'Curves' Franchise - anti-abortion owner

[SuffragetteSal]

Found this Letter to the Editor very informative this morning and wanted to pass on the information. Also a link to a Mercury News article regarding same.

Anti-abortion owner
As women, we need to have choices about our bodies and how we spend our money. Information is essential to the decision-making process. Just so you know, Gary Heavin, the founder of the Waco, Texas-based chain of exercise studios called Curves, is a heavy contributor to several organizations allied with Operation Save America, the successor to Operation Rescue, the anti-choice group. The organizations he funds are spreading the lie that abortions lead to an increased risk of breast cancer.

In an article in Christianity Today, Heavin expressed pride in his involvement with anti-choice groups, to which he donates 10 percent of Curves’ profits. I am personally appalled by this information — you may not be. At least now you know who you may be supporting.

D. BRICE

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/2004/04/16/living/8445687.htm?1c

[tandot]

1. good to know. Thanks, SuffragetteSal. n/t

[SuffragetteSal]

8. Many before use fought hard for

control over our own bodies and fundamentalists like this guy comes along...goes to show..money talks. Hey, what did ever happen to campaign reform?

Vote Bush OUT 2004!

[Robin Hood]

2. Thanks for the heads up. This is disturbing.

Maybe we should picket them just like they picket planned parenthood.

[demnan]

3. Glad you told me

I was going to join up. Not now. I'll find another club.

[WillParkinson]

4. Write them. Tell them why they won't get your business...

It's important for them to know that you're not joining up for that reason!

[Robin Hood]

5. That's a great idea.

But I doubt that they would care.

[SuffragetteSal]

6. 97 curves - 2 Planned Parenthoods in my state

And the one Planned Parenthood in the university town was shut down a year or so ago...so of 3.5 million people in my state of Oregon there are 97 Curves, only two Planned Parenthood Family Planning Clinics...

Blood money in the name of beauty. I sent this to my mother whom is a pro-choice woman and goes to Curves regularly. I am sure she will be discussing it there.

[SuffragetteSal]

20. I walked past a shop today with Bush/cheney sticker

and I thought not a chance in hell I would spend my money in this establishment! I wonder if the owner knows...

BTW: It was a hairdresser shop.

[RPM]

7. One more company to badmouth and boycott

n/t

[goclark]

9. Anyone have their email address?

Let's flood their email's today.
I was going to join but not now.

[SuffragetteSal]

10. Here's their website - or part of it...the info part

http://www.curvesinternational.com/contactus

Good idea!

This might [e-mail]

Curves International, Inc.
100 Ritchie Road
Waco, Tx 76712

Tel: [phone]

[goclark]

11. Thanks - Send emails quick

I just emailed them and said...

I was considering buying a Curves franchise!
When I heard that your owner was not pro Choice, I made a CHOICE...NO!!!

***************************************************************
I told them that I would be notifying all my friends that belong to Curves to make a CHOICE to go to Bally's.

[SuffragetteSal]

19. You are awesome Goclark!

I like your style!

[Bjornsdotter]

21. Thank-you!

Hi,

I just emailed them and also sent out the information to every one in my address book.

Cheers,
Kim

[SuffragetteSal]

24. Thanks Kim -

You rock...

Cheers,
Sal

[RPM]

12. Kick

for the evening crew

[noiretextatique]

13. a friend emailed me the story today

she said she thought something was fishy about them.

[Doctor_J]

14. Anti-abortion?

what does that mean? Do you mean anti-choice?

Take back the language.

[MissB]

16. Good reminder (nt)

[SuffragetteSal]

22. sorry - anti-choice

but couldn't edit by the time I saw this...

[VolcanoJen]

15. Excellent. Keep the pressure on the Corporate Cows.

Fantastic, eye-opening information, Suffragette. Thank you!

[KamaAina]

17. Shouldn't it be called Curves *Against* Women?

Here's the SF Chron's take:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/a/2004/04/29/EDGAB6C1IO1.DTL

So is there any reason why you shouldn't rush out to join this Wal-Mart of gyms that's helping so many women improve their health?

Well, yes. The owner, Gary Heavin, has given at least $5 million of his profits to some of the most militant anti-abortion groups in the
country.

Heavin, like his next-door neighbor George W. Bush in Crawford, Texas, found redemption as a grown man. Before founding Curves in 1992, he went bankrupt, lost custody of his two children and served a six-month jail sentence for not paying child support. In prison, he became a born-again Christian.

In 2003, Heavin and his wife gave away $10 million -- 10 percent of their company's gross revenues -- to charities. At least half of that money went to three Texas organizations to fund "pregnancy crisis centers" supported by Operation Save America -- the same organization that blamed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on God's retribution for abortions and whose purpose, as described on its Web site, is to "unashamedly take up the cause of pre-born children in the name of Jesus Christ."

Yowza! Another jailhouse conversion, plus he's one of these nuts who
blame 9/11 on those gol-dang fem'nists (see under Falwell, Jerry; Robertson, Pat; Phelps, Fred). And all this time I thought it was bin Laden and al-Qaida...

Served a six-month sentence for not paying child support?! Typical anti: 'Life begins at conception and ends at birth." And don't you love how they make "pre-born children" sound like "pre-owned automobiles"?

:puke: :puke: :puke:

Edit: You should be able to tell my rants from the article, but I thought I'd turn the italics off anyway.

[SuffragetteSal]

18. Whao! Amazing thanks for the link n/t

[classics]

23. Selling lies in Curves

and using that money to sell lies about abortion.

Nasty.

[brook]

25. Thanks for pointing this out.

We have one locally. I know a couple of women who go there. I've copied the story to give to them. I tend to think they'll quit after reading this. God, I loath people like him. The hypocrisy gags me.

[ISUGRADIA]

26. This can be confirmed at snopes.com

http://www.snopes.com/business/alliance/curves.asp

"He does indeed support Operation Save America, a pro-life group of a more radical orientation than Operation Rescue..."

more radical than Operation Rescue...yipes.

[uncertainty1999]

27. thanks for link - I just sent this to a friend who is a Curves member

[stevedeshazer]

28. Thanks, Sal

I had no idea. We have to question everyone we give your dollars to.