“Crisis pregnancy centers present themselves as health clinics offering pregnancy options services, but operate to dissuade individuals from seeking abortion care. They often provide inaccurate medical information, asserting false links between abortion and breast cancer, infertility, mental illness, and other misinformation. These efforts to misinform can divert pregnant people from accessing comprehensive and timely care from appropriately trained and licensed medical practitioners.”
CPC Tactics
CPC Tactics
—American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists
Common CPC Tactics
Common CPC Tactics
Use fear-based language, such as:
“Pregnant and need help?”
“Pregnant, scared, AND in need of help?”
Link abortion to infertility, breast cancer, depression, and mental health problems or talk about abortion as if it is a scary and dangerous procedure.
Have names with the words “choice,” or “choices,” “hope,” or “options.”
Offer abstinence-only sex education, post-abortion support, spiritual support, or bible study.
Discourage seeking abortion or tell you that you “have plenty of time to make up your mind” instead of offering all-options counseling free from shame and stigma.
Talk about abortion reversal, something not supported by science.
Reproductive Equity NOW, How to Recognize a Crisis Pregnancy Center
Massachusetts
Attorney General
Consumer Advisory
• CPCs often provide inaccurate and misleading information about abortion and the medical and mental health effects of abortion.
• CPCs often mislead people about how far they are into their pregnancy.
• CPCs often try to delay scheduling appointments to push people beyond the point at which they can obtain an abortion.
Websites appear unbiased and often co-opt medical language with pro-choice rhetoric related to choice and autonomy. They do not disclose religious affiliations or funding sources.
Offer free pregnancy tests, often labeled “medical grade” to falsely suggest greater accuracy than standard home tests.
Free ultrasounds are commonly advertised.
Websites include abortion information to create the false impression that abortion services are offered.
Usually co-located near real abortion clinics and use similar signage TO TRY and mislead patients into entering their building instead.
Jennifer Lincoln, MD: How to Spot Anti-Abortion ‘‘Crisis Pregnancy’ Centers
“In the wake of the Supreme Court’s elimination of federal constitutional abortion rights established over 50 years ago in Roe v. Wade, the anti-abortion movement is expanding its network of crisis pregnancy centers designed to interfere with women’s access to reproductive healthcare using deceptive advertising; disinformation about abortion, contraception and pregnancy; and non-medical ultrasounds to persuade women to carry to term and falsely signal medical legitimacy — while collecting their personal and health information, with no privacy protections.”
—Carrie N. Baker and Jenifer McKenna, Ms. Magazine