Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) are the ‘provider’ arm of the anti-choice movement. They usually offer free pregnancy testing, counseling, and ultrasounds to women with unplanned pregnancies. They do not inform women about all of their options and use deception and misinformation to convince women to carry out a pregnancy even if a woman wishes to terminate. CPCs use deception to disguise themselves as clinics!
CPCs advertise as clinics and have the appearance of medical facilities but often have no licensed doctors, nurses, or counselors on staff. CPCs many times advertise free and confidential pregnancy testing on billboards and signs outside the clinic and in the yellow pages. They are usually listed under abortion alternatives, right above abortion providers in the yellow pages. They may use a name similar to a legitimate women’s health care clinic or move into buildings right next to clinics that provide abortions to confuse women seeking abortions into entering their clinics. CPCs lie to women!
When women ask about the costs for services, staff often ignore the question or lie in order to get women to stay. When a woman comes into a CPC, anti-choice volunteers may offer her misinformation, intimidation, or even false promises of financial assistance if she carries a pregnancy to term.
Many times CPC staff lie to women, telling them that a test requires 45 minutes to determine the results when it actually takes 2-5 minutes. While the woman is waiting for her test results, CPC staff distribute misleading and false information about the health and psychological risks of abortion such as slide shows or movies of women dying from botched abortions, testimonials of the ‘psychological’ effects of the abortions and graphic footage of dismembered fetuses. They try to convince women that having an abortion is dangerous and will have serious repercussions on the rest of her life. CPC staff will not refer women to an abortion clinic if they want an abortion. The staff will go so far as to administer ultrasounds and ask women to name the fetus. They also give false information that the developing fetus feels pain. Crisis Pregnancy Centers… In Their Own Words
“I suppose there was some sense that women were to some degree being misled into believing this was an abortion clinic. We’re concerned with innocent life in the womb. The rationale is to get [women] in there so we can convince them not to have an abortion.”
-David Trosch, CPC Director, Mademoiselle, June 1995, page 138 “We don’t even give them the pregnancy test until after they have watched the video, seen all the pictures of the dead aborted babies, and had all their counseling. We wait until we have tried our best to save them.”
-CPC recruiter, News & Views, Sept/Oct 1997, pages 1-2 Unmask CPCs in your community!Email info@prochoicewisconsin.org and we will mail you a 60-page Unmasking Fake Clinics Choice Action Kit free of charge. Click here for a list of Crisis Pregnancy Centers in your community.
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