Canada – Unregulated pregnancy centres cause lasting harms—we need transparency

UPCs cause harm through deception, disinformation, and other traumatizing strategies meant to turn people away from abortion

Ashna Hudani and Joyce Arthur
October 5, 2026

Should organizations serving pregnant people be allowed to use disinformation and pressure to prevent them from accessing abortion care? About 160 unregulated pregnancy centres (UPCs) operate across Canada, mostly in smaller communities with no abortion services. UPCs are anti-abortion organizations that often operate under the guise of clinics or counselling centres. Stories collected from individuals who visited UPCs reveal how they cause lasting harm through deception, disinformation, and other traumatizing strategies meant to turn people away from abortion. This begs the question: why are these centres allowed to operate with no oversight?

Pregnant people, like all people, should have access to accurate health care information so that they can make informed decisions. In fact, timely access to quality patient-centred health care is vital to reduce physical and mental health risks during pregnancy. UPCs, however, often self-advertise as providing health services to pregnant people without revealing their anti-abortion mandate.

Continued: https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/unregulated-pregnancy-centres-cause-lasting-harmswe-need-transparency

05.10.2026

Commentary

Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada

anti-choice abuse

anti-choice lies

anti-choice manipulation

anti-choice misinformation

Ashna Hudani

Joyce Arthur

unregulated pregnancy centres

Australia – Scotch College students and staff left reeling by anti-abortion activist’s lecture

Caroline Schelle
September 2, 2026

An anti-abortion activist’s surprise lecture to year 11 pupils at Melbourne’s Scotch College left students and staff shocked.

Dr Emma Wood spoke to year 11 boys on Tuesday as part of the Christian education curriculum, the all-boys college confirmed.

Wood runs the anti-abortion “Pro-Love Logic” organisation and gives presentations for students to understand the relationship between “widespread abortion and the individualistic sexual culture the West has embraced”.

Continued: https://archive.is/M0RqN

(https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/scotch-college-students-and-staff-left-reeling-by-anti-abortion-activist-s-lecture-20260901-p60tiv.html)

02.09.2026

News

anti-choice bullshit

anti-choice lies

anti-choice misinformation

anti-choice misogyny

anti-choice propaganda

USA – Crisis pregnancy centers fight for ultrasound use in clinics without government oversight

Even some medical professionals within the pregnancy center movement have started to register their concerns.

By Sofia Resnick
July 29, 2026

The auditors trying to learn how a dozen crisis pregnancy centers in Louisiana had spent nearly $1.2 million ultimately could not figure it out.

Despite a new law, the state had failed to establish a process for the centers or to track how they spent taxpayer dollars. That was surprising enough, auditors said. But then they learned something else: Every center they reviewed offered ultrasounds and other medical services. Yet none was licensed as a healthcare facility.

“They were providing medical services, and no, they were not licensed by our Department of Health,” said Gina Brown, performance audit manager for the Louisiana Legislative Auditor, who oversaw the review. There was no way to confirm the centers had a licensed medical director on staff, she said.

Continued: https://stateline.org/2026/07/29/crisis-pregnancy-centers-fight-for-ultrasound-use-in-clinics-without-government-oversight/

Australia – Image of ‘twin babies’ used by anti-abortion activist appears to show sugar gliders

Joanna Howe says the image was sent to her by a woman ashamed of her abortion, and used it to support ‘rally for Emma and Ruth’ in favour of NSW bill

Tory Shepherd
Tue 26 May 2026

An image posted by anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe claiming to show aborted twin girls called “Ruth and Emma” appears to be a picture of newborn sugar gliders.

The two little pink bodies are displayed on a clean white background and experts say the image does not look at all like the product of an abortion.

Analysis from a digital forensics expert, commissioned by Guardian Australia, found the image was most likely a sugar glider joey (Petaurus breviceps), or possibly another marsupial such as an opossum.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/27/anti-abortion-activist-joanna-howe-twin-babies-image-likely-to-show-sugar-gliders-ntwnfb

26.05.2026

Abolish Abortion Australia

anti-choice bullshit

anti-choice lies

anti-choice misinformation

anti-choice misogyny

anti-choice propaganda

anti-choice stupidity

Jeremy Thompson

Joanna Howe

Nisha Khot

Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

SA Abortion Action Coalition

Supreme Court sides with anti-abortion center raising First Amendment fears about state probe

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST
April 29, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with a faith-based pregnancy center that raised First Amendment concerns about an investigation into whether it misled people to discourage abortions.

