Crisis pregnancy centers, which are usually funded by non-profit, anti-abortion organization, can give women misleading and untruthful information about pregnancy, contraception and abortions, according to a panel discussion hosted by AU Students for Choice.
The panel discussion, “Exposing Fake Clinics,” was held Wednesday, Oct. 7 and consisted of Dr. Laura Meyers from Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, Diana Onken from NARAL Pro-Choice America, Wendy Matheny from the Feminist Majority Foundation and Lisa Brown from the National Abortion Federation. They discussed the issues surrounding crisis pregnancy centers.
CPCs usually do not offer comprehensive medical services or options that include abortion services, counseling or referrals.
“CPCs use misinformation, fear and shame tactics to coerce and intimidate women out of considering abortion as an option. Many CPCs go further — discouraging the use of contraception, even claiming that condoms are a ‘con’ job,’” according to a Sept. 21 press release from the Feminist Majority Foundation, a non-profit feminist organization.
Amanda Pelletier, the national affiliate liaison for AU Students for Choice and the organizer of the panel discussion, said she thinks CPCs are dangerous for women.
“A lot of times they’ll advertise free pregnancy tests, and the person on hand will tell them, ‘Oh, you’re not pregnant,’ and so the woman will leave thinking that she’s not pregnant, and she’ll go on living her life as if she wasn’t pregnant ... that stalls the time in which she can have an abortion, and the procedure does become a little bit more risky.”
Care Net, a national network of CPCs, lists two centers near AU on their Web site. The Northwest Center is about two and a half miles from campus and the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center is about six miles from campus.
A spokesperson for the Northwest Center said the center offers free pregnancy tests, material assistance and referrals to health, adoption and legal services. The center does not offer any medical services, including ultrasounds. The Northwest Center tabled at the Wellness Fair in September.
The Student Health Center does not refer students to the Northwest Center, according to Dan Bruey, director of the Student Health Center.
The Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center did not respond to phone calls or e-mails from The Eagle. According to its Web site, the center “serves the Gospel of Jesus Christ by providing intervention and abortion alternatives for women and men facing crisis pregnancies.” They also offer free pregnancy tests and confidential counseling, according to their Web site.
Katie Koch, the president of AU Students for Life, said in an e-mail that, “the clinics in D.C. (including the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Care Center) do not pretend to be more than they are. They do not offer medical services and would never claim to.”
The Northwest Center does not provide any medical services and is not a medical clinic, according to a spokesperson for the center.
During the panel, speakers discussed issues surrounding CPCs, such as the way the centers advertise, and the practices they engage in to try to prevent women from getting an abortion.
Pamphlets given out by CPCs state that abortion leads to an increased risk of breast cancer, depression and suicide, negatively effects future fertility, and leads to other health issues. According to the World Health Organization, induced abortion does not increase the risk of breast cancer.
“AU Students for Life works closely with the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Care Center,” Koch said. “At this center, volunteer peer counselors are not allowed to tell a woman that abortion is evil, but they will present her with facts about the procedure that an abortion clinic will not.”
A 2006 report by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., “False and Misleading Health Information Provided by Federally Funded Pregnancy Resource Centers,” stated that during an investigation of 23 CPCs that received federal grants, “20 of the 23 centers (87 percent) provided false or misleading information about the health effects of abortion.”
Pregnancy resource centers received approximately $1 million through the Compassion Capital Fund, created in 2002 as a component of the Bush Administration’s faith-based initiative, according to the report. The report also said that CPCs received over $24 million in Community-Based Abstinence Education funds between 2001 and 2005, and at least $6 million from abstinence funding provided to states.
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