USA – The GOP’s Plan to Ban Birth Control (Part I)

Redefining Contraception as 'Abortion'

JESSICA VALENTI
AUG 14, 2023

For years, feminists have warned that Republicans want to ban birth control. We’ve pointed to legal and cultural trends showing how contraception is in danger, only to be told again and again that we’re overreacting or being hysterical. Remember how well it turned out when our warnings about Roe were ignored?

This disbelief over the danger to contraception isn’t just run-of-the-mill misogyny—though that’s certainly part of it. Some people simply can’t comprehend why lawmakers who claim to be against abortion would prohibit birth control, which prevents unwanted pregnancies. They haven’t caught onto the fact that Republicans’ real end goal is a return to traditional gender roles, and that overturning Roe was simply a means to that end.

Continued: https://jessica.substack.com/p/the-gops-plan-to-ban-birth-control

USA – Fake abortion clinics ‘bigger than ever’

‘The Daily Show’ co-creator Lizz Winstead brought her group Abortion Action Front to Chicago to warn of traps set for the unwary.

By Neil Steinberg
Jul 16, 2023

Lizz Winstead was 17, a high school senior in Minnesota. “I was a Catholic teenager who found myself pregnant, making deals with God and myself,” said Winstead, now 61. “Pregnancy tests weren’t available.”

There was no internet. She saw an advertisement on the side of a bus about free pregnancy tests. She went to the address, an old house, oddly.

Continued: https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2023/7/16/23796601/abortion-clinics-fake-reproductive-rights-column-steingberg

Alito said Dobbs would lower the temperature. Instead, it fanned the flames of abortion extremism.

Federal prosecutions of abortion-related crimes are way up in the year since the court overturned Roe v. Wade.

by BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN
06/24/2023

When the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion a year ago, Justice Samuel Alito suggested that returning the issue to lawmakers might alleviate extremism on both sides of the issue.

Roe v. Wade and other rulings protecting abortion, Alito wrote, had “enflamed debate,” “deepened division,” and prevented a “national settlement of the abortion issue.”

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/24/abortion-extremist-violence-dobbs-00103539

Why ‘crisis pregnancy centers’ will be California’s next abortion battleground

BY KRISTEN HWANG
JUNE 16, 2023

In California, less than two-thirds of counties have an abortion clinic. But nearly 80% have at least one “crisis pregnancy center,” according to a database compiled by CalMatters.

Abortion rights advocates and lawmakers have long accused these centers — also known as anti-abortion centers — of coercing vulnerable people into remaining pregnant by misleading them about abortion procedures and contraceptive methods. In rural areas with acute primary care shortages, “crisis pregnancy centers” outnumber abortion clinics 11 to 2, a CalMatters analysis shows.

Continued: https://calmatters.org/health/2023/06/crisis-pregnancy-centers-california/

USA – Google ‘Abortion Clinics Near Me’ and You May End Up on an Anti-Abortion Website

Report alleges that Google is profiting from ads for anti-abortion clinics

06/15/23
Khaya Himmelman and Lily Meier

Google, the dominant player in online search, has run deceptive ads directing abortion seekers to sites run by “crisis pregnancy centers” that try to dissuade women from getting abortions, according to a study by the non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).

The online giant made only $10.2 million from the ads, according to the center, whereas the parent company, Alphabet, had a net 2022 profit of nearly $60 billion. The center argues though that this isn't just about the financials as “Google is betraying the trust of hundreds of thousands of Americans seeking reproductive and healthcare services.”

Continued: https://themessenger.com/money/google-abortion-clinics-near-me-and-you-may-end-up-on-an-anti-choice-website

15.06.2023

News

abortion pill reversal

Alphabet

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Callum Hood

Center for Countering Digital Hate

crisis pregnancy centers

Google and abortion

Google Maps and abortion

Google searches for abortion

Imran Ahmed

United States

USA – Google earned $10m from ads misdirecting abortion seekers to ‘pregnancy crisis centers’

Study finds the search giant has profited since Roe was overturned from anti-abortion groups buying misleading search terms

Kari Paul
Thu 15 Jun 2023

Google has made millions of dollars in the last two years from advertisements misdirecting users who were seeking abortion services to “pregnancy crisis centers” that do not actually provide care, according to a new study.

