Crisis Pregnancy Centers a Stealth Attack on Abortion

New York Times (Nov. 12, 2015): The Stealth Attack on Abortion, by Meaghan Winter:

In her op-ed, Winter calls crisis pregnancy centers what they are: religious nonprofits established to obstruct women's access to abortion.  As states line up to defund the cancer screenings, H.I.V. testing, ultrasounds, contraception, violence against women programs and other services low-income women have come to rely on from Planned Parenthood, and as clinics are shuttered by TRAP laws, low-income women are left with these unlicensed facilities funded by public dollars ($1 million dollars in Ohio) but which offer only options counseling, pregnancy tests, and ultrasounds.  Such facilities outnumber abortion clinics by at least three to one.

One strategy used by the evangelical workers at crisis pregnancy centers is misinformation: informing women that abortion leads to infertility, suicide, and failure to bond with future children.  California recently passed a law requiring crisis pregnancy centers to announce that they are not licensed medical providers and to tell women that the state has programs for affordable family planning, abortion services, and prenatal care.  The transparency law is now being challenged in court.