As NARAL reports, there is legislation pending before Congress that "would allow the Federal Trade Commission to penalize Crisis Pregnancy Centers that advertise abortion-care services or counseling that they do not offer."
Crisis Pregnancy Centers often aren't want they claim to be:
Anyone seeking health-care services should receive comprehensive, unbiased, medically and factually accurate information. Women facing unintended pregnancy deserve noless. When women are fully informed, they are better able to make responsible andappropriate decisions about their reproductive health. Mindful of this, the anti-choicemovement has for years tried to restrict, control, and manipulate the information doctorsgive women facing unplanned pregnancies. Unable to shut down legitimate publichealthclinics, their most recent strategy is instead to build a network across the countryof anti-choice organizations, some of them posing as comprehensive health-care clinics –so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) or, as they would like to be called,“pregnancy resource centers.”
While some CPCs may provide appropriate support and information to women facingunintended pregnancies, many do not. Unfortunately, reports indicate that many CPCsintentionally misinform and mislead women seeking pregnancy-related informationwith the intention of dissuading them from exercising their right to choose.1 In fact,some CPCs may force women seeking objective health-care information to watch antiabortionfilms, slide shows, photographs, and hear lectures. Some may also refuse toprovide information about or referrals for birth control.2 These practices block womenfrom making fully informed choices about their reproductive health and may endangerwomen’s health by delaying access to legitimate health-care services.
Today, there are CPCs in every state and dozens of countries overseas.3 Many aresupported by one of three major umbrella organizations: the National Institute of Familyand Life Advocates (NIFLA), Care Net, and Heartbeat International. These three groupsprovide technical assistance and other support to CPCs including training, legal advice,organizational development, and financial assistance. Among them, these organizationsboast more than 2,300 partner and affiliate CPCs. Although such centers are still largelyunlicensed, many have developed in sophistication to such a degree that they now offercertain limited medical services. There are approximately 700 CPCs that have convertedto medical centers, and more than 55 percent of the NIFLA-affiliated centers are limited ultrasound providers.4 In the CPC setting, however, ultrasound is generally not used asa diagnostic tool, but as another means of persuasion.
Click here to read the full report on how these clinics operate.
A common misperception is that the "Christian position' on abortion is anti-choice. The truth is that many Christian denominations support the right of women to make their own health care decisions. I recognize that the issue of abortion is a difficult one and that good people can come to very different conclusions concerning this issue. My own belief is that government shouldn't be in the business of making these kinds of decisions for women. Women should have a choice.
The General Synod of the United Church of Christ has said:
Whereas, women and men must make decisions about unplanned or unwanted pregnancies that involve their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being; and …Whereas, abortion is a social justice issue, both for parents dealing with pregnancy and parenting under highly stressed circumstances, as well as for our society as a whole; …
Therefore, be it resolved, that the Sixteenth General Synod:
- affirms the sacredness of all life, and the need to protect and defend human life in particular;
- encourages persons facing unplanned pregnancies to consider giving birth and parenting the child, or releasing the child for adoption, before abortion;
- upholds the right of men and women to have access to adequately funded family planning services, and to safe, legal abortions as one option among others;
- urges the United Church of Christ, at all levels, to provide educational resources and programs to persons, especially young persons, to help reduce the incidence of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies, and to encourage responsible approaches to sexual behavior.
A reporter from The New York Times who recently visited a Crisis Pregnancy Center notes that she was provided with a pamphlet "about the risks of abortion" that "mentioned breast cancer, a link the National Cancer Institute has refuted, and something called post-abortion syndrome, for which the American Psychological Association, among others, says there is no evidence. As for the physical risks of pregnancy and childbirth? There was no pamphlet to discuss them."
Congress should act to protect women from anti-choice advocacy centers that pretend to be health care centers. Send your message to Congress today.
