Abortion-ban states pour millions into pregnancy centers with little medical care

Louisiana offers up to $5 million in tax credits a year for donations to anti-abortion operations

BY: ANNA CLAIRE VOLLERS
AUGUST 24, 2023

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, Louisiana Republican state Sen. Beth Mizell looked for a way to address her state’s abysmal record on infant and maternal mortality, preterm births and low birth weight. Louisiana has one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans, with no exceptions for rape or incest.

Mizell and her colleagues borrowed an idea from neighboring Mississippi: a state tax credit program that sends millions each year to nonprofit pregnancy resource centers, also called crisis pregnancy centers. They’re private anti-abortion organizations, often religiously affiliated, that typically offer free pregnancy tests, parenting classes and baby supplies. They are not usually staffed by doctors or nurses, though some offer limited ultrasounds or testing for sexually transmitted infections.

Continued: https://lailluminator.com/2023/08/24/abortion-ban-states-pour-millions-into-pregnancy-centers-with-little-medical-care/

USA – Crisis pregnancy centers come up short in providing access to information on pregnancy options

August 9, 2021
University of North Carolina, Gillings School of Global Public Health

Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), also called pregnancy resource centers, are non-profit and often religiously affiliated organizations that operate with the goal of convincing people considering abortion to continue their pregnancies. With more than 2,500 locations across the U.S., they are more prevalent than abortion clinics but do not provide the same level of pregnancy-related care. Many do not provide medical care at all.

Researchers like Alice Cartwright, a doctoral student in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, are seeking to understand what proportion of people visit CPCs during their pregnancies. New findings from a study she has co-authored suggest that these centers are not meeting the needs of people seeking information on abortion.

Continued: https://sph.unc.edu/sph-news/crisis-pregnancy-centers-come-up-short-in-providing-access-to-information-on-pregnancy-options/

USA – Pregnant people are being offered an unproven treatment to “reverse” abortions

Pregnant people are being offered an unproven treatment to “reverse” abortions
There’s no real evidence that it works — and no data on the side effects.

By Anna North
Nov 11, 2019

“Even if you’ve taken the abortion pill, you can still change your mind,” proclaims the website of a group called Alternatives Pregnancy Center.

The center offers what it calls “abortion pill reversal,” a treatment it claims can stop a medication abortion that’s already been started. Many organizations around the country are beginning to offer the procedure, and a growing number of states require that patients seeking abortions be told about it.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/11/11/20953337/abortion-pill-reversal-ohio-bill-law-pregnancy

USA – Crisis pregnancy centers’ endanger adolescent health, doctors say

Crisis pregnancy centers' endanger adolescent health, doctors say

Carolyn Crist
November 7, 2019

(Reuters Health) – “Crisis pregnancy centers” look and act like healthcare clinics but fail to meet medical and ethical standards, often using biased and inaccurate information to persuade women not to pursue an abortion, say two national doctors’ groups.

The “misinformation” these centers offer typically includes limited options for the next steps of pregnancy and unscientific sexual and reproductive health explanations, according to a joint statement by the Society for Adolescent Health and the North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology that was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Continued: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/entertainment-pmn/crisis-pregnancy-centers-endanger-adolescent-health-doctors-say

Inside the ‘fake clinics’ where women are persuaded to carry pregnancies to term

Inside the 'fake clinics' where women are persuaded to carry pregnancies to term
‘Crisis pregnancy centers’ give counseling, pregnancy tests – and outnumber abortion providers three to one in Georgia

by Khushbu Shah in Milledgeville, Georgia
Fri 16 Aug 2019

In her office at the Crossroads Pregnancy Center in Milledgeville, Georgia, Pam Alford hung a picture of a grave-filled cemetery in memory of the thousands of the abortions taking place every day in America. Or so says the caption.

Other indications of the center staff’s attitude to abortion fill public areas of the building. Someone has stenciled “life is beautiful” in a hallway. Figurines of Jesus and the cross line the lunch area walls.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/16/georgia-abortion-crisis-pregnancy-centers