More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Crisis pregnancy centers (also called CPCs or “fake clinics”) are clinics or mobile vans that look like real health centers, but they’re run by antiabortion activists with a harmful agenda: to scare, shame or pressure people out of getting an abortion, and to tell lies about abortion, birth control and sexual health. Since the fall of Roe, CPCs and fake clinics have posed a prolific danger, with many states increasing their public funding for these centers.
In April, the nation’s highest Court will hear a pair of cases that will determine whether the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) preempts state laws that impede emergency abortions needed to protect the health of pregnant people even if they are not on the brink of death.
Both of these cases have ties to the main anti-abortion zealots that helped overturn Roe: Leonard Leo and Alliance Defending Freedom.
With misleading and anti-scientific phrases like “pro-life,” “late-term abortions” and “abortion up until the point of birth,” anti-abortion advocates prey on the public’s lack of familiarity with medical terminology and stoke emotional responses in order to demonize abortion care and those who seek and provide it.
These phrases cause tremendous harm, and the media outlets covering this language without a check are amplifying the damage. Those in need of abortion care are forced to navigate the stigma and lies forced on them by the preponderance of misinformation and bias when making their healthcare decisions.
At 9:05 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020, a group of anti-abortion extremists from at least six states forced their way into the Washington Surgi-Clinic, a facility that provides abortion care in Washington, D.C.
This article reveals, for the first time, how a violent clinic invasion was planned and executed. It is based on testimony by Davis, forensic analysis by FBI agents of the defendants’ social media and cell phone records, footage obtained from the clinic’s security cameras and responding police officers’ body cameras, as well as the extremists’ own Facebook livestream of what they interchangeably called a “lock-and-block” and a “rescue” (a term coined by anti-abortion extremists to mean physically preventing women from obtaining abortion care). (This article originally appears in the Winter 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)
California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s lawsuit charges RealOptions Obria, a five-site crisis pregnancy center chain in Northern California, and the Ohio-based Heartbeat International with violating California’s False Advertising Law and Unfair Competition law by falsely advertising “abortion pill reversal” as safe and effective.
“Those who are struggling with the complex decision to get an abortion deserve support and trustworthy guidance—not lies and misinformation,” Bonta said at a press conference announcing the lawsuit.
Crisis pregnancy centers—which counsel women against getting abortions—began to pop up in the late ’60s, as states passed laws legalizing abortion. Today, Texas has the most crisis pregnancy centers of any state.
These groups’ sex ed efforts are widespread: More than 35 of these centers are involved in dozens of school districts across Texas. Within these programs—offered for free to school districts—students are taught if they have sex before marriage, emotional risks include depression, guilt and anxiety. They’re taught that condoms do not keep them safe from pregnancy or STDs. These approaches aren’t effective in preventing or changing behavior. Instead, they can cause students to stop absorbing information that might help them make informed decisions about sex in the future.
Our political leaders must stand up to the intimidation tactics of the anti-abortion movement. They must not cower when faced with blood-soaked letters, condemnations to damnation or threats of frivolous lawsuits. If we cave in to their tactics, we embolden them. Now more than ever before, we need courageous leaders at the national, state and local levels of government who will stand up to anti-abortion bullies.
Dark money anti-abortion and pay-to-play groups are predictably responding to the FDA’s over-the-counter birth control pill decision with a disinformation campaign.
Access to a prescription-free contraceptive pill, the second most widely used form of contraception—more than ever—is an essential tool in the fight for reproductive justice.
Fake clinics deceive patients, robbing them of comprehensive reproductive healthcare by qualified medical professionals and increasing the violence experienced by genuine clinics.
All the while, Google has brought in over $10 million from anti-abortion extremists looking to advertise crisis pregnancy centers and abortion “reversals.”
U.S. patriarchal authoritarianism is on the rise, and democracy is on the decline. But day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. The fight is far from over. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.
This month: Total bans abortion bans are in effect in 14 states; a Massachusetts lawsuit alleges that a local anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center failed to spot an ectopic pregnancy; Dr. Caitlin Bernard fined $3,000 and formally reprimanded in a hearing lasting over 15 hours; in Maine paid and family medical leave become law; domestic abusers are using abortion bans to harm their victims; and more.
On Thursday, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) signed “The Deceptive Practices of Limited Services Pregnancy Centers Act” (SB 1909) into law, prohibiting anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers” from using deception or fraud to interfere with a person seeking access to abortion or other reproductive health services. The law became effective as of signing.
Illinois is the fourth state, following Connecticut, Colorado and Vermont, to enact a law reigning in the deceptive practices of crisis pregnancy centers, which often masquerade as reproductive health clinics to lure vulnerable women, and use lies and disinformation about abortion to pressure them to carry pregnancies to term. In applying to both deceptive advertising and fraudulent practices, the Illinois law goes far beyond the Connecticut, Colorado and Vermont laws, which address advertising and, in Colorado and Vermont, specific standards of practice.
“If the medical provider does not lie,” Rep. Margaret Croak said, “they have nothing to worry about.”