The tech giant has taken in an estimated $10m in two years from anti-choice organizations that pay to advertise such centers alongside legitimate results on the Google search page, according to a new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a non-profit group that conducts misinformation research. Its study, published on Thursday, estimates that the search results have reached and potentially misled hundreds of thousands of users.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jun/15/google-misleading-abortion-ads-pregnancy-crisis-centers

USA – Fake Abortion Clinics Are Deceiving People, So Why Is The Government Helping Them?

Melissa Fowler
Thu, June 15, 2023

In the fall of 2021, Maria (whose name has been changed for privacy) walked into a clinic near her home in Texas to ask about her options for abortion care. The clinic staff told her that her pregnancy was too far along to get an abortion in Texas and handed her a bag of baby clothes on her way out. Desperate, Maria called the National Abortion Hotline for help finding care outside the state. Based on the information Maria provided about her last menstrual cycle, the hotline caseworker determined that the clinic had lied to her about how far along she was and that it was still early enough in her pregnancy to obtain an abortion under Texas state law.

The “clinic” Maria went to was not a real abortion clinic. It was one of themore than 2,500 “crisis pregnancy centers” in the U.S. — fake clinics, oranti-abortion centers, often subsidized by taxpayer dollars, that use deceptive names and practices to confuse patients seeking abortion care in order to force them into carrying their pregnancies to term. By comparison, abortion rights group Reproaction found that there wereonly about 790 operating abortion clinics in 2021 in the U.S., and that number has declined since the fall of Roe v. Wade last year.

Continued: https://ca.style.yahoo.com/fake-clinics-deceiving-people-why-094509892.html

15.06.2023

Commentary

anti-choice deception

anti-choice lies

anti-choice misogyny

crisis pregnancy centers

Melissa Fowler

National Abortion Federation

National Abortion Hotline

How an anti-abortion group in Brazil spreads disinformation with public cash

A São Paulo anti-abortion centre has forged lucrative ties to leading far-right political figure

Raphaela Ribeiro
2 June 2023

“PREGNANT?” scream the posters on São Paulo’s metro system, used by five million commuters every day. “Are you confused or completely alone…What are your options?” The urgent questions are superimposed on the silhouette of a woman’s face. Below is the logo of an organisation known as Cervi (Centre for Life Restructuring), followed by two phone numbers and the invitation “Call Us”.

Cervi has operated across Brazil for two decades and is linked to the Pregnancy Resource Center (PRC), a US network. Since the 1970s, the PRC has helped create so-called ‘crisis pregnancy centres’ across the US and in several other countries. The crisis pregnancy centres, many of which are linked to large evangelical Christian networks such as Heartbeat International and CareNet, pose as abortion service providers. However, their real mission is to dissuade women and pregnant people from having an abortion using tactics such as disinformation and emotional pressure, as a 2020 openDemocracy investigation revealed.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/brazil-sao-paulo-anti-abortion-public-money-disinformation/

Even in blue California, attempts to regulate controversial antiabortion centers continue to fail

BY MACKENZIE MAYS
MAY 28, 2023

ROSEVILLE, Calif. — At Sierra Pregnancy and Health, Executive Director Cary Wilcox beams with pride holding a plastic model of what will soon be a new mobile clinic thanks to a flood of donations after its “biggest year ever.”

Outside the nondescript nonprofit just 20 miles from the California capital, a sign advertises “abortion pill reversal” — a practice involving the hormone progesterone that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists deems “unethical” and “not supported by science.”

Continued: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-28/anti-abortion-pregnancy-centers-are-expanding-as-californias-attempts-at-regulation-fail

USA – These abortion clinics no longer provide abortions – but are still hanging on

Even in states with bans, a handful of abortion clinics are still open, providing ‘aftercare’ for patients who travel out of state or manage their own abortions

Rebecca Grant
Fri 5 May 2023

The patient on 9 March was a tricky case.

She was pregnant and seeking an abortion, but had previously had a cesarean section, which could create complications if the placenta embedded in her surgical scar. Houston Women’s Reproductive Services couldn’t perform the procedure because Texas had banned abortions, but the clinic could do an ultrasound and communicate with the provider in New Mexico, where the patient was heading for her appointment. Then, once the patient was back in Texas, the Houston clinic would provide any follow-up care and support she needed.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/05/abortion-clinics-open-states-with-bans