Update on Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Waxman report confirms the false nature of CPCs
July 17, 2006
Today, Rep. Henry Waxman (D, California) released a report detailing the false and misleading information provided by Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs). The report (PDF) confirms that CPCs surveyed intentionally deceive women about the potential effects of abortion on mental and physical health, and that they are using federal tax dollars to do so.
Planned Parenthood Advocates applauds Rep. Waxman for exposing the dangerous nature of so-called 'crisis pregnancy centers' and their assault on women's health. We believe that honest, accurate communication is essential to the doctor-patient relationship.
Please continue reading below for more on CPCs and what you can do to help.
Defrauded patient speaks out
July 6, 2006
The mainstream media is now beginning to investigate the deceptive practices of Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs). WISH TV 8 (Indianapolis) has posted to their website a story on CPCs that aired last night at 11pm.
The video includes an interview with the Planned Parenthood of Indiana patient who was defrauded and harassed by a CPC that had located next to one of our abortion facilities in order to manipulate and deceive our patients. Last November, staff and/or volunteers of the CPC lured one of our patients into their facility, pretending to be affiliated with Planned Parenthood. In addition to the CPC's usual approach of using fear, intimidation, and inaccurate information to scare women out of having abortions, they gathered this patient's personal information and used it to stalk and harass her and her family at home, at work, and at school for the next several days.
We have obtained permission to share some of the remarks the patient and her family wrote soon after their encounter with the CPC.
"I have been getting phone calls [from the CPC volunteer] at home and on my cell phone, and they came to my work... saying 'we will come get you and throw you in a car and take you to a place that is safe.' I made my decision [to have an abortion]. Even though I had talked to [the CPC person] before, she has no right to be giving out information about me [and my family]. They need to quit harassing me and my family and loved ones. They have come to my home banging on my door and non-stop calling me. I have heard racial comments about my boyfriend [and me]. They keep yelling my name, my mother's, and my boyfriend's. They have no right giving out my information, and they need to respect my and my boyfriend's decision. ... They are trying to trap me but this is my decision and no person has forced me and I would like them to stop harassing me, my family, my boyfriend, and my work."
Her mother added:
"These people have given [our personal contact] information to someone at [my daughter's] school. Now it seems even the students know certain things and are giving my daughter and her boyfriend a hard time as well. Also, the faculty has heard things, too. These people [the CPC personnel] have been standing outside Planned Parenthood yelling obscenities at all who enter. My daughter's, her boyfriend's, and my name have been yelled out for all to hear."
Please continue reading below for more on CPCs and what you can do to help.
New report tells the truth about Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) have been in the news a lot lately:
- In March, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduced the Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services Act, which would require the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to enforce truth-in-advertising standards for anti-choice CPCs that masquerade as legitimate medical providers.
- Last November, a young woman seeking an abortion here in Indiana was fraudulently lured into a CPC, which then proceeded to violate her privacy, stalk her, and harass her and her family with anti-choice, sexist, racist comments.
- Next year, Indiana will become the 14th state to offer a "choose life" license plate, the proceeds of which will benefit Indiana's CPCs.
But who are these CPCs, and what are they doing in our communities? They seem innocent enough, usually offering free pregnancy tests. Some may even hold the health of women and children as their highest goal, but the truth is, the vast majority of CPCs exist solely to prevent women from having abortions, and sadly, deception, trickery, and manipulation are the tools of their trade.
Concerned about the growing numbers of women complaining about their treatment at CPCs, the National Abortion Federation has just compiled a report called "Crisis Pregnancy Centers: An Affront to Choice" which details the experiences of these women and explains the CPCs' hidden agenda:
- CPCs choose names and locations to mimic existing full-service family planning centers or abortion facilities. They advertise themselves as health care providers, even though they often have no medical equipment and no medical professionals working there.
- CPCs are not medical entities, but religious entities. Women who interact with CPCs report forced subjection to very specific anti-abortion, evangelical Christian propaganda, even after explaining their own religious convictions to CPC staff. Often this propaganda is required before CPC personnel will release the results of a pregnancy test, or as part of prenatal or parenting help.
- CPCs are not as interested in helping women who choose parenthood and need help as they are in stopping women from having abortions. Women who go to CPCs for prenatal care often find that that help ends once they reach 24 weeks' gestation--once it's too late for that fetus to be aborted, the CPCs no longer care about helping it reach a healthy infancy.
Perhaps the scariest thing about CPCs is that part of your tax dollars are funding this behavior—to the tune of $60 million. Many CPCs are now getting grants from the state and federal government to provide abstinence-only education classes, which are usually as inaccurate and biased as the information they give to women facing crisis pregnancies.
At Planned Parenthood, we believe that honest, accurate communication is essential to the doctor-patient relationship. Despite the fact that the women who come to them are clearly sexually active and at risk for unintended pregnancy and STDs, CPCs often discourage women from using the most reliable methods of birth control, leaving them vulnerable to unintended pregnancy all over again.
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