An investigative report has been written by Laura Morel in Reveal News about anti-abortion centers or crisis pregnancy centers, called by those trying to convince patients they are medical facilities or even abortion clinics. Locally, the “Women’s Life Services” in the same parking lot as Southern Tier Women’s Health Services, our local abortion clinic. Similar to the examples in the following article, patients have felt that they misrepresented their services and delayed them from their real appointment to get an abortion.
Anti-abortion pregnancy centers like the Women’s Help Center have proliferated in recent decades, with many aiming to expand their capacity now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. By design, an increasing number look and operate much like traditional OB-GYN providers, offering ultrasounds, tests for sexually transmitted infections and in some instances even prenatal care. Many boast of having medical directors and other licensed staff. Dozens include the word “medical” in their names.
But as the newly unearthed Jacksonville case highlights, beneath the veneer of medical professionalism is an industry that state and federal authorities have done almost nothing to regulate.
Only a few states require pregnancy centers that provide medical services to be formally licensed as clinics, a Reveal investigation has found. And, because their views are grounded in a particular ideological viewpoint, the centers aren’t subject to many other rules designed to protect patients – rules that would require them to be transparent about their operations and medical credentials.