In one of its 2011 newsletters, CCHD proudly describes the work of grantee AMOS, an acronym for A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy. AMOS is a local affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation, an Alinskyian organizing network that rallies congregations and other institutions for political advocacy.continue at Spero News
AMOS was given a CCHD grant to help it advocate for a mobile obstetric clinic. “The mobile clinic is the happy result of a five-year effort by AMOS’s 29 member organizations, including Catholic parishes in the Archdiocese of Dubuque and the Diocese of Des Moines.”[i]
AMOS was one of four organizations involved in creating the Ames clinic. ‘The clinic was created from a partnership of AMOS (A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy), MICA (Mid-Iowa Community Action), Broadlawn Hospital in Des Moines, and Des Moines University.”[ii] It’s insightful to look at these other partners.
MICA (Mid-Iowa Community Action) is one of a number of associated organizations were established in the 1960s as “delivery systems that maximize the federal, state and local resources in providing services to citizens.”[iii] That is, they connect poorer citizens into government-funded programs such as Head Start, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and others.[iv]
Among the key programs MICA uses is PROMISE JOBS, described as a “supportive, informational, and a true collaborative effort [that] gives each family an opportunity to access not only positive programs but an increased network of support.” [v] Available to all PROMISE JOBS participants – and therefore to all MICA clients - are “Family Planning Services – An option for everyone referred to PROMISE JOBS. Participants can find out how additional children can affect a family’s finances.”[vi]
Then, there’s Broadlawns Medical Center – a hospital – in Des Moines, another one of the partners that, along with the CCHD-funded AMOS, was responsible for establishing the Ames Mobile Clinic. Broadlawns’ Variety Club Women’s Health Center Family Planning Clinic provides a broad range of “specialized services and care for women” that include birth control counseling, emergency contraception, and something ominously called “pregnancy options,”[vii] a term used by Planned Parenthood to include abortion.
