Local Waitrose supporting anti-abortion charity

[WaitroseSucks]

Waitrose gives shoppers tokens to drop into collecting points to support local charities. My local Waitrose is currently supporting a 'pregnancy counselling service'. I checked the 'charity's' website, which has all the usual guff about offering 'impartial advice', then checked their parent company and discovered that it's run by these guys.

AIBU to think Waitrose should check the credentials of 'charities' before collecting on their behalf? I imagine there would be outrage if Waitrose openly supported a charity like Abortion Rights, whose name does what it says on the tin.

Have tried to contact someone at my local store, but relevant person is 'away until Wednesday'. Meanwhile the collection points will continue to operate and unwary shoppers will be supporting a 'charity' that is concealing its true agenda.

Have name changed for this, but am MN regular.

Yes, whathaveiforgotten I did try to contact Waitrose. The person who deals with this is 'away until Wednesday'. Meantime, unsuspecting people are supporting this 'charity' through their tokens.

I actually did so myself before the penny dropped (pun intentional) and I came home and googled to check.

i had a look on their official website and then at CARE who are involved in prevention of Human Trafficking for example. Hopefully they have learnt from their past mistakes.

If this help and support isn't available on NHS at time of crisis then at least this service is readily available.

I'm glad Tskukuru that you found their post-abortion counselling supportive and helpful. Their website does say it does this type of work, but it's very selective about what it writes about its work with still-pregnant women who may be seeking advice on choices available to them.

I'm a little baffled that you say the 'agenda was very much pro choice' because there's nothing on the web to support this. If they are properly pro-choice, I will happily eat my words.

OP, could you put up a notice on the wall above the charity box, using sticky tape, saying something like, "This is an anti-abortion charity"?

To be fair you aren't forced to support this charity. If it's like our local store, you vote for your favourite charity with your token. However in our local store, I have noticed there are some very dodgy choices for donations. A recent one was a stage school which charges £80 a month. I couldn't afford to send my DD so I couldn't understand why I should support it with a donation. You have to ask how thoroughly they research the so called 'charities'.

OP, all I can go on really is my experience and I don't know what's on their website, but they seemed pro choice in that the counsellor was clearly of the view abortion can sometimes be the right decision and I shouldn't feel guilty for my choice and hadn't done anything "wrong". They had a video about post abortion counselling on their website when I first found them, showing lots of women talking about their abortions and coming to terms with them and there was no judgement at all. I will see if I can find it.

As I only went there after I had already had an abortion I can't say what they would have been like in terms of pregnancy crisis counselling and helping make the decision. I guess it may well depend on the individual counsellor or centre but based on my dealings with them I would expect them to be neutral, professional and non-judgmental and certainly not pro-life agenda-pushing.

I have just looked on their website and I don't think I'm seeing what others are seeing as I think it does come across generally neutral and factual.

See for example

www.careconfidential.com/IAmPregnant.aspx

Sets out all the options and says will discuss them though cannot refer directly for an abortion - they do give contact details etc for abortion providers

www.careconfidential.com/WhatAboutAbortion.aspx

Very factual medical information and states it is low risk. There is no nonsense and misinformation of the type quoted in the thread.

www.careconfidential.com/Reannons_Journey.aspx this is the video I was thinking of. If I recall correctly, the main woman they follow int he video does refer to her "baby" rather than a foetus or ball of cells etc if someone wants to take that as pro-life, however they are showing someone who wanted an abortion for personal/lifestyle reasons and feels it was the right decision for her. I don't see that it's a pro life message.

Apologies for posting so much on the thread but I just want people to have a clearer picture of this organisation as I feel that they did help me and they are not generally bad in any way. There may be a few regrettable counsellors out there but on the whole it is not a bad organisation nor "anti-abortion" as such.

Thanks Tsukuru. I do see that some people might find the post-abortion counselling useful, but I also see this:
cambridge feminist blog
and this:
feministactioncambridge.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/the-curious-case-of-careconfidentials-information-standard-certification/
and this:
PhD study
"Her findings were unequivocal and identified a serious problem for women seeking impartial advice. She concluded that CareConfidential operate from an anti-abortion political stance, and that their information materials are informed by this ideology."

and the experience of 'mystery shoppers' who have visited CC and whose reports are on the web.

I notice CC has a lot of videos on their website. I wonder if there are any from people they counselled who went on to have a termination and reported positively afterwards. If there are videos like this, I'd be totally prepared to accept they're impartial.

Personally I don't see anything particularly bad highlighted by the Cambridge blog.

The use of the information standard mark that they are complaining about just looks to me like it applies to the text on their website which seems fair enough. Maybe they could clarify that it is not intended to apply to the counselling itself if that is clearer but I don't think they are being misleading.

I really don't see the video I linked as "disturbing" at all, as the blog calls it. It doesn't suggest that emotional trauma is inevitable. I think it's an honest video and personally I very strongly feel that the emotional effects of abortion need to be more in the open and less taboo, not swept under the carpet. It's not saying everyone will be traumatised - On the website they say two of the common feelings after an abortion are happiness and relief! However it's acknowledging that some women find abortion deeply upsetting and emotional and really struggle with their feelings about it, which I personally did. It can be comforting to know you are not the only one feeling that way and it isn't saying that means you have made a wrong decision, just that you might need someone to talk to as you work through your feelings.

