The latest abortion battle: Crisis pregnancy centers

Hi Rulers!

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend and is staying cool. I spent my long weekend hiking in Asheville, North Carolina, and while that was beautiful, I’m excited to be back in the constant flow of AC. This week, I delved into the discourse surrounding crisis pregnancy centers two years after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Let’s get into it.

In the U.S., crisis pregnancy centers — also known as anti-abortion centers or pregnancy resource centers — have been around for more than half a century. But in the two years since Roe was overturned, states have significantly increased funding for these centers.

The goal of crisis pregnancy centers: to encourage pregnant people to continue with their pregnancies.

Proponents argue these centers, which are usually run by anti-abortion activists, provide an essential service because they help women prepare for motherhood — through providing diapers or baby formula or offering parenting classes. But abortion rights advocates have claimed these centers are deliberately deceptive, spreading misinformation about pregnancy and abortion.

According to Dr. Leilah Zahedi-Spung, a maternal-fetal medicine physician affiliated with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, crisis pregnancy centers can pose threats to pregnant patients who haven’t ruled out getting an abortion.

In an issue brief, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which opposes these centers, argues, “Staff members at these unregulated and often nonmedical facilities have no legal obligation to provide pregnant people with accurate information and are not subject to HIPAA or required by law to maintain client confidentiality.”

But Ingrid Duran, a state legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, argues the centers provide vital information to expectant mothers about their fetuses.

“As far as giving the information that they’re giving at pregnancy resource centers, typically tends to be scientific information about the developing unborn child,” Duran tells Women Rule.

“So they might say, ‘at such and such time, the unborn child has the capacity to feel pain’ ... And I think the reason why the opposition has such a problem with this is that at any moment that you’re humanizing the baby, it kind of would make abortion less appealing.”

The centers have received continued support in states with abortion restrictions, such as Louisiana and Mississippi, where tax credits have been passed to assist with funding, and where abortion is now effectively illegal. Texas approved $140 million in 2023 to support crisis pregnancy centers through 2025. Last year, North Dakota’s Department of Public Health established services that provide women with information on abortion alternatives.

These days, crisis pregnancy centers are more prevalent in states with laws protecting abortion access, such as Massachusetts or California, where these centers outnumber actual abortion clinics by 20 percent.

In Massachusetts, Public Health Commissioner Dr. Robbie Goldstein says crisis centers outnumber clinics that provide abortions two-to-one.

“We have an abundance of anti-abortion centers that have popped up across the state,” he tells Women Rule. And in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling, Goldstein says it’s important to keep patients aware of their options.

In June, Democratic Gov. Maura Healey’s administration launched an advertisement campaign highlighting “the dangers and potential harm of anti-abortion centers.”

“Everybody should walk into a health care setting and know that they are being delivered trustworthy, honest information,” Goldstein says. “When that’s not happening, it is the job of the Department of Public Health to educate people about the dangers of walking into particular facilities.”

Meanwhile, in California, Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta is targeting crisis pregnancy centers without licensed staff under a new state law that prohibits unlicensed clinics or practitioners from performing prenatal ultrasounds. In June, Bonta ordered two unlicensed centers to halt their operations

“Since the repeal of Roe v. Wade, we have seen continued attacks on reproductive health care,” Bonta spokesperson Christine Lee says in an emailed statement. “It is now more imperative than ever that people are educated about their rights and the ability to exercise those rights.”

In 2022, Bonta issued a consumer alert about the centers, which included a complaint form. His office also demanded the centers show proof they provide medically accurate information in compliance with state sex education policy.

At the federal level, Democratic Reps. Maxwell Frost of Florida and Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who both serve on the House Oversight Committee, have asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate funding for crisis pregnancy centers. They’re also requesting a study looking into how much federal funding these centers receive annually.

“Given the concerns from medical professionals and reproductive health experts that CPCs are not bound by medical and ethical practice standards and often do not provide medically accurate information or health care, and the resources they do provide are tied to undermining maternal health and access to abortion, we have serious concerns that CPCs continue to receive millions in federal aid with little transparency and accountability to the public,” they write.

POLITICO Special Report

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“Abortion Rights Supports Won’t Get Their Amendment Passed Without Republican Women like Audrey McNiff,” by Gabby Deutch for POLITICO: “McNiff’s activism on this issue is particularly powerful because, despite her commitment to abortion rights, she is not a Democrat. In fact, she’s a lifelong Republican. Alongside walls covered of herself posing with former President George W. Bush, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Sen. Mitt Romney. That a proud member of the Republican donor class is willing to speak out publicly on a hot-button political issue that has the potential to benefit the opposing party is a rarity in the polarized politics of 2024 — but, for McNiff, it’s actually not so complicated.”

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Number of the Week

Read more here and view the full report here.

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“A Horror Story Starring the Monstrous Men of Camelot,” by Louis Bayard for the New York Times: “In the opening sentence of her rage-swollen ‘Ask Not,’ Maureen Callahan declares that her book “is not ideological or partisan.” It is, of course, both. Sometimes it is both in extremis. You need only cast an eye over its cover, which, like the book itself, is black and white and red all over. Bad men wronging good women: cheating on them, abandoning them, infecting them, turning them into alcoholics, leaving them for dead, raping and maiming and killing them.”

“Voters kick all the Republican women out of the South Carolina senate,” by Jeffrey Collins for the AP: “The only three Republican women in the South Carolina Senate took on their party and stopped a total abortion ban from passing in their state last year. In return, they lost their jobs.”

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Read the full cover story here.

on the move

Shannon Richards is taking on a new role managing the schedule for Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo. She most recently worked for Treasury Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis Shannon Corless. (h/t Morning Money)

Hale Diamond is now communications director for Rep. Tim Kennedy (D-N.Y.). She previously was deputy communications director for House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Democrats. (h/t New York Playbook)

Michelle Sagan is director of communications and marketing at the National Down Syndrome Society. She previously was senior manager of communications. (h/t Morning Pulse)