Even Donald Trump knew that Florida was too damaging for a big demonstration, as he had just called off the Republican conference there. But a giant anti-abortion organization is advancing with a three-day conference with another 1300 people in a coronavirus-ravaged state, and might not even want a mask unless officials force them.
Care Net, one of the nation’s largest networks of “pregnancy crisis centers,” plans to hold its annual six-week convention in Florida, which broke its COVID-19 death record this week.
The convention, which the organization describes as the “largest convention on pregnancy centers in the country,” will feature face-to-face speeches, more than 80 organizing workshops, an indoor showroom and at least six shared meals.
Gretchen Newman, an infectious disease specialist at Wayne State University, is a “very bad idea.”
“Overall, I don’t think the organization of this convention in the user, and not with the lack of clarity and lack of rigorous plans on how to do it safely, is consistent with a message that affirms life,” Newman told the Daily Beast.
“This is a pro-life message.”
Reproductive rights organization ReproAction has filed a petition asking the organization to cancel the event, writing in an open letter to CHIEF Executive Roland Warren that it is “dangerous and repugnant to plan a gigantic national gathering of participants from across the country as a global pandemic.” Matrix »
“While we still oppose cheating and humiliating others in abortion care, for which there are fake clinics, this moment adds urgency,” the petition says. “This is not the time for anti-science, anti-health and anti-women forces to plan a gathering of fans from across the country in one of the states most affected by this virus.
Care Net did not respond to calls and emails requesting comments. A on the convention’s online page states that workers “work heavily with Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort staff, our suppliers and Care Net staff to provide participants with a socially remote delight at the 2020 convention.”
Care Net is a network of more than 1,100 so-called pregnancy crisis centers, clinics that claim to offer independent recommendations on pregnancy, but serve in large part to prevent women from having abortions. A 2018 article published in the Journal of Ethics of the American Medical Association revealed that these centers provide “false and misleading” data, such as the suggestion that abortion is similar to breast cancer, and that their movements deserve to be considered as “Ethical Violation That Violates Women’s Health.”
Care Net describes itself as a “non-profit organization that empowers women and men who are considering abortion to bring their unborn children to life and find abundant life in Christ.” In addition to its pregnancy crisis centers, the organization operates a 24-hour “pregnancy resolution line” and offers online courses and e-books on how to ‘better intercede for young at-risk youth’.
“At Care Net, we don’t just save the lives of unborn Children’ Array … we are running so that they, and their moms and dads, can live the abundant life that Christ brings,” it reads on their website.
His conference, which attracts members from across the country and Canada, is scheduled for September 8-11, when local youth begin to return to school. (Cases of coronavirus in young people are expanding lately in Florida, expanding by 34% in just 8 days)..
Speakers come with Warren, CEO of Care Net, as well as devoted speaker Peter Heck and activist Danielle Strickland, of The Liberating Truth: How Jesus Empowers Women.
An online page for the convention offers more than 80 “intensive” workshops, with titles such as “Make a Convincing Deal for Life” and “Facing Gender Confusion”. Although all occasions of the convention are held in person, at least one workshop will teach participants how to increase the budget completely online. The workshop, titled “Virtual, Viral and Virus,” promises to “examine several other virtual fundraising models to help virtual with ease,” noting that the country is in “a new era that demands new concepts and new fundraising methods.” “
The convention also benefits from a collaboration with the “destination management” company Hello! Florida will allow attendees to purchase discounted tickets to Orlando theme parks, adding Disney World, which lately is not promoting new tickets due to the pandemic. The site also proposes to link participants with other participants for the percentage of hotel rooms, which goes against the fundamental precautions of social estrangement.
Convention tickets charge more than $500 as set forth by the child. Due to coronavirus, the organization allows cancellations until August 11, the diagnosis for the state is possibly still murky at this stage. No refunds will be made after this date and all cancellations, regardless of time or reason, will result in a $25 fee.
Care Net has not responded to The Daily Beast’s request for RSVP numbers, however, claims that the $575 “premium display stands” are already sold out.
The convention’s online page lists five security measures to take, adding the cancellation of the parking service. Other security measures include “fewer people compatible with the table and more space between the tables”, general consultation and assault consultations, “wider corridors and aread displays” in the showroom, and “signage and marks on the floor” to help social distance in non-unusual areas.
The site also notes that Orange County lately asks for masks in all public places, however, notes that “we expect this to be removed when the convention begins.” If the court order is lifted, it says: “A mask will be recommended, but it is not mandatory.”
Newman, a former general at Wayne State University, said that aside from the large number of other people interested, he said he had not heard of any other conventions on this great occasion this year, the social estrangement measures proposed were too indistinct to be helpful. Promoting “wider” and “fewer people” aisles according to the table “is not the point of specificity you would be for a well-thought-out plan,” he said.
Newman added that the occasion poses not only a threat to attendees, but also to hotel workers and anyone with whom participants contact within two weeks of the occasion, adding their pregnant patients. (A note on the convention’s online page states that The Care Net Pregnancy Centers serve “hundreds of thousands of customers a year”).
This week alone, Florida overcame New York to become the state with the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country, with more than 440,000 positive tests, California. On Tuesday, he recorded 186 coronavirus deaths in one day, a record for the state. The local death toll now stands at 6,000. Orlando is located in Orange County, which has the fifth largest number of cases in the state.
President Trump had originally planned to organize matches face-to-face at the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville next month, but withdrew due to the recent buildup of cases, saying it “protects the American people.”
“We’ll have to be vigilant. We have to be careful. And we will also have to preach by example,” he said. “It’s hard for us to say that we’re going to have a lot of other people in a room and then other people shouldn’t.”