May 1, 2006: News Site Exposes False Pregnancy Clinics Operated by Anti-Abortion Organizations

The liberal news Web site AlterNet publishes an expose of “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs), clinics purporting to be women’s health centers offering pregnancy counseling, including abortions, but in reality operated by anti-abortion organizations (see April 2006). Reporter Amanda Marcotte notes that many CPCs are funded by over $60 million in government grants, and use the money to rent offices near real women’s clinics and health facilities, and rent billboards advertising their services as if they are actual health clinics. She writes: “If you’re facing an unwanted pregnancy, one of the possible solutions would be getting un-pregnant—still a legal, if sometimes difficult-to-find, option in America. But the ‘crisis pregnancy centers’ these signs advertise seek to limit and, in some cases, prevent women from exploring their legal options for health care.” CPCs are being heavily, and increasingly, funded by the Bush administration and conservative legislators earmarking funds in state and local budgets, at the expense of funds for actual women’s clinics. Low-income women are at particular risk for losing services, Marcotte notes. In some cases, she continues, anti-abortion organizations have formed for the specific purpose of obtaining government grants. The history of CPCs goes back at least as far as 1967, when anti-abortion activist Robert Pearson opened the first one as what he called “the service arm of the anti-choice movement.” During the 1980s, according to the pro-choice organization Planned Parenthood, CPCs would often provide shelter to women wanting abortions until the legal deadline for having the procedure had passed; the CPCs would then turn the women out, forcing them to either carry the fetus to term or seek an illegal abortion. By 1985, many states had put an end to CPCs falsely advertising themselves as real health clinics, forcing them to actually offer a minimum level of health care. Marcotte reports that “as a general rule, [CPCs] have few or no paid employees, no medical personnel on staff, and no real facilities to provide any medical care. Generally speaking, the medical treatment provided by the largely volunteer staff is nothing more than handing clients a pregnancy test that could be purchased over the counter for $10.” [AlterNet, 5/1/2006]