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The 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade provides the pro-choice community a chance to reflect on our victories and defeats over the last four decades.
It is clear that the individuals and organizations opposed to legal abortion are quickly adapting new strategies and tactics to advance their agenda. While anti-choice organizations have had some success in restricting access to abortion through the public policy process over the last four decades, their efforts to deny women options have evolved in recent years. No longer content to simply set up barriers through the legal process, the movement has redefined the word “access” and built a national network of unlicensed and unregulated “crisis pregnancy centers” with the sole intention of convincing women, sometimes through manipulation and lies, to carry their pregnancies to term. Women are already making decisions about their pregnancies in a world of inequality, limiting access and sharing mis-information only makes these decisions more difficult.
The New York Times recently profiled the rapid increase of crisis pregnancy centers in the United States over the last decade, stating-
While most attention has focused on scores of new state laws restricting abortion, the centers have been growing in numbers and gaining state financing and support. Largely run by conservative Christians, the centers say they offer what Roland Warren, head of Care Net, one of the largest pregnancy center organizations, described as “a compassionate approach to this issue… Jean Schroedel, a Claremont Graduate University politics professor, said that “there are some positive aspects” to centers, but that “things pregnant women are told at many of these centers, some of it is really factually suspect.
Two years ago, NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina Foundation (NPCNCF) conducted an investigation of “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) operating throughout the state, and found some shocking results. Since 2006, the number of crisis pregnancy centers in the state has doubled.
- 92% of the CPCs studied (61 of 66 CPCs) had no medical professionals on staff.
- Only 24% (16 CPCs) disclosed that they are not medical facilities.
- 35% (23 CPCs) provide ultrasounds on site and 12% (8 CPCs) conduct STI testing.
Unfortunately, government has been slow to address and regulate these centers. Several municipalities around the country have taken action, although most have found their ordinances struck down by the courts. In Chapel Hill, our town council recently took action and voted for a resolution that expressed our support in the principles of informed consent and a patient’s fundamental right to complete and accurate medical information. Unfortunately, North Carolina law limits municipalities’ ability to pass ordinances to regulate or require signage at CPCs. Yet I hope that our symbolic resolution provides an opportunity to help shape the public agenda in our state.
As we celebrate the Roe v. Wade decision today, it’s important that we stay vigilant in protecting women’s right to make personal decisions about their reproductive health. The anti-choice movement will stop at nothing to make abortion legal in name only. These threats on women’s choices don’t just threaten their reproductive health, they threaten their ability to choose their own future, and exist as equal citizens in our state and country. It’s no mistake that many of the same organizations that oppose meaningful access to abortion also oppose the legal recognition of gay and lesbian couples or women’s success in the workforce. Granting these rights threatens the patriarchy, and “traditional” views about how men and women should exist in society. Let’s keep fighting to protect Roe, and insure every person has the right to choose their own future.
3 Comments
Doesn’t the creation of a Crisis Pregnancy Center offer increased choice for women? Isn’t that the point?
If Crisis Pregnancy Centers simply acted as a space for women who chose to give birth to find support than you are right. However, Crisis Pregnancy Centers around the country advertise to young women with misleading language that implies they will provide information about all options available to them. Once the woman arrives they refuse to give information about where to find safe abortions and other important options that the woman has. Instead, they often provide her with inaccurate information. One study found that the majority of crisis pregnancy centers were telling women that abortion can cause breast cancer and mental health problems, which is entirely untrue. They mislead women to come to their centers and then use scare tactics to keep them for getting abortions. I have a friend who went to a Crisis Pregnancy Center in Charlotte when she was in high school. She wasn’t pregnant but wanted to see what it was like because she had heard about their misleading practices. She lied and told them she was pregnant and they gave her an ultrasound. She was given a picture of a fetus and told “this is your baby. What would you name it?” even after she said she was only interested in getting an abortion. While all Crisis Pregnancy Centers may not be this unethical, the majority still act in unethical ways when they mislead women and limit their choices. They have no place in North Carolina or any other state.
Actually, the research conducted by NARAL found that a large majority of these centers misinform women about their options or do not give them a full range of options. Some manipulate and intimidate women in order to prevent them from making an actual choice for themselves.
To me, providing women with increased choice means laying down all feasible options accompanied by medical facts and no bias. If a person does not have all the options they cannot be said to have made a real and unconstrained choice. Then, these options (terminating pregnancy, continuing pregnancy, adoption, etc.) must be presented alongside accurate medical information.
While CPCs vary in the degree that this happens, what we know is that most LIE about the risk of abortion, stating or implying an increased risk of breast cancer, depression, and inflating the risk of complication of what is actually a very safe medical procedure. An abortion in the 1st trimester has a lower rate of risk than childbirth.
They also engage in deceptive practices that target people who might be attempting to learn specifically about their abortion options. They advertise as abortion clinics, though this is being legislated against in a lot of states, and in one NC location, there is a CPC above a plannedparenthood. They will often try to confuse patients of the PP to guide them upstairs for “check-in” at the CPC where they intend to misinform the person to prevent the procedure.
These centers are probably good for a person who has decided that they do not want to have an abortion, but would like religious support and services that can assist them with preparing for parenthood, but most are not staffed with actual medical staff and do not inform visitors of this fact. These CPCs cannot be considered an alternative to real medical care and advice. This cannot be substituted for legitimate pre-natal care. They do offer supplies for new parents, but outside of these limited capacities, inflict much more harm than good.
They claim to be pro-woman, but they lie in the face of well-documented medical facts. This is not limited to abortion. They also give false information about the effectiveness of contraceptive methods. They push an abstinence-only agenda, which has a well-documented history of being ineffective in preventing pregnancy as well as STIs.
If you are pregnant and scared, then go to a Planned Parenthood. They are the only non-prof organization that will present an exhaustive list of options in an unbiased way and allow you choose what is best for your life and your family. They are an ACTUAL healthcare center with trained professionals who perform a host of health services.