More Than A Magazine, A Movement
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.”
Abortion opponents are now targeting states where abortion remains legal, such as Massachusetts, by pumping resources into a spider web of anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) that work to entrap people searching for reproductive healthcare. And Google made $10.2 million over the last two years running deceptive advertisements for these fake clinics.
“Google … is more than willing to allow advertisers to lie, deceive, limit users’ rights to good information and to healthcare, as long as they get paid in the process.”
“We always knew that it was never about state’s rights. It was always about banning abortion in every single state in every possible way.”
(This essay is part of Women’s Rights and Backsliding Democracies project—a multimedia project made up of essays, video and podcast programming, presented by Ms., NYU Law’s Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Network and Rewire News Group.)
Despite student government’s vote, anti-abortion group Medical Students for Life is now fully operational on Midwestern University Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine’s campus.
What’s happening at Midwestern University illustrates the anti-abortion movement’s larger strategy: disseminate misinformation to confuse, deter and scare pregnant people out of getting abortions.
The crisis pregnancy center industry targets women—especially low-income women, young women, and women of color—using deceptive ads to pose as medical clinics and obscure their anti-abortion mission.
Grassroots reproductive health advocates are taking action to counter CPCs’ disinformation and abuse by advocating for state and local laws to prohibit deceptive advertising, protect health data privacy, advance public education about CPCs, and create avenues for consumer complaints about their deceitful and dangerous practices.
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: Biden announces new immigration restrictions; Trump glosses over his role in the fall of Roe; Greta Thunberg is detained; Idaho Republican Jack Nelsen wants everyone to know he knows a lot about women; protests erupt nationwide after the disturbing video of police assaulting Tyre Nichols is released; and more.
“I’m pregnant,” I lied, sitting across from a staffer at a Crisis Pregnancy Center. “We’ll do everything we can to help,” she lied back.
For every one abortion clinic in the U.S., there are three crisis pregnancy centers. In the face of their anti-abortion disinformation, we must fight back—because lives depend on it.
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: Brittney Griner is released from a racist and homophobic penal colony; abortion access is still in shambles despite midterm victories; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to step down; three high-profile mass shootings in a matter of weeks; and more.
