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Planned Parenthood on the left and a CPC on the right. 

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Overview

For my final project, I decided to research crisis pregnancy centers, or CPC’s. The reason why I wanted to research this topic because ever since the overturning of Roe V. Wade this past summer, there have been laws put in place that have restricted a person’s bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom. 

Many individuals do not have access to abortion services and with how CPC’s are deceptive to the public, many people who attempt to seek abortion services at CPC’s are often told misinformation and discourages them from having the procedure.

CPCs have frequently been found to disseminate false medical information about the supposed physical and mental health risks of abortion and sometimes promulgate misinformation about the effectiveness of condoms and prevention of sexually transmitted infection STI’s and STD’s. 

I believe in our post Roe V Wade era, the general public should be aware of the practices CPC’s do on patients and the harms they have on a person’s right to choose. Enjoy my presentation!

-A

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Glossary and Terms

Sonogram: a visual image that is produced from an ultrasound examination. Sound waves are used to produce an image.

STI’s/STD’s: infections that are spread through sexual activity (ex: through vaginal, anal or oral sex). Some STD’s/STI’s often do not display any symptoms. There are bacterial and viral STI’s. Bacterial include: chlamydia and gonorrhea. Viral STI’s include: HIV/AIDS and genital herpes.

Abortion: the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. 

HIPAA: “a federal law that requires the creation of national standards to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient's consent or knowledge”. 

Birth control: the prevention of pregnancy. Birth control comes in different ways: the pill, IUD, birth control shot, condoms, the patch and tubal ligation (having your tubes tied- a permanent type of birth control, it cannot be reserved).

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An anti-abortion protester outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic. CPC’s often organize their supporters to protest outside health care centers to discourage individuals from having an abortion. 

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Quick Facts

CPC’s are a type of non-profit organizations that are established by anti-abortion groups that primarily persuade individuals to not have an abortion. 

Here in the U.S, CPC’s that are qualified as medical clinics may also provide pregnancy tests, sonograms and other services. 

Some CPCs offer testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), but few offer STI treatment. 

Many CPCs also offer classes and programs (parenting, “abortion recovery”) and resources related to having a baby, such as diapers, baby clothes, etc.

There are CPC’s who operate without a medical license and with various degrees of regulation. Some CPC’s are even federally funded. 

According to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, “there are around 4,000 of these operations across the United States” 

In comparison, there’s around 800 or so abortion clinics, according to the Guttmacher Institute. 

Guttmacher Institute article on how CPC’s are in the U.S: https://data.guttmacher.org/states/table?state=US&topics=57&dataset=data

Planned Parenthood data on CPC’s: https://www.plannedparenthood.org/uploads/filer_public/81/a3/81a30c3d-c40f-4bd9-aa28-be52e2180b1b/ppnc-cpc-fact-sheet.pdf

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Critical Review #1

CPC’s are organizations that provide counseling and other prenatal services from an anti-abortion perspective

“They seek to persuade teenagers and women with unplanned pregnancies to choose motherhood or adoption” (Rosen, 2012).

Most CPC’s are affiliated with national anti-abortion organizations and belong to evangelical Christian networks.

CPC’s have been known to improperly influence a person’s reproductive health decisions and potentially “increase the number of unintended births” (Rosen, 2012). 

According to the article, “eighty-seven percent of centers contacted for the Waxman report provided false or misleading medical information” (Rosen, 2012). Throughout the paper, the author theorized that CPC’s do cause harm in our public health system.

Many CPC’s inform patients that abortion can make it difficult to become pregnant in the future and that it can cause a significant increase in the risk of ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage, and can cause scarring and permanent damage to the uterus. This is in fact false.

92% of all abortions “do not increase the risk of secondary infertility; of subsequent ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage or preterm delivery” (Rosen, 2012). 

CPC’s are often funded by anti-abortion groups and they often disseminate false information to individuals seeking an abortion. Misinformation is dangerous to our public health system.

Citation: Rosen, Joanne D. 2012. “The Public Health Risks of Crisis Pregnancy Centers.” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, vol 44, no. 3: pp. 201-205.

