Trump and His New Republican Congress Will Make All U.S. Taxpayers Fund Unregulated Crisis Pregnancy Clinics

Republican-led states have piloted a dramatic infusion of taxpayer funding into the CPC industry. With Republicans in the White House and U.S. Congress, they are certain to ramp up federal funding for antiabortion centers.

January 3, 2025
by Jenifer McKenna

Within days of the election, antiabortion leaders started calling on the incoming administration to defund Planned Parenthood and family planning clinics that refer patients for abortion, and redirect that funding to “pro-life” pregnancy centers.

While serial attacks on abortion rights seize the headlines, the anti-choice movement has quietly built an on-the-ground network of unregulated pregnancy clinics—also known as crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) and antiabortion centers (AACs)—that is eroding access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare and electioneering against abortion rights, mostly under the radar and increasingly on the public dime.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/01/03/trump-congress-republicans-funding-crisis-pregnancy-centers-abortion-clinic-women-health/

Crisis pregnancy center’s forms give rare insight into anti-abortion practices

The free organizations offer counseling while trying to dissuade women from having abortions. They promise to protect health data but aren’t bound by federal privacy law.

Oct. 13, 2024
by Abigail Brooks

A free family planning center in Twin Falls, Idaho, asks its visitors for sensitive, private information, including nonmedical questions about religion and financial status, according to documents obtained by NBC News.

While the Sage Women’s Center promises to protect the information of its clients, it isn’t bound by medical privacy laws and may be misleading women who are coping with unplanned pregnancies, consumer advocates say.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/crisis-pregnancy-centers-forms-privacy-abortion-rcna172566

U.S states are already collecting more abortion data. And HIPAA won’t always keep it private.

BY: KELCIE MOSELEY-MORRIS
JUNE 1, 2024

Years before the Dobbs decision that struck down U.S. constitutional abortion rights, providers like Dr. Kylie Cooper were already uncomfortable with some of the reporting requirements for abortion procedures in states where they practiced.

Cooper was a maternal-fetal medicine specialist for several years in Idaho before she reluctantly left the state in 2023 because of the near-total abortion ban that is now in place. But when abortion was still legal, she was required to fill out a form and submit it to the state with information about the patient and the procedure, including the physician’s name and when it occurred. While the law said that the information would be aggregated and could not identify individual patients, Cooper never felt sure about how it would be used or how secure the data would be kept.

Continued: https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/06/01/states-are-already-collecting-more-abortion-data-and-hipaa-wont-always-keep-it-private/

USA – Millions In Tax Dollars Are Flowing To Anti-Abortion ‘Crisis Pregnancy Centers’

The typically religious centers aim to convince women not to get abortions.

Kimberlee Kruesi
02/05/2022

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Anti-abortion centers across the country are receiving tens of millions of tax dollars to talk women out of ending their pregnancies, a nearly fivefold increase from a decade ago that resulted from an often-overlooked effort by mostly Republican-led states.

The nonprofits known as crisis pregnancy centers are typically religiously affiliated and counsel clients against having an abortion as part of their free but limited services. That practice and the fact that they generally are not licensed as medical facilities have raised questions about whether it’s appropriate to funnel so much tax money their way.

Continued: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/millions-in-tax-dollars-are-flowing-to-anti-abortion-crisis-pregnancy-centers_n_61febaa5e4b05004242e0178

USA – Consumer Group Urges FDA to Crack Down on Unapproved ‘Abortion Reversal’ Procedure

Consumer Group Urges FDA to Crack Down on Unapproved ‘Abortion Reversal’ Procedure

By Stephanie Russell-Kraft
on June 17, 2020

A consumer watchdog group is asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to shut down a group of websites advertising a so-called abortion pill reversal, a potentially dangerous treatment that is not FDA-approved.

One of the sites, called Abortion Pill Rescue, markets what it calls “an effective process called abortion pill reversal that can reverse the effects of the abortion pill.” The site, run by Heartbeat International, a Christian anti-abortion organization, directs visitors to a hotline that can guide them through the procedure. “If you have taken the first dose of the abortion pill and regret it, you are not alone,” the website reads. “We can help you!”