The high court’s unanimous ruling is a procedural victory for First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, which is challenging a New Jersey investigation of its practices.
The conservative-majority court has given abortion opponents high-profile wins in recent years, most notably the watershed case that overturned the nationwide right to abortion in 2022. First Choice, though, had also drawn support from the American Civil Liberties Union, which supports abortion rights but backed the group’s First Amendment concerns.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-abortion-opponents-appeal-new-jersey-57709656fc444ed125165227d985705f

States pass laws allowing pregnancy centers to evade regulation and countersue for damages

Mar 31, 2026
By Kelcie Moseley-Morris

States with and without abortion bans are advancing bills that would shield anti-abortion pregnancy resource centers from certain government mandates and attempts at regulation, allowing them to sue for damages if any part of the law is violated.

At least four states introduced the legislation this session, and two of them, Kansas and Wyoming, made it law. Montana also passed a similar law in 2025. The bills are still pending in Oklahoma and New Hampshire.

Continued; https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/states-pass-laws-allowing-pregnancy-centers-evade-regulation-and-countersue-damages

Australia – Authorities seek to remove from social media image of foetus being circulated by Australian anti-abortion activists

Photograph, first published by anti-abortion campaigner Joanna Howe, purportedly taken at Townsville hospital

Tony Shepherd
Mon 9 Feb 2026

Authorities are trying to have the image removed from social media, while the Townsville Hospital and Health Service (THHS) is investigating how it was taken and shared.

Anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe first published the photo.

She claims that after a woman at Townsville hospital had an abortion, a “whistleblower” took the photo in a room for grieving parents at the hospital and leaked it to her.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/09/foetus-image-social-media-joanna-howe-anti-abortion-post-removal-ntwnfb

09.02.2026

News

anti-choice deception

anti-choice harassment

anti-choice lies

anti-choice misinformation

anti-choice terrorirsm

USA – The Fake Clinics Taking Over Reproductive Healthcare

As abortion clinics disappear nationwide, “crisis pregnancy centers” are transforming reproductive healthcare into a far-right fantasy—quietly collecting hundreds of millions in public funds as Medicaid faces historic cuts.

Sonia Chajet Wides
February 3, 2026

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — A small crowd of abortion rights advocates gathered at a public comment session of the Gwinnett County Department of Planning and Development in July 2025. The most diverse and second-most populous county in Georgia, Gwinnett County distributed millions of dollars in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants to local nonprofits in 2025, with most recipients receiving something in the tens of thousands.

One organization, Georgia Wellness Group, was set to receive a much bigger prize: $450,000.

Continued: https://inthesetimes.com/article/fake-clinics-crisis-pregnancy-abortion-reproductive-healthcare

‘Ireland still doesn’t trust women to be sure about abortion’

The three day waiting period for abortions has no medical basis, but it remains in Irish law as a way to slow women down, second guess their decisions, and keep the idea of abortion as regret firmly in place, writes Roe McDermott.

by Roe McDermott
19th Jan 2026

Ireland likes to tell itself that the abortion debate is over, that Repeal shut down moral panic and state control over women’s bodies, and that whatever is left is just bureaucratic tidying up. The mandatory three day waiting period blows that story apart. It is not a neutral safeguard or a quiet moment for medical reflection. It is a moral speed bump, deliberately placed to remind women that certainty is suspicious, that abortion should feel heavy, and that even in supposedly post Repeal Ireland, reproductive autonomy still comes with strings attached.

This waiting period has never been about medicine. It has always been about mistrust. It rests on the belief that women cannot be relied upon to know their own minds, that they need to be slowed down in case they change them, and that the law should gently but firmly steer them away from abortion if given the chance.

Continued: https://www.image.ie/self/ireland-still-doesnt-trust-women-to-be-sure-about-abortion-979834

Supreme Court case about ‘crisis pregnancy centers’ highlights debate over truthful advertising standards

December 17, 2025
Carly Thomsen

The latest Supreme Court case related to abortion is not technically about the legal right to have one. When the court heard oral arguments on Dec. 2, 2025, the word “abortion” came up only three times. The first instance was more than an hour into the 82-minute hearing.

Instead, First Choice Women’s Resource Centers Inc. v. Platkin hinges on whether First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and association give a chain of five crisis pregnancy centers in New Jersey the right to protect its donor records from disclosure to state authorities. The centers are Christian nonprofits that try to stop pregnant women from obtaining abortions.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-case-about-crisis-pregnancy-centers-highlights-debate-over-truthful-advertising-standards-271254