Crisis pregnancy centers - what you should know
31 July 2023
Crisis pregnancy centers, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, are:
certain facilities that represent themselves as legitimate reproductive health care clinics providing care for pregnant people but actually aim to dissuade people from accessing certain types of reproductive health care, including abortion care and even contraceptive options. Staff members at these unregulated and often nonmedical facilities have no legal obligation to provide pregnant people with accurate information and are not subject to HIPAA or required by law to maintain client confidentiality. Many CPCs are affiliated with national organizations that provide funding, support, and training to advance a broadscale antiabortion agenda.
Their misleading tactics include:
Asserting false risks of abortion, such as breast cancer, infertility, mental illness and preterm birth.
Falsely suggesting a high complication rate for abortions.
Intentionally overestimating gestational age and suggesting that they are beyond legal limits for abortion.
Using disturbing visuals or performing ultrasounds to emotionally manipulate and shame pregnant people under the guise of informing or diagnosing them.
They also provide “treatment” for medication abortion reversal, although this is unproven.
In addition, their “medical practices” may be harmful. A recent lawsuit claims that a Boston crisis pregnancy center (Clearway Clinic) failed to spot an ectopic pregnancy, threatening the patient’s life:
The paperwork the woman received after the scan, Liss-Riordan said, told her she had a "viable, in-utero pregnancy, which she did not."
The lawsuit also alleges that the paperwork was signed by a doctor, listed as the clinic’s "medical director," though the patient said she did not see the director in person.
After the woman left Clearway, Liss-Riordan said, staffers "followed up with her urging her to keep the pregnancy going."
Dr. Amy Addante, an OB-GYN based in Illinois and a fellow with the advocacy group Physicians for Reproductive Health, said that typically, ectopic pregnancies should be terminated "as soon as possible."
The alleged incident at Clearway, she said, "speaks to the dangers that crisis pregnancy centers can really present to pregnant people, because you don’t know who is doing your ultrasound."
Due to their history of deceptive practices, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois and Vermont have enacted legislation targeting these centers if they engage in deception and fraud.
“If the medical provider does not lie,” Rep. Margaret Croak said, “they have nothing to worry about.” Source.
In response, these organizations have filed suit in Illinois and Vermont, claiming that laws preventing deception and fraud violate their free speech rights.
Pregnant women and girls should check that any medical center they visit is a bona fide medical facility and not intended to talk them out of abortion care.
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