What are These Fake Health Centers?
These centers pretend to be medical clinics that offer health care services and all-options counseling for pregnant people. THEY DO NOT. These fake centers are funded by anti-abortion groups and go by different names like "crisis pregnancy centers" (CPCs) and "pregnancy resource centers." Their aim is to prevent people who are pregnant from accessing abortion in a timely manner. They advertise services such as pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, counseling, and resources. Some even say they offer abortion referrals. However, in reality, they fail to provide medically accurate information and even mislead women about their abortion care options. These centers also pretend to be legitimate clinics that can offer information and services for contraception. In actuality, they aim to prevent those who come into the center from accessing different forms of contraceptive care and seek to provide abstinence-based counseling instead. For example, their websites contain claims that condoms are not an effective form of protection from unintended pregnancy and STIs and misinformation on hormonal birth control and dangerous side effects. This inaccurate information can further difficulties among a community when trying to plan or prevent pregnancy, especially when there are many contraception deserts in Wisconsin. |
The Fake Clinic Database is a collection of all discoverable crisis pregnancy center locations nationwide, independently verified and regularly updated by Reproaction. We do not, however, list anti-abortion maternity homes where pregnant women are housed before giving birth, often as an arrangement before adoption, sometimes exchanging work or other contract terms for housing. We are proud to provide access to the Fake Clinic Database in an open-source fashion. |
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Our StudyAt a time when women need access to as much evidence-based, medically accurate information about their reproductive health as possible, there is a wide-spread effort to mislead and lie to women through so-called "crisis pregnancy centers" or CPCs, fake health clinics run by anti-choice organizations.
There are more than 3,000 CPCs across the country, and they are usually strategically located near hospitals and abortion clinics in order to confuse or harass women. They may offer free ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, and diapers, despite often having no doctors or licensed medical professionals on the premises. Their websites typically advertise “abortion information” and "pregnancy options counseling," or carry slogans like “We inform. You decide.” |
"St. Gianna Clinic provides abortion pill reversal to anyone desiring to reverse their chemical abortion before the second is taken.". - from the Alexandrina Pregnancy Center webpage
10% of CPCs in Wisconsin have misleading information regarding "abortion reversal" on their websites. |
This claim is not supported by science or medical professionals, there is not enough evidence to support that prescribing progesterone after a medicated abortion will reverse its effects. Providing “reversal” services is unsafe and not medically ethical. There has not been peer-reviewed research that has found that receiving progesterone will counteract the effects of a medical abortion.
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"Emergency Contraception is a form of early abortion because it prevents newly formed life from settling into the uterus." - from the Chequamegon Pregnancy Center webpage
15% of CPCs in Wisconsin have misleading information regarding emergency contraception on their websites. |
Emergency contraception, often known as the “morning-after pill, " works by delaying or preventing ovulation so that sperm is unable to find an egg to fertilize. This is not an abortifacient because it is only preventing pregnancy by delaying or preventing ovulation, it cannot terminate an egg that has been fertilized.
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"You have a right to explore your options before making one of the most important decisions in your life and in your child's life." - from the Carenet Family Resource Center webpage
60% of CPCs in Wisconsin have misleading information regarding available services on their websites. |
100% of Wisconsin-based CPC’s advertise “options counseling” on their websites yet they refuse to offer information on the full range of options available to pregnant people, and actively counsel against abortion.
Despite advertising comprehensive and unbiased options counseling through email, hotlines, and by appointment, only 40% of sites explicitly state that they do not offer or refer for abortions. This means that women who are seeking to understand all of the options available to them are being tricked into visiting these CPCs only to be coerced into a limited number of choices that do not include abortion. |
"While a woman may initially feel relief, the forever pain of being a mother of a dead child has long outlasted any initial relief." - from the Agape Pregnancy Resource Center webpage
35% of CPC websites made inaccurate or misleading claims about a link between mental health and abortion |
CPCs are notorious for shaming women into making certain decisions related to their pregnancy. They often guilt women into continuing an unintended pregnancy by telling her she's "guaranteed" to experience mental health challenges and will inevitably regret having an abortion.
According to the American Psychological Association “the best scientific evidence published indicates that among adult women who have an unplanned pregnancy the relative risk of mental health problems is no greater if they have a single elective first-trimester abortion than if they deliver that pregnancy.” According to Guttmacher Institute, “evidence shows that the stigma that a woman may feel because she believes that her partner, family, or community will ostracize her for having an abortion-the stigma that antiabortion activists have worked for decades to promote-is itself a key driver of negative mental health outcomes,” not the abortion itself. Read more about the real science here. |
"For pregnant women who have previously had abortions, they now have a 160% increased risk of tubal pregnancy and 200% increased risk of miscarriage" - from the Alpha Life Resource Center website
25% of the CPC websites offered inaccurate or misleading information about miscarriages |
CPCs, which are not licensed medically facilities, often scare women into thinking that if they have an abortion that their future fertility will be compromised.
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), “most health care providers agree that one abortion does not affect your ability to get pregnant or the risk of future pregnancy complications.” Read more about the real science here. |
There is a 50% increase in risk for breast cancer after a woman has had an abortion - from the Alpha lIfe Resource Center website
10% of the CPC websites made inaccurate or misleading claims about a link between abortion and breast cancer. |
Another lie that CPCs love to use links breast cancer to abortion. It's just another tactic that CPCs use to scare women away from choosing to have an abortion in fear that the procedure could cause them to develop breast cancer.
According to ACOG, “early studies of the relationship between induced abortion and breast cancer risk were methodologically flawed. More rigorous recent studies demonstrate no causal relationship between induced abortions and a subsequent increase in breast cancer risk.” Read more about the real science here. |
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