Bonta warns consumers on crisis pregnancy centers
There are more crisis pregnancy centers in California — 179 — than clinics that provide abortion care (144), according to a study by the Alliance.
California Democrats envision the state becoming a haven for people seeking abortions now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade.
But California is also a haven for something abortion rights opponents support: crisis pregnancy centers, places that “may advertise a full range of reproductive health services,” according to a recent consumer warning from Attorney General Rob Bonta, but “do not provide abortion or abortion referrals, and usually do not provide birth control or other forms of contraceptives.”
Bonta is concerned by the fact that there are more crisis pregnancy centers in California — 179 — than clinics that provide abortion care (144), according to a study by the Alliance, a progressive policy and law advocacy organization.
“That is why in the face of unprecedented threats to reproductive freedom, I’m urging Californians to be on the alert,” Bonta said this month in issuing the consumer alert.
It is not just Californians who must be on alert. Abortion rights advocates expect 26 states to ban abortion in the wake of the overturning of Roe. That is expected to trigger thousands of people to travel to other states, like California, where the procedure remains legal.
Advocates have no idea of how massive that influx of patients will be. The Guttmacher Institute, a think tank that researches reproductive health, said in a recent report that the number of out-of-state women of childbearing age who would find their nearest clinic in California if Roe were overturned would increase from 46,000 to 1.4 million.
The report, however, doesn’t predict how many of those people would come to California to obtain an abortion. Or where they might go instead. Or how that would affect Californians seeking care. Roughly 40% of California counties do not have a clinic that offer abortions.
The anti-abortion movement wants to expand the role of these centers to offer people an option other than abortion when confronted with an unwanted pregnancy. Some antiabortion activists see the fall of Roe as an opportunity to open more centers.
Last month, Bryan Westbrook, executive director of Coalition Life, told “The Daily” podcast that anti-abortion activists were looking to add 25 additional pregnancy centers over the next three to five years in Illinois.
“In Missouri, we outnumber the abortion facility, 75 to 1, so our 75 pregnancy centers to their one abortion facility,” Westbrook said. “And so we need to be doing that in every single state across the entire nation.”
Nationally, according to the Alliance report, pregnancy crisis centers outnumber abortion clinics by 3 to 1.
In California, Karen England, president of the antiabortion Capitol Resources Institute, said she “doesn’t know where all of this frenzy is coming from” related to crisis pregnancy centers.
“It’s OK that we’re really giving women another choice. And that’s really all it is,” England said. California Democrats have “made it easy for women to get abortions. I don’t know why they’re not satisfied with that and why they now are afraid of women choosing life and giving them another option.”
Bonta worried that people who are pregnant or believe they may be might be misled by centers that present themselves as offering help — but don’t offer a full range of options. That aid, Bonta said, does not include abortions or referral to abortion providers, and “nearly across the board” does not include birth control or other contraceptives.
“Crisis pregnancy centers may not be licensed medical clinics or be required to keep medical records private,” Bonta said. “Crisis pregnancy centers may attempt to delay appointments or provide misinformation about the legality or safety of abortions.”
Jodi Hicks, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said the organization has heard stories of women going to crisis pregnancy centers “thinking that they can get service and they, in fact, can’t.”
If California were to see more crisis pregnancy clinics open, Hicks said, “the point of them would not be to provide more services. It would be to provide more misinformation.”