http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2004/May/15/local/stories/02local.htm

May 15, 2004

Pro-choice members throw women’s gym a curve

By JENNIFER PITTMAN
Sentinel correspondent

Curves International, America’s fastest-growing fitness franchise, is devoted to women’s health. But its founder’s financial support of women and teen clinics that either denounce abortion or decline to discuss it has triggered a membership cancellation drive among pro-choice members who say his stance is not healthy for women.

In Santa Cruz, as in other parts of Northern California, the fallout stems largely from a San Francisco Chronicle article last month by columnist Ruth Rosen who linked Curves founder Gary Heavin with militant anti-choice groups.

Although a lengthy correction was printed May 12 distancing Heavin from the radical anti-abortion movement, some members continued to say that news of his financial support of pro-life organizations that are supported verbally by Operation Save America, a radical anti-abortion group, is reason enough to rescind their memberships.

"This is a women’s-health-centered gym, the whole point being health and well-being," said Bonnie Friedman. "They’re a corporation whose founder is taking those profits and funding groups that are antithetical to women’s health. I almost feel set up."

Friedman said she’s received no reply to a certified letter she sent to Janna Malizia, the owner of four local Curves.

At least 10 local women have confirmed with the Sentinel that they either resigned their membership or tried to get out of their contract in the last month.

Unhappy she would be required to pay an exit fee, Karen Ehrlich, a member of the Aptos Curves, said she plans to wear pro-choice T-shirts to every workout.

"To me it’s a real issue about women’s health. Personally I think the pro-life group is against women’s health," Ehrlich said. "I object that I did not know that before I signed up."

Emotions run high
Malizia says the issue is being blown out of proportion due to erroneous information, and the "emotional" reaction by a handful of members has been difficult to navigate.

"None of us had any suspicion or inclination that this was an issue," said Malizia, who owns two franchises in Santa Cruz, and one each in Aptos and Corralitos.

Malizia says she was just as surprised by information about Heavin’s donations as anyone. She thinks members have misdirected their responses to her and her staff, when they should’ve gone directly to Heavin.

"The reason I got into Curves is that I’ve been in fitness for over 20 years and my passion and focus in life is on health and preventative medicine and on helping women especially attain their goals both physically and emotionally and spiritually," Malizia said. "I don’t see Curves as a political arena for anything. I’m not politically involved with the politics of Gary Heavin or of Curves."

There is, she said, no pro-life or anti-abortion corporate mandate.

Malizia and Felton Curves owner Joy Thomas say they were never required to sign on to any pro-life agenda and have great leeway in setting up their gym, the policies they follow and the community fund-raising they support.

Curves franchises are 90 percent female-owned, according to corporate spokeswoman Becky Frusher There are 7,500-7,700 open franchises, including 715 in California.

To date, contracts are signed for 8,300 gyms. Last year franchise owners reaped $760 million in membership fees and the corporation earned $100 million from the sale of franchises, product royalties and franchise fees, Frusher said.

The impact of the pro-choice members on Curves 3 million members has "been very, very small," Frusher said, and largely relegated to Northern California.

No franchise owners, Frusher said, are asked about their political or religious agenda.

"We don’t ask them what their views are on it. It’s not a condition of purchasing a club," Frusher said.

Heavin, however, is a vocal opponent of abortion and has contributed accordingly. He and his wife founded the Women’s Health Collaborative Project with a five-year, $5 million grant that supports the Family Practice Center, Care Net Pregnancy Center and the McLennan County Collective Abstinence Project in Waco, Texas. There, he says, "Women can receive the care they need without compromising their values at an abortion mill."

These clinics teach abstinence without discussing abortion as an option, don’t provide abortion services and one, Care Net, has come out publicly against organizations such as Planned Parenthood, an agency that provides abortions among other family-planning services. Operation Save America supports the clinics verbally, according to the company. Interviewed by Fox News last week, Heavin said he considers the reaction a "witch hunt."

"True choice is the right to have a healthy baby," he said in the Fox interview. "That’s all we’re doing."

He was unavailable for comment.

Heavin’s ideas about abortion are widely known, at least in Texas. In a Feb. 28 guest column in his hometown newspaper, The Waco Herald-Tribune, Heavin said: "The debate on protecting the life of unborn children is far from over. Also, don’t attempt to marginalize those of us who value the life of unborn children even though you may value the convenience of discarding this life. Abortion is not healthy and should not be a form of birth control in a country that protects its innocent."

Planned Parenthood supporters say the centers he supports, while not considered militant, are strategically positioned to undermine its traditional funding sources and shrink the availability of abortion in the area.

"It is clear that the owner has contributed to a definite anti-choice, abstinence-only agenda," said Cynthia Mathews, public affairs director of the Planned Parenthood Mar Monte. "Abstinence-only programs are not only inaccurate, they’re harmful."

Mathews said the agency has fielded numerous calls recently about the issue from people seeking information about the company.

To stay or go
Despite their strong pro-choice views, some Curves members say it has been a painful realization and a difficult decision to quit the gym that provides such a women-centered, supportive atmosphere.

The first Curves gym was established in Santa Cruz less than two years ago and the county now has five, with a sixth planned to open in Watsonville in July. The pre-set 30-minute circuit of hydraulic weight and cardio training system offered in a friendly atmosphere without mirrors has strong followers. Excluding the Scotts Valley gym, whose owners did not respond to phone calls, the owners of the other five gyms in Santa Cruz County estimate their membership at 4,180.

"I immediately fell in love with it," said Kathy Martinelli, a Santa Cruz resident whose fibromyalgia has kept her from enjoying other exercise routines. "Curves has been the one thing that’s really assisted me with that illness."

A member since September, Martinelli, says she’s stopping her automatic payments and is notifying the owner that she cannot continue.

"I feel deceived. ... I almost feel that I’m making a contribution to something that’s against who I am," Martinelli said.

Gina Pearlin gave notice to the Santa Cruz Curves last month.

"I had no complaint about the place. It was friendly and the staff was helpful. But Curves is making Gary Heavin a wealthy man, and it’s a portion of that wealth that’s going to something I don’t believe in," she said.

Olga Euben gave 30 days notice to the Santa Cruz gym as well.

"I like Curves," she said. "I like people on the front line managing it. It is difficult for me. I’m going to have to find another exercise outfit."

Several women who are trying to get out of contracts say they are upset Malizia has failed to return phone calls and letters, is refusing to let them out of 12-month contracts and is requiring a 30-day notice on those who are not in a first-year contract.

Thomas said she will refund any members’ contract for $50. As of Thursday, four women had left the gym because of their pro-choice convictions.

"I want people to come and be encouraged and challenged and reach their goals, and if this isn’t the place they can do that, then I don’t think they should have to," Thomas said. "It’s so hard. I know that each person has to do what she believes but (Heavin’s) not giving away anybody’s money but his own. We are all given a choice. I understand that people have to do what they believe in, and I back that."

She believes, however, that Heavin has women’s best interests in mind.

"He’s spent his life trying to help women," said Thomas, co-owner with her husband, Gordon Thomas, of Curves gyms in Felton, Carmel and Carmel Valley. Thomas has attended three franchise trainings and says Heavin introduces himself to each group telling them that he is a born-again Christian and the company is based on Christian principles and ideas.

Contact Jennifer Pittman atjpitt4@aol.com

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