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Deceptive marketing from a CPC in New Jersey. Notice there’s no mention of abortion in the billboard. 

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This is an article from CNN and it explains how CPC’s are federally funded. The article mentioned that “more than a half-dozen states bankroll crisis pregnancy centers at least partly with funds from Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), a federal welfare program... those federal funds are sent to states as a block grant, which gives state officials wide latitude in how to spend it, including on programs like “alternatives to abortion” grants for crisis pregnancy centers.” It’s completely legal. 

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Great article from Vox that explains what CPC’s really do.

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Critical Review #2

For this portion of my project, I’m going to discuss CPC websites. CPC websites are often misleading and often have inaccurate medical information. 

In this article, it mentions that:

A total of 203/254 of the websites provided by state guides provided at least one false or misleading statement (Bryant, 2014). That’s around 80% of the websites that were researched on this article had at least one false or misleading information of the risks associated with having an abortion.

According to the article, “almost all websites stated that free pregnancy testing was available at the clinic (245/254) (Bryant, 2014). This is a common tactic often used by CPC’s to dither individuals from seeking the procedure. 

Some of the common medical inaccuracies included on the websites were on a “declared” link between abortion and mental health risks, preterm birth, breast cancer, future infertility. (All of this is untrue).

What I found alarming about this article is that almost all of these websites that were mentioned in the article were referenced by official state websites- in particular, Department of Health and Human Services websites. Anti-abortion states purposely do this to confuse patients and make them not have an abortion. 

Citation: Bryant, Amy G. 2014. “Crisis Pregnancy Center Websites: Information, Misinformation and Disinformation.” Contraception, vol 90, no. 6: pp. 601-605.

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This is a link to a CPC clinic in Las Vegas. In the website, there’s no mention of abortion. The website states “Women’s Resource Medical Centers of Southern Nevada is a faith-based, nonprofit 501(c)3 charitable organization committed to supporting families with pregnancies.”

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This is a faith-based organization. They do not refer or recommend abortion services. 

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This is real website that can help you find your nearest abortion provider. Planned Parenthood is an amazing resource for any sexual or reproductive healthcare needs. 

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A great video from Last Week Tonight on CPC’s. 

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Critical Review #3

Why Crisis Pregnancy Centers Are Legal but Unethical

This article talks about how CPC’s are “legal” in question but conduct unethical practices. 

Major takeaways 

Crisis Pregnancy Centers “enjoy First Amendment protections” but, their “propagation of misinformation should be regarded as an ethical violation that undermines women’s health” (Bryant-Swartz, 269). 

Many CPC’s run as non-profit organizations, which exempts them from certain laws and regulations. 

CPC’s often lack regulatory oversight because many of them do “not [practice] medicine and do not charge for services” and this exempts them not only from laws and statutes specific to medical clinics but also from [the] “Federal Trade Commission or state regulations that apply to commercial enterprises” (Bryant-Swartz, 271).

Since most CPC’s are not licensed medical clinics, they cannot be legally held to privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which can run serious client privacy violations. 

Lastly, various states have passed legislation to force CPC’s to disclose that they are not medical centers. A noticeable law was the Reproductive FACT Act of California, which required:

“CPCs to offer information on where clients can obtain a full scope of low-cost or free reproductive health services” and CPCs without a physician on staff must also “disclose their unlicensed status” (Bryant-Swartz, 272).

Update: The Supreme Court in 2018 struck down the Act in a 5-4 decision. The Court argued that the FACT Act likely violated the First Amendment by targeting speakers rather than speech.

Citation: Bryant, Amy G. and Swartz, Jonas J. 2018. “Why Crisis Pregnancy Centers Are Legal but Unethical.” AMA Journal of Ethics, vol 20, no. 3: pp. 269-277

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This article talks about the aforementioned case in CA. The Supreme Court sided with CA CPC’s to block the Act from taking place. The Supreme Court argued that the Act likely violated the First Amendment. This is another example of how difficult it is to regulate CPC’s. 

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A CPC in Napa, California