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Stop Fake Clinics from Providing Women with Deceptive Information
Action Needed:
"Pregnant? Scared? We Can Help." So claim billboards popping up around the
country advertising the services of local "Crisis Pregnancy Centers" (CPCs). While
these so-called clinics claim to offer help for women facing unplanned pregnancies,
they are in fact run by anti-abortion organizations with the aim of preventing
women from obtaining abortions. These fake clinics use deceptive methods to
get women in the door and then bombard them with misleading information. To
address this problem, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) has introduced the Stop
Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services Act (H.R.
5052) which would enforce truth-in-advertising standards for reproductive
centers. Please
urge your representative to support this legislation. It is imperative
that women are provided with accurate medical information.
Background:
Crisis Pregnancy Centers or CPCs utilize deceptive advertising to lure women
to their clinics. Their deceptive methods include:
- using names similar to legitimate clinics (e.g. "Women's Resource
Center")
- displaying colors frequently used by actual clinics or women's centers
- being located near legitimate clinics so that patients may accidentally
enter the wrong building and
- giving misleading descriptions of the services that they provide ("pre-abortion
counseling")
Women who have found themselves at CPCs report being harassed, intimidated,
and made to feel guilty for considering abortion. In many cases, women who enter
these centers are not informed that the clinic does not actually provide abortion
services.
CPCs lure women in by offering free pregnancy tests. Women have reported that
the CPCs lied to them about the results of the pregnancy test (telling them
they weren't pregnant) so that they would miss the window of time during which
they could safely obtain an abortion. Because CPCs are often located near actual
clinics, women with appointments for abortion services may mistakenly enter
the CPC instead. Such women are sometimes fed orange juice and donuts so that
even if they find their way to the real clinic they can not obtain an abortion
that day. Also, some of the workers and volunteers at CPCs have no medical training
and are only there to deter women from having an abortion.
These fake clinics prey upon women facing unplanned pregnancies and make an
already difficult situation worse by misleading and manipulating them. Please
help put an end to these deceptive practices by urging
your representative to support the Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services
Act.
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