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Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs)
For years, we’ve heard the stories: A woman thinks she might be pregnant by accident. Looking for counseling about her options and access to appropriate medical care, she stumbles across an anti-choice "crisis pregnancy center” (CPC) that advertises free services. Once there, she’s shamed with extreme rhetoric, deceived by medical falsehoods, and delayed in getting health services by CPC staff and volunteers whose goal is to prevent her from considering abortion, regardless of her circumstances.
To combat these facilities, NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts conducted a year-long undercover investigation of CPCs in Massachusetts. Our report exposes the tactics these facilities use that delay women’s access to professional pregnancy care, including pre-natal care, adoption counseling, or abortion. Read the full report here, or check out our short summary here.
What are CPCs and what do they do?
CPCs are anti-choice organizations with the mission of convincing women facing unplanned or unwanted pregnancies not to choose abortion by giving them medically inaccurate or blatantly false information.
National research has found that CPCs:
CPCs were created in direct response to the decriminalization of abortion and have expanded across the United States in incredible numbers -- with 2,500-4,000 locations nationwide.[2] There are two times as many CPC locations as comprehensive family planning centers in the country and some CPCs even get state or federal tax dollars to support their facilities.
Our Report
In response to this attack on women's access to medically accurate reproductive health centers, we conducted an in-depth investigation of CPCs from 2010 to 2011. We identified 30 active CPCs in Massachusetts, visited these organization's websites, and cataloged the information they provide to women. Trained volunteers then made direct contact with 24 of the CPCs and cataloged what they were told, how they were treated, and which resources they were provided. Here's what we found:
Read the press release announcing our findings here.
Read a short summary of the report here, or our full report here, to familiarize yourself with the deceptive practices of CPCs.
Want to get involved in fighting these tactics and supporting a woman's right to the health care she needs? Click here to show your support for national legislation that would curb CPCs practices, click here to receive updates about CPCs and other issues affecting women here in Massachusetts, and click here to donate and support our work.
[2]Vitoria Lin and Cynthia Dailard, Crisis Pregnancy Centers Seek To Increase Political Clout, Secure Government Subsidy, The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, 2 (2002).
To combat these facilities, NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts conducted a year-long undercover investigation of CPCs in Massachusetts. Our report exposes the tactics these facilities use that delay women’s access to professional pregnancy care, including pre-natal care, adoption counseling, or abortion. Read the full report here, or check out our short summary here.
What are CPCs and what do they do?
CPCs are anti-choice organizations with the mission of convincing women facing unplanned or unwanted pregnancies not to choose abortion by giving them medically inaccurate or blatantly false information.
National research has found that CPCs:
- Provide misinformation about the link between abortion and breast cancer
- Provide misinformation about future fertility and abortion
- Provide misinformation on the mental health effects of abortion[1]
CPCs were created in direct response to the decriminalization of abortion and have expanded across the United States in incredible numbers -- with 2,500-4,000 locations nationwide.[2] There are two times as many CPC locations as comprehensive family planning centers in the country and some CPCs even get state or federal tax dollars to support their facilities.
Our Report
In response to this attack on women's access to medically accurate reproductive health centers, we conducted an in-depth investigation of CPCs from 2010 to 2011. We identified 30 active CPCs in Massachusetts, visited these organization's websites, and cataloged the information they provide to women. Trained volunteers then made direct contact with 24 of the CPCs and cataloged what they were told, how they were treated, and which resources they were provided. Here's what we found:
- CPCs outnumber women's health care providers three to one;
- CPCs design their online profiles and web-based advertising to mislead women seeking; abortion care or non-biased pregnancy options counseling;
- CPCs misinform and deceive women about their health status and their pregnancy options;
- CPCs often misstate data about miscarriage and pregnancy complications; and
- CPCs prioritize their anti-choice agenda over a woman's decision making and health.
Read the press release announcing our findings here.
Read a short summary of the report here, or our full report here, to familiarize yourself with the deceptive practices of CPCs.
Want to get involved in fighting these tactics and supporting a woman's right to the health care she needs? Click here to show your support for national legislation that would curb CPCs practices, click here to receive updates about CPCs and other issues affecting women here in Massachusetts, and click here to donate and support our work.
[1]Rep. Henry A. Waxman, False and Misleading Health Information Provided by Federally Funded Pregnancy Resource Centers, United States House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform -- Minority Staff Special Investigations Division (July, 2006), available at: http://www.chsourcebook.com/articles/waxman2.pdf.
[2]Vitoria Lin and Cynthia Dailard, Crisis Pregnancy Centers Seek To Increase Political Clout, Secure Government Subsidy, The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, 2 (2002).
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