Anyway that's just my opinion. I can see some people obviously have issues with this organisation in general, but I think some of the criticism is a little unfair.

I did read about some of the "mystery shopping" experiences a while back however, which were shocking and obviously I don't condone or support the bad examples which were revealed by that, just for the avoidance of doubt!

Dawndonnaagain Mon 27-Oct-14 17:52:09
How popular were they with voters?
Irrelevant really.

It's not irrelevant. If there were a huge pile of tokens in the box, it would indicate to me that people didn't fully understand the charity. If it were irrelevant Waitrose wouldn't make the boxes see-through.

I think YABU for not giving Waitrose a decent shot at resolving this situation before keyboard warrioring it via social media. If you had tried perhaps emailing their head office in lieu of the manager being on holiday and had given them a day to respond, then fair enough.

Absolutely, they should be vetting the charities, but if this is a genuine oversight they should have a genuine chance to put the mistake right.

And do people understand the charity The British Pregnancy Advisory Service and the work they do?

I imagine Waitrose would rather not involve themselves politically one way or another, and if they'd stopped to think about it probably wouldn't donate to either charity.

I agree an email to head office would have been a more appropriate initial response.

Tsukuru Sorry, this was the Cambridge link I meant to post. I find parts of it very worrying.

...something to do with having already degraded the normal female-child relationship (by electing for a termination), you would begin to lose sight of other adult-child boundaries, such as not punching them or not sexually assaulting them

WTAF are you talking about Maid? That is the most dreadful thing to say about women who opt for a termination.

Arabella, I think maid was giving an example of the charities reasoning regarding abortion and sexual abuse, not actually agreeing with it.

Well the Waitrose near us seems to think that the GOLF CLUB is a charity.
Taking the urine somewhat?

If everybody agrees that people have the right to differing opinions then who would object to a pro choice charity being supported? Is it this particular charity or ALL pro life charities posters have an issue with?
Surely if it's ok to offer an abortion as a choice to a woman it's also ok to offer alternatives such as NOT aborting? Not talking about this particular charity, I know very little about it, but the offence here seems to be at the pro life stance.

I think charities and individuals must have the right to support a pro-life stance. Otherwise where is the choice. I think it's very wrong that people seem to think that anything remotely pro-life shouldn't be tolerated.

YANBU

Contact head office and continue to persue the store manager or whoever it is you need to speak to. Am sure they would not want to be associated and are oblivious to the hidden agenda.

OP, I still feel contacting Waitrose head office would be more appropriate or waiting for the person is back on Wednesday (which is only 2 days away!). Its not like people are putting actual money in the box. They won't donate the money until the end of the month.

The person who made this decision may be mortified to discover the hidden agenda of this charity and would probably not appreciate their mistake being broadcast across social media before they've had a chance to rectify it themselves.

I have personal experience with one branch, as a potential volunteer. It was made very clear that volunteers had to be non judgemental, anti abortion attitudes wouldn't have been accepted. I'm Christian and strongly pro choice. I would trust this branch to give correct and impartial advice, although there is the chance individual counsellors could abuse their position and give the terrible anti abortion 'advice' reported in the links above. I wasn't able to volunteer for practical reasons but a friend looked into it but was put off due to these reports. It is a shame as it could be a really valuable service which isn't provided by the NHS.

YABVU op and I ask you to stop your social media campaign shaming waitrose nationally for a mistake that likely one employee made at a local level.

The Waitrose scheme is fantastic and I have experience of how it helps local charities (eg homeless). You and several others have taken it upon yourselves to shame Waitrose for this mistake at a NATIONAL level on Facebook, Twitter and mn.

I don't know how many stores waitrose have but say if it's 200, each with three charities per month, that makes 600 charities that they are helping each month. Do you not think that occasionally one will slip through the net, despite being a registered charity maybe it has an underlying political agenda?

By all means complain locally, but if one store cocks up each month with one charity, ie one out for the 600 charities they are helping, then if a few wage a war on waitrose via social media at a national level, shame Waitrose as 'anti abortion' or whatever then I'm sure the Waitrose execs will pull the charity scheme, it is not worth their reputation suffering due to occasional local mistakes.

Please pull your Facebook and Twitter messages and deal with waitrose discreetly, unless you want to risk other charities suffering.

"I think charities and individuals must have the right to support a pro-life stance. Otherwise where is the choice. I think it's very wrong that people seem to think that anything remotely pro-life shouldn't be tolerated."

Is there really any such thing as intolerant of things pro-life?

Pro life supporters are anti-abortion. Those on the other side of the fence, they're not anti-life nor are they pro-abortion, they're pro choice.

This isn't about the pro-life aspect in itself. This is about a charity which doesn't make its pro-life motives clear and which has been proven to in a disgracefully underhand, oppressive way towards women who are vulnerable.

That should read "proven to act in a disgracefully underhand way"