and free ultrasounds. That’s a ‘wide range’ of services.
So if you live in or near Allendale, Allegan, Grand Haven, and Holland be aware of Positive Options. If you do drop by, say hi to aubscares for me. :)
As an escort, these are things I WISH we had time to tell clients as they walk to the clinic.
Protesters don’t have any concept of personal space or the word “NO”. However, that doesn’t mean it is pointless to say it. The protesters need to hear “GO AWAY” and “LEAVE ME ALONE, STOP FOLLOWING ME” repeatedly and LOUDLY (I’ll talk about why this is important later). As clinic escorts, we don’t have the ability to block or run into protesters, that would be assault. Protesters will try to make you stop walking, slow you down, get in your way. ANYTHING to impede your progress. My advice is to KEEP WALKING at YOUR OWN PACE. YOU set the pace.
Don’t hesitate to film protesters. Film yourself saying go away, leave me alone, stop following me. Film the protesters stepping in front of you and trying to slow you down. If a protester touches you, film that too.
Don’t hesitate to ask an escort (if available) questions. You can grab my arm or get behind me and hold onto my shoulders. It is WHATEVER you want to do.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO WALK WITH A CLINIC ESCORT. We are there ONLY IF YOU WANT US! :) Your consent and wishes are what we want to strive for. If an escort approaches you (typically we will have an orange or pink vest that says CLINIC ESCORT on it), we will ask “Would you like us to walk with you?“ You DO NOT have to say yes. Unlike the protesters, if you say “No Thanks!” we will let you be ;)
If you feel harassed or violated once you get inside the clinic, you have EVERY RIGHT to file a non-emergency report. I would start with your local police department. Also call the FBI and the Department of Justice. The fact that a report of harassment is on record is what is important. The more reports of harassment the police have on file from clients, the more likely police will come out and watch and reprimand protesters. If you would like to report a specific protesters, just ask an escort. We typically know their names, just as they know ours.
Protesters can make you feel powerless and angry. This is a way to take your power back and report harassment.
If you have any questions, I would call your local clinic. Also you can ask me!
monster that doesn’t know that it’s a monster because it’s never seen its own reflection, doesn’t understand why it’s feared. lonely creature only trying to love and be loved but it’s clumsy and doesn’t realize its power, doesn’t know it’s different. why don’t you love me. why are you scared of me. i’m just like you
Oh, NOW I understand why gays love monsters so much
PSA - Delete any asks you receive about “joyofsatan.org!”
We’ve been through the “Gold Star Lesbian” spam asks, as well as the amegaotaku/rekka007 ones, and it seems that the new copypasta spam ask everyone is receiving is one where people are asked what they think of Joyofsatan.org, claiming them to be “the largest Satanist organization in the world.”
These asks are mostly sent to users who frequently talk about the occult and/or witchcraft, feminist bloggers, and Jewish users, with the message slightly altered for each person it’s sent to. Here are the two most common variations of the ask:
“What do you think of Joyofsatan.org? They claim to follow the Pagan Goddess Lilith/Lalitha, they’re pro-choice and they’re the largest Satanist group in the world.” <- This one also occasionally includes “they support women’s rights” after “they’re pro-choice.” This also seems to be the most commonly sent ask.
“What do you think of Joyofsatan.org? They claim to follow the Sumerian God Enki-Satan and they’ve become the largest Satanist group in the world.”
Although these asks are usually sent on anon, they’re also sent by the burner account 88643468, presumably to bypass anyone who has anon asks turned off, so I suggest blocking that account, especially if you have anon asks turned off.
Now, the reason you should delete these asks, instead of engaging, is because the Joy of Satan Ministries in question is a Neo-Nazi group, as detailed on the Wikipedia page I just linked, and these asks appear to be a recruiting tactic, going by the types of users most commonly spammed with the asks, and how the asks are re-worded depending on who they’re sent to; instead of a singular copypasta that gets sent to everyone, it’s variations of the copypasta that are each targeted towards a different demographic.
The people sending these asks want you and your followers to go to the Joy of Satan website, so that it gains more traffic and, of course, to suck people into their white supremacist cult.
