Washington – Today, new reporting from The 19th News demonstrates how unregulated pregnancy clinics (UPCs, also known as crisis pregnancy centers or CPCs) are using their vast network to campaign against abortion rights ballot initiatives at the state level.
In response, Reproductive Health and Freedom Watch executive director Debra Rosen said the following:
“Backed by billions in funding from diverse sources, including private donors and allocations from state legislatures, UPCs wield significant influence. These organizations present themselves as trusted community resources, yet they actively advance an anti-abortion policy agenda—often funded in part by taxpayer dollars with minimal, if any, government oversight. It is crucial concerned voters and maternal and reproductive health advocates are aware of the true nature, far-reaching influence, and underlying goals of these organizations.”
As the article says: “Because anti-abortion centers often resemble medical clinics, people may not always know about their political agenda. They vastly outnumber abortion clinics, and have wide reach, especially in rural communities, Thomsen said.”
Providing a comment for the 19th News story, the North Florida-based Pregnancy Care Center claimed it has been actively campaigning against Amendment 4, distributing “No on 4” signs and emphasizing the measure’s potential impact on abortion rights, with Center Head Lori North stating, “We are so actively involved, my schedule is crazy.”
Carly Thomson, associate professor at Rice University, is quoted saying, “‘The finding that crisis pregnancy centers are engaging in overt political advocacy and publicly doing this is in line with what we already know — that there is actually no distinction between the work crisis pregnancy centers do inside the center and the political advocacy they’re doing as a movement,’ said Carly Thomsen, an associate professor at Rice University who studies these facilities. ‘The anti-abortion movement sees crisis pregnancy centers as the foundation of their movement.’”