One provider markets her services in what some might call questionable ways
By Meredith Raney, Monday, May 13, 2002.
MELBOURNE, FL — Tammy Sobieski, the owner of several abortion clinics in Central Florida, markets her services in the phone book in some unique ways.
Playing games with the phonebook
Tammy has the standard yellow page ad in the phonebook, but additionally she lists names that are designed to fall alphabetically close to other organizations where women in crisis pregnancies might look for help. These names all point to Tammy’s phone number.
Who would fall for such cheap deception?
How about Florida’s Governor Jeb Bush? Right after Governor Bush was sworn into office in January of 1999, he decided to give away $675,000 in left over campaign funds to various charities that he supports. He supports Crisis Pregnancy Centers. He or one of his staff found a listing in the phone book for “Crisis Pregnancy Center of Central Florida.” Guess whose phone number is next to that listing —- Tammy Sobieski’s. Governor Bush ended up sending her a check for $10,000.
If Governor Bush and his staff can be this easily fooled, how many desperate women in a crisis pregnancy have been likewise fooled?
Give it back as a matter of honor — DeWayne Wickham, USA TODAY columnist
DeWayne Wickham, USA TODAY columnist, asked Tammy to give back the money as “a matter of honor” in his Feb. 2, 1999 column. How much honor is there among those who make a living tearing unborn babies apart? Someone should check to see if she ever gave it back. I seriously doubt it based on Tammy’s quote in DeWayne’s column, “. . . it’s not my job to make sure he had his facts straight.”
Examples from the Melbourne, FL Bellsouth phonebook (April 2002-03)
All listings below point to one of Tammy’s phone numbers, (800)432-8517, or (321)504-3114.
“Crisis Pregnancy Center of Central Florida” discussed above.
“Planned Families, Inc.” ends up alphabetically next to Planned Parenthood, a competing abortion provider.
“Pregnancy Counseling and Abortion Services Clinic” ends up alphabetically next to Pregnancy Resources, Inc., a legitimate crisis pregnancy center.
“Birth Control Center, Inc.” ends up alphabetically next to Birthright of Melbourne, a legitimate crisis pregnancy center.
“Women’s Health Center, Inc.” ends up alphabetically next to two Women’s Centers that do not do abortions.
“Abortion Center of Central Florida, Inc.” – stand-alone line listing in yellow pages under Abortion Services.
Active Corporate Names
The only corporate name of the ones Tammy uses above is “Birth Control Center, Inc.” according to the Florida Corporate Name web site. The others either don’t exist or have expired.
Meredith Raney is Spokesman for Christians for Life, a pro-life group in Melbourne, FL. He can be reached at mtraney@earthlink.net or at (321)254-5481.