So please, please, don’t engage, just delete the asks and block the 88643468 account, and if someone you follow answers one of these asks, urge them to delete their post and to block the 88643468 account for extra measure. Right now is also a good time to disable anonymous asks, or even take it a step further and only allow asks from people you follow, just in case 88643468 isn’t the only burner account.
Please share this.
Edit: They do in fact have another burner account; please block jezebel-tarot. Also, as many people have pointed out and I myself noticed while typing this out, the other burner account’s URL starts with “88” which is a Neo-Nazi dogwhistle.
They are also targeting the following groups:
Hindu users, now claiming that JoS is “the largest Hindu group” and claiming to follow Shiva in an attempt to attract them.
Black users, attempting to attract them to the site by talking about Blacks for Satan and ATRs.
Catholic users and Christian users, unsurprisingly, no doubt to get hateclicks as traffic to their website, and “debate” from the person receiving the ask.
Atheist users, probably with the same intent of getting hateclicks and “debate.”
In general, they seem to target anyone who follows any religion, again no doubt to get “debate” out of them.
Speaking of how these people are trying to bait others into “debating” them, here is one of the four lovely asks I received just this morning, which I’ve noticed other people also receive this specific ask after telling these bastards to fuck off for being white supremacists:
“Joyofsatan.org are not white supremacists.Joyofsatan.org (JoS) is ran by people of color. JoS follows non-white Pagan Gods and gay Gods. JoS has a black high priestess, Asian high priest, Hispanic High Priestess, etc. Josafrica.com was created by Shannon Outlaw whom is a black woman and the high priestess of JoS.The JoS websites have repeatedly stated that people of any race can join them. According to ancient-forums.com which is the official JoS forums, there’s thousands upon thousands of non-white and mixed race JoS members that have their own spaces on the forum. I’m a mixed race person of color.The Abrahamic religions are anti-Satanic, anti-Pagan, anti-women and anti-gay so why can’t JoS be anti-Abrahamic? JoS supports women’s rights and gay rights. JoS was founded by a woman and worships Pagan Goddesses.”
The fact I and others have received this ask, and variations of it making similar claims that JoS is “ran by people of color” and isn’t actually racist, all after pointing out that they’re a white supremacist cult, is EXACTLY why I am urging people to delete the asks they receive instead of engaging. As I said before, they WANT people to “debate” them as it gets them more attention.
I know this post has over 8.5k notes at the time of me making this edit, but I urge people to reblog this edit instead.
How on earth do people simultaneously acknowledge that autistic people experience regular sensory distress and also say that autistic people just happen to have unusually high pain tolerances? Because what it looks like is that we’re in pretty regular to constant pain from an early age and just get told that we’re not actually hurting and just need to do the thing until we just realize that it’s never going to not hurt. So injuries pile up, and illnesses go ignored, because if nobody gave a shit enough to help before, why bother? So naturally and magically, it’s just having a high pain tolerance. Obviously.
oh shit, i think you are incredibly onto something.
autistic people also very commonly just straight up have chronic pain, not just from sensory issues
hEDS and its most common comorbidities are EXTREMELY common among autistic people, and even very obvious and debilitating cases can go undiagnosed for an extremely long time. It’s far more common than doctors really realize.
dumb takes I’ve seen today: americans claiming they’d rather clean up after dirty muddy shoes on a carpet than have people walk around on “stinky” bare feet… and other americans supporting them by saying they feel “insecure” taking their shoes off… besties pls just wash ur feet they won’t stink then OR wear fucking socks :/ take them shoes off.
Wait until you find out that Americans wear their house slippers outside too. We just don’t give a shit.
Furthermore! A lot of the perceived rudeness comes from the fact that taking off your shoes shows a level of comfort and unwillingness to leave that a lot of people don’t like. Taking off your shoes in a shoes-on house is seen as the equivalent of like… Using someone’s shower without asking.
