Baltimore Pregnancy Centers Forced to Tell the Truth

by Alex DiBranco · 2009-11-24 16:23:00 UTC
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When I was editor of my college's progressive newspaper, some of the enterprising female journalists on staff wanted to find out first-hand whether crisis pregnancy centers were as bad as we'd heard. So two staffers went undercover to our local CPC, posing as a pregnant teen and her worried friend, to satisfy our curiosity.

The short answer: yes, they are that bad.

Under the guise of offering comprehensive reproductive health services, crisis pregnancy centers lure in women trying to decide what to do about an unplanned pregnancy. These (often young) women mistakenly believe that the fake pregnancy center, like a Planned Parenthood, will provide them with information on the full range of options available to them. Instead, they generally find themselves subjected to a mix of religious guilt-tripping (in our college investigation, the pretend-pregnant journalist was asked if she'd tried "crying out to God") and outright lies to keep them from considering an abortion -- a service crisis pregnancy centers don't actually offer in any case.

So kudos to Baltimore for passing a bill mandating that pregnancy centers that do not provide abortion information post a sign in their waiting rooms making this fact clear, so that women who want a real understanding of all their options can get out while the getting's good.

Pregnancy centers -- and the Catholic Church -- in the city are crying foul, claiming that this constitutes harassment, but City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blakes points out that all compliance with the law takes is printing a basic sign off of a computer. She further states, "It doesn't say anything other than what is true about the centers."

But CPCs don't want women knowing the truth upfront -- because then they miss their chance to let their fake counselors get their claws into these vulnerable women. They miss their chance to feed women seeking information lies about the impact of abortion on mental and physical health; to show them graphic, scientifically unsound antiabortion videos; and to insist that they are killing a life. They also miss their chance to use delay tactics, such as withholding test results, to keep women from having an abortion until it is too late.

I'm okay with them missing that chance.

Photo courtesy of public-domain-photos.com.

Alex DiBranco is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City.
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