Canada – Fake ‘crisis pregnancy centres’ run by right-wing religious groups use ‘deception and manipulation’ to trick vulnerable women

Taxpayer scam: ‘No charity should be in the business of deceiving people who are considering an abortion and possibly delaying them from seeking health-care’

by Paul Henderson
Oct 19, 2025

The ad on the bus stop bench in front of Chilliwack Senior Secondary School has been there for many months, maybe years: “Cherish Women’s Resource Centre.” It includes a logo with arms forming a heart, hands clasping with the words “Pregnant? Unplanned? Here to help.”

The location in front of a high school where the ad is seen daily by hundreds of teenage girls is no coincidence.

But while “The Cherish Project” claims to be there to support girls and women with information and guidance about reproductive health, in reality it is simply a group of non-medically trained evangelical Christians intent on misleading vulnerable young women into doing what church fathers say they should do with their bodies. Continued: https://www.pauljhenderson.com/fake-crisis-pregnancy-centres-run-by-right-wing-religious-groups-use-deception-and-manipulation-to-trick-vulnerable-women/

How Abortion Pill “Reversal” Became a Powerful Right-Wing Legal Weapon

Blue-state attempts to crack down on the treatment could end up shielding “fake clinics” from any oversight.

Garnet Henderson, Susan Rinkunas, Mother Jones
Oct 15, 2025

Crisis pregnancy centers have played a central role in the anti-abortion movement since the 1960s, often misleading and confusing people seeking abortions while purporting to help them. They mimic the appearance of abortion clinics, with similar-sounding names and even lookalike logos. Their volunteers sometimes pose as clinic staff to divert abortion patients from getting care. Their websites are teeming with disinformation, including claims that abortion is unsafe or linked to future mental illness, breast cancer, and fertility issues. “A killer, who in this case is the girl who wants to kill her baby, has no right to information that will help her kill her baby,” Robert Pearson, founder of the very first CPC in the US, once declared.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/10/how-abortion-pill-reversal-became-a-powerful-right-wing-legal-weapon/

‘UK charity encouraged me to take controversial abortion reversal pill’

An undercover Times investigation reveals how US-inspired Christian activists are pushing dogma-driven medical, counselling and mental health services in the UK

Constance Kampfner
Tuesday September 23 2025

A little over a minute into my call with Rachel Mackenzie, one of Britain’s foremost anti-abortion activists, her voice tightens with urgency. “You had the pill last night — you can reverse it,” she tells me.

I have called her helpline to say that I am in early pregnancy and have taken one of two sets of prescribed abortion pills. I explain it is not the right time for me to become a mother, but that I am experiencing some doubts and am looking for advice.

Continued: https://archive.is/https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/abortion-counselling-reversal-pill-investigation-f25hd20sd

USA – Study of Crisis Pregnancy Centers Reveals Misleading and Dangerous Claims

A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine provides the first national assessment of crisis pregnancy centers and their operations

December 02, 2024
Mika Ono

A new study from scientists at the University of California San Diego introduces a powerful new approach to understanding the operation of crisis pregnancy centers, non-profit organizations dedicated to an anti-abortion agenda. The study published in JAMA Internal Medicine provides the first account of the practices of crisis pregnancy centers (CPC) operating in the United States.

"While our study shows crisis pregnancy centers provide valuable community services, like parenting classes, there is a clear need for consumer safety measures to prevent the promotion and use of their questionable medical services," said John W. Ayers, Ph.D., who is deputy director of informatics at the UC San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute, in addition to scientist at UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute, co-creator of ChoiceWatch.org and study coauthor.

Continued: https://today.ucsd.edu/story/study-of-crisis-pregnancy-centers-reveals-misleading-and-dangerous-claims

Ministry warns against the use of progesterone for ‘abortion reversal’

11 July 2024

The Ministry of Health – Manatū Hauora has published a position statement on ‘abortion reversal’ to warn New Zealanders against this unsafe and scientifically unsupported practice.

The Ministry does not support or recognise the practice, which is aimed at reversing the effects of taking early medical abortion (EMA) medication. The Ministry is concerned about reports ‘abortion reversals’ may be offered in New Zealand.

Continued: https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/ministry-warns-against-use-progesterone-abortion-reversal

11.07.2024

News

abortion pill reversal

abortion reversal

early medical abortion

Manatū Hauora

Royal Australia New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

How to Spot Abortion-Related Misinformation

Between pregnancy “crisis centers” and “abortion pill testing,” there's a lot of questionable info out there. Here's how to tell what's evidence-based and what's not.

Lux Alptraum
Oct 24, 2023

In mid-September, the New York Times Opinion section ran a piece with a shocking headline. “In Poland, Testing Women for Abortion Drugs Is a Reality. It Could Happen Here,” the paper breathlessly declared.

