Women’s Law Project joins the Alliance: State Advocates for Women’s Rights & Gender Equality and California Women’s Law Center in releasing a report, “Designed to Deceive: A Study of the Crisis Pregnancy Center Industry in Nine States.”
The Alliance report and companion documents are available here.
CPCs are anti-abortion organizations that seek to intercept low-income people experiencing unintended pregnancies as they search for health care to prevent them from accessing abortion and contraception.
Designed to Deceive is an in-depth look at services offered and practices of the contemporary CPC industry, which increasingly relies on public funds yet has rarely been held accountable for how pregnant people are treated or public money is spent, despite multiple investigations and public complaints.
The Alliance Study finds that despite marketing efforts and claims of medical legitimacy, CPCs offer few to no medical services. Almost two-thirds promoted false or misleading medical information about pregnancy and abortion. Approximately one-third of CPCs now promote a rogue, experimental “treatment” called “abortion pill reversal” (APR) to low-income pregnant people. Medical experts say APR is not based on science; there is no clinical evidence of its efficacy or safety.
Pennsylvania is featured prominently in the report.
CPCs outnumber abortion clinics in Pennsylvania by nine to one, far exceeding the national average of three to one. Pennsylvania is also the only state in the Study that double-funds CPCs with taxpayer money by diverting money meant for poor children to anti-abortion activists in addition to giving them millions through a state contract.
Pennsylvania recently renewed a contract with CPC chain Real Alternatives, despite years of reports of misuse and waste of public funds, including having been accused of ‘skimming’ by a former state official. The fact that Pennsylvania is financing CPCs that push ‘abortion pill reversal,’ which is unregulated experimentation on pregnant people, is especially appalling given CPCs have renewed efforts to target Black women.
Read the report and companion documents here.
Then take action. Please contact your Representative in the General Assembly, urge them to read this report, and tell them you don’t want your tax dollars going to CPCs in Pennsylvania.
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