California Attorney General Sues "Crisis Pregnancy Centers"

California has sued "crisis pregnancy centers" alleging violations of consumer protection laws. The complaint is available here. The core claims are excerpted here: 

Defendants have engaged in and continue to engage in, aided and abetted and continue to aid and abet, and conspired to and continue to conspire to engage in acts or practices that constitute violations of Business and Professions Code section 17500 et seq., by making or causing to be made untrue or misleading statements with the intent to induce members of the public to undergo [Abortion Pill Reversal] APR. Defendants’ untrue and misleading representations include, but are not limited to, the following:

 

a. that APR can “reverse” a medication abortion, as well as an “effective” process that “has been shown to increase the chances of allowing the pregnancy to continue,” and that APR has a 64-68% success rate, even though no credible scientific evidence supports these claims;

 

b. that APR may be effective after a 72-hour window following administration of mifepristone by encouraging pregnant people to contact them “even if more than 72 hours have passed,” even though no credible scientific evidence supports this claim;

 

c. that the rate of birth defects following APR “is less or equal to the rate in the general population,” even though no credible scientific evidence supports these claims;

 

d. that “thousands of lives” have been saved via APR, even though no credible evidence supports this claim;

 

e. that APR may be effective following administration of misoprostol and methotrexate, even though no credible scientific evidence supports this claim; and

 

f. that APR can cause only non-life-threatening side effects, when in fact APR can cause severe, life-threatening bleeding. 

 

Defendants knew or should have known that these statements were misleading.

 

* * * 

 

Defendants have engaged in and continue to engage in, aided and abetted and continue to aid and abet, and conspired to and continue to conspire to engage in unlawful, unfair, and/or fraudulent acts or practices, which constitute unfair competition within the meaning of section 17200 of the Business and Professions Code.