As I read the piece, I felt a shudder of panic go down my spine. For years, abortion advocates have been confidently assuring people that abortion pills cannot be detected in the system when they’re taken by mouth. An effective test for abortion pills could have terrifying ramifications—at a bare minimum, it could discourage people from seeking follow-up care after a self-managed abortion.

And yet, at the same, I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right here. What was the scientific justification for developing such a test?

Continued: https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-spot-abortion-misinformation/

US judge blocks law that would have been first to ban ‘abortion pill reversal’

Abortion foes claim practice can be used to halt medication abortion while studies don’t support potentially harmful theory

Carter Sherman
Mon 23 Oct 2023

A law that would have been the first in the United States to ban a controversial practice known as “abortion pill reversal” cannot take effect, a judge ruled late Saturday.
abortion
US district court judge Daniel D Domenico granted a preliminary injunction in the case, ruling in favor of a Catholic health clinic that had argued the law infringed on its first amendment rights.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/22/abortion-pill-reversal-ban-progesterone-judge-ruling

California Brings First-Time Lawsuit Against Anti-Abortion Movement’s ‘Abortion Pill Reversal’ Scheme

“Those who are struggling with the complex decision to get an abortion deserve support and trustworthy guidance—not lies and misinformation,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

10/9/2023
by JENIFER MCKENNA and CARRIE N. BAKER, Ms. Magazine

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit on Sept. 21 against a chain of California crisis pregnancy centers and its national parent organization for false advertising of “abortion pill reversal” (APR)—an unproven and possibly dangerous high-dose progesterone intervention the anti-abortion movement claims can “reverse” an underway medication abortion. This is the first lawsuit in the country challenging the CPC industry’s promotion of APR.

AG Bonta’s complaint charges RealOptions Obria, a five-site crisis pregnancy center chain in Northern California, and the Ohio-based Heartbeat International with violating California’s False Advertising Law and Unfair Competition law by falsely advertising “abortion pill reversal” as safe and effective. The lawsuit seeks an injunction to block further dissemination of the misleading claims, in addition to other remedies and penalties available under state law.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/10/09/abortion-pill-reversal/

09.10.2023

News

abortion pill reversal

abortion reversal

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

American Medical Association

anti-choice deception

anti-choice disinformation

anti-choice lies

anti-choice misinformation

anti-choice misogyny

Betsy Butler

California Women’s Law Center

crisis pregnancy centers

Designed to Deceive

False Advertising law

George Delgado

Heartbeat International

Mary Davenport

Obria

pregnancy care centers

Privacy International

progesterone

RealOptions Obria

Rob Bonta

Society for Family Planning

Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine

The Alliance of State Advocates

Unfair Competition law

How Meta Created a Wild West for Abortion Misinformation

New cases from Meta’s Oversight Board highlight Meta’s haphazard approach to reproductive health.

BY JENNIFER NEDA JOHN
JULY 31, 2023

In March, a member of an anti-abortion Facebook group shared a post describing what it claimed was “pro-abortion logic”: “We don’t want you to be poor, starved or unwanted. So we’ll just kill you instead.”

That same month, another Facebook user shared a link to a news article covering a South Carolina bill that would have criminalized abortion as homicide, thus making it eligible for the death penalty. In the caption, the user criticized lawmakers’ logic that “it’s wrong to kill so we are going to kill you.” On Instagram, another post struck the same tone, criticizing the idea of being “so pro-life” that “we’ll kill you dead if you get an abortion.”

Continued: https://slate.com/technology/2023/07/abortion-misinformation-meta-oversight-board.html

Colorado: Lessons from a sanctuary state for abortion in the US

In this corner of the West, some of the most progressive laws in the country have been passed in response to the Supreme Court ruling that struck down ‘Roe vs Wade.’ It is the fruit of years of work by activists and Democratic politicians

Iker Seisdedos
JUL 10, 2023

The alarm that shook activist Aurea Bolaños into action was the Texas Heartbeat Act, which was passed in September 2021. Mirroring many rules that would follow, it banned abortions as early as six weeks of pregnancy, when most women do not yet know they are pregnant.

This was nine months before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, the landmark ruling that established the constitutional right to abortion in 1973. Texas’ proximity to Colorado — the states share a border with Oklahoma, which followed with a similar abortion ban — prompted Bolaños, along with other activists and lawyers, to ask what legal safeguards protected reproductive freedom in Colorado. “The answer was: none,” she told EL PAÍS from an office in downtown Denver.

Continued: https://english.elpais.com/usa/2023-07-10/colorado-lessons-from-a-sanctuary-state-for-abortion-in-the-us.html