Also the foot smell thing is real. We don’t have the infrastructure or cultural habits to clean our feet after being on them all day, so they’re generally very smelly, which creates the perceived illusion of dirt when the soles of your shoes are way dirtier.
you are completely out of your mind OP sorry someone reblogged this from me
…. WHAT FOOT WASHING INFRASTRUCTURE IS THERE … ???
americans will be like we don’t wash our dirty and smelly feet because we don’t have foot washing classes in school or showers/ bathtubs in our homes its so bad here like a third world country
An adult American can’t wash their feet because they weren’t taught how in third grade because their school system sucks, it’s not their fault.
“We don’t have the infrastructure to clean our feet” You mean a shower?? You mean a fucking shower???
SOUTHWEST AMERICAN HERE: WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF AND DON’T CLEAN YOUR FEET REGULARLY OR DO SOMETHING IF YOUR SHOES START TO SMELL. LIKE TAKING YOUR SHOES OFF AND CLEANING YOUR FEET AND WASHING YOUR SHOES IS REGULAR HERE AND I LEGIT HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE REST OF YOU
An incomplete list of things that employers commonly threaten that are 100% illegal in the United States
“We’ll fire you if you tell others how much you’re making” The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 specifically protects employees who discuss their own wages with each other (you can’t reveal someone else’s wages if you were given that information in the course of work, but you can always discuss your own or any that were revealed to you outside of work duties)
“If we can’t fire you for [discussing wages/seeking reasonable accommodation/filing a discrimination complaint/etc], we’ll just fire you for something else the next day.” This is called pretextual termination, and it offers your employer almost no protection; if you are terminated shortly after taking a protected action such as wage discussion, complaints to regulatory agencies, or seeking a reasonable accommodation, you can force the burden onto your employer to prove that the termination wasn’t retaliatory.
“Disparaging the company on social media is grounds for termination” Your right to discuss workplace conditions, compensation, and collective action carries over to online spaces, even public ones. If your employer says you aren’t allowed to disparage the company online or discuss it at all, their social media policy is illegal. However, they can forbid releasing information that they’re obligated to keep confidential such as personnel records, business plans, and customer information, so exercise care.
“If you unionize, we’ll just shut this branch down and lay everyone off” Threatening to take action against a group that unionizes is illegal, full stop. If a company were to actually shut down a branch for unionizing, they would be fined very heavily by the NLRB and be opening themselves up to a class-action lawsuit by the former employees.
“We can have any rule we want, it’s only illegal if we actually enforce it” Any workplace policy or rule that has a “chilling effect” on employees’ willingness to exercise their rights is illegal, even if the employer never follows through on any of their threats.
“If you [protected action], we’ll make sure you never work in this industry/city/etc again.” Blacklisting of any kind is illegal in half the states in the US, and deliberately sabotaging someone’s job search in retaliation for a protected action is illegal everywhere in the US.
“Step out of line and you can kiss your retirement fund/last paycheck goodbye.” Your employer can never refuse to give you your paycheck, even if you’ve been fired. Nor can they keep money that you invested in a retirement savings account, and they can only claw back the money they invested in the retirement account under very specific circumstances.
“We’ll deny that you ever worked here” not actually possible unless they haven’t been paying their share of employment taxes or forwarding your withheld tax to the government (in which case they’re guilty of far more serious crimes, and you might stand to gain something by turning them in to the IRS.) The records of your employment exist in state and federal tax data, and short of a heist that would put Oceans 11 to shame, there’s nothing they can do about that.
PSA.
ALSO GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING! A verbal contact is nice but for the love of Jesus make sure there’s a written record of everything your employer tells you regarding this shit.
Also, while we’re on the subject, if they say something like this in a verbal conversation but refuse to put it in writing, document it yourself. Sit down that day after work, and draft a dated contemporaneous memo stating what happened and what they said. Save it so that if they claim that your story has changed and you’re making up new things about them, you can prove that it hasn’t, and that you aren’t. Possibly even email it to yourself or a non-work friend so that it is clearly and unambiguously time-stamped. Even if it’s your word against theirs that it happened, being able to prove that your side of the story has stayed consistent can go a long way.
Mail a hard copy to yourself by registered mail and don’t open it when it arrives. It’s sealed and from a legal source.