Continued: https://www.fairwarning.org/2020/06/consumer-group-urges-fda-to-crack-down-on-unapproved-abortion-reversal-procedure/

USA – Google loophole allows anti-abortion clinics to post deceptive ads

Google loophole allows anti-abortion clinics to post deceptive ads
‘Crisis pregnancy centers’ seek to discourage women from getting abortions by ‘deceiving them about services they do or do not offer’

Stephanie Kirchgaessner
Mon 19 Aug 2019

A new Google policy that was meant to rein in deceptive advertising by “crisis pregnancy centers” has a loophole that is allowing the centers to continue to post misleading ads on the search engine.

Crisis pregnancy centers often seek to aggressively discourage women from getting abortions and have earned the ire of abortion rights groups for often seeming to resemble abortion clinics.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/19/google-loophole-anti-abortion-clinics-deceptive-ads

19.08.2019

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Carolyn Maloney

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Anti-abortion group uses US federal grants to push controversial fertility app

Anti-abortion group uses US federal grants to push controversial fertility app
Femm app, which sows doubt about the pill, promoted by Obria group that was awarded $1.7m by Trump administration

Jessica Glenza
Mon 29 Jul 2019

US federal grants intended to help poor women obtain contraceptives are being used to promote a menstruation tracking app funded and operated by anti-birth control and anti-abortion campaigners.

The Femm app sows doubt about the birth control pill and promotes itself as a natural way for women to “avoid or achieve” pregnancy. The app collects women’s most intimate data, including details on menstruation, sex, mood and prescription drugs. Its developers say it has been downloaded more than 400,000 times.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/29/us-federal-grants-femm-app-natural-birth-control

USA – Southern States Funnel Public Money to Fake Abortion Clinics

Southern States Funnel Public Money to Fake Abortion Clinics
"Heartbeat bills" aren't the only effort that legislatures are taking to restrict access to reproductive health care.

By Sarah Moore
Published July 20, 2019

Nine states, six of them in the South, have passed admittedly unconstitutional abortion bans this year with the express aim of challenging the right to terminate a pregnancy as established in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. But “heartbeat bills” aren’t the only effort that legislatures are taking to restrict access to reproductive health care.

Nationwide, 14 states are sending tax dollars to so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs), which pose as legitimate medical facilities offering free pregnancy testing and ultrasounds when in fact their true function is to dissuade people from seeking abortion, often by providing them with false information.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/southern-states-funnel-public-money-to-fake-abortion-clinics/

USA – Google has given $150,000 in free ads to deceptive anti-abortion group

Google has given $150,000 in free ads to deceptive anti-abortion group
Exclusive: Obria Group’s ads suggest it provides abortion services, when in fact it tries to persuade women not to terminate pregnancies

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington and Jessica Glenza in New York
Mon 13 May 2019

Google has given tens of thousands of dollars in free advertising to an anti-abortion group that runs ads suggesting it provides abortion services at its medical clinics, but actually seeks to deter “abortion-minded women” from terminating their pregnancies.

The Obria Group, which runs a network of clinics funded by Catholic organisations, received a $120,000 Google advertising grant in 2015, according to a public filing. In 2011, it received nearly $32,000. Such grants are designed to support and expand the reach of non-profits around the world.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/may/12/google-advertising-abortion-obria

Trump Administration Gives Family Planning Grant to Anti-Abortion Group

Trump Administration Gives Family Planning Grant to Anti-Abortion Group

By Kenneth P. Vogel and Robert Pear
March 29, 2019

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration took an important step on Friday in its push to restrict access to abortion and contraception, announcing that it would give as much as $5.1 million in family planning funds to a nonprofit organization funded by allies of the Catholic Church.

The grant from the Department of Health and Human Services went to the Obria Group, a Southern California-based nonprofit that describes itself as being “led by God” and that aims to siphon patients — and money — away from Planned Parenthood.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/29/us/politics/trump-grant-abortion.html