Why I Can’t Support Crisis Pregnancy Centers Anymore
By: Valentine Wiggin
Tags: Abortion, Healthcare, Charity, Reproductive Rights, Religious Freedom

Why I Can’t Support Crisis Pregnancy Centers Anymore

When I was in middle school, I collected change in a baby bottle for a faith-based crisis pregnancy center. I was told that it would help women in need and potentially save lives. Being well-intentioned but uninformed, I eagerly stowed coins away to fill my bottle and turned it in at school.

In high school, a pregnant woman volunteered to get an ultrasound live at my school. I could have sworn I saw the baby wave as the ultrasound’s findings were projected on a screen. This was supposed to create sympathy for the pro-life cause. Being young and not knowing any better, I bought into the idea easily. Everyone should have a chance to live, right?

Later on that year, I found myself scrolling through an article (probably this one) about how faith-based crisis pregnancy centers harmed women. I was shocked that anyone, especially someone who called themselves a Christian, could get away with such deceptive and harmful acts. I felt sick knowing that I contributed to this cause and actually thought that I was doing the right thing. Ever since then, I have felt the need to speak out against these centers but didn’t have the courage to speak out until now.

Crisis pregnancy centers are (predominantly Christian) faith-based centers set up to provide for those who are pregnant but don’t want to be. These pro-life organizations have been criticized as misleading for offering incorrect or incomplete information such as linking abortion to poorer mental health. However, the opposite seems to be the case. In a 2017 study in which women who were denied abortions showed more anxiety symptoms than those who were able to obtain one. These centers are also known for promoting abstinence-only sex education and giving negative information about condoms.

In 2015, California passed the Reproductive FACT Act which required these centers to direct those who sought their services to resources where they could prevent or terminate a pregnancy and disclose the fact that they are not licensed medical care facilities. However, the FACT Act was struck down by the Supreme Court and ruled unconstitutional. Justice Thomas reasoned that this was the case because requiring the disclosure of a lack of licensure falls under “content-based” “regulation of speech.”

This poses trouble for pregnant people in need of services and counseling. For one, when one walks into one of these centers, they may be expecting a fully-equipped clinic that will provide abortions and contraceptives. For another, the Supreme Court hasn’t batted an eye at licensure requirements for any other occupation or business. If any other unlicensed service provider tried to make such a claim, they would probably be laughed out of the courtroom. Such a clear aim at pregnant people’s bodily autonomy and knowledge of available services spells trouble for the Americans who have gone to these centers under the impression that they were licensed and provided services they needed.

I cannot support any practice that I know to be fraudulent or harmful in good conscience. Knowing that faith-based pregnancy centers not only mislead their clients but also have explicit First Amendment protections for doing so, I can’t help but wonder how many people have been scammed out of appropriate care out of fear that it would cause mental health issues, cancer, or infertility. It baffles me how these centers can be promoted at all, let alone how they’ve essentially been given the green light to commit medical fraud. If you’re thinking about turning in one of those baby bottles, spend the change on yourself or use it to raise awareness of what faith-based pregnancy centers really are: an insidious undermining of the pregnant American’s bodily autonomy.