Reproductive Health and Freedom Watch Senior Advisor Jenifer McKenna: “It’s time to stop funding UPCs and start reinvesting in the systems that actually serve our communities with honesty, compassion, and scientific integrity.”
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Courier Newsroom published an op-ed by Reproductive Health and Freedom Watch Senior Advisor Jenifer McKenna exposing how unregulated pregnancy clinics have received over $500 million in taxpayer funding while evidence-based maternal health programs face budget cuts. McKenna reveals that these ideologically-driven facilities operate with minimal medical oversight and transparency, often targeting vulnerable populations while limiting essential health services based on personal beliefs rather than medical standards.
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COURIER NEWSROOM: Jenifer McKenna: Maternal and Public Health Funding is Under Attack—While Unregulated Pregnancy Clinics Get a Blank Check
Over the past four years, unregulated pregnancy clinics (UPCs)—often called “crisis pregnancy centers” or “anti-abortion centers”—have quietly received more than $500 million in taxpayer funding. This year alone, state lawmakers have already introduced proposals for nearly another $200 million. These centers claim to offer reproductive and maternal health care, yet they operate with almost no medical oversight, minimal transparency, and a mission that puts personal ideology above patient well-being.
And while these centers are awash in public money, states are simultaneously slashing funding for actual, evidence-based health care. Programs that provide cancer screenings, STI treatment, contraception, maternal care, mental health services, and pediatric care are being gutted under the guise of budget discipline. Yet somehow, there’s room in the budget to funnel millions into facilities that neither follow medical guidelines nor meet basic standards of clinical care.
This is not just irresponsible—it’s a profound betrayal of public trust.
At UPCs, care is dictated not by science or patient need, but by the personal beliefs of those in charge. While these clinics present themselves as neutral reproductive and maternal health providers, they actually operate with a specific agenda—offering care according to a particular set of beliefs they may not disclose, rather than best practice medical standards. Because of this, UPCs may limit access to common, even lifesaving, health treatments that don’t align with their views, putting their own principles ahead of each person’s unique needs, ultimately restricting the options available to patients needing reproductive and maternal health services.
Imagine walking into a clinic for help, believing you’re getting professional medical care, only to find out later that the person advising you is not medically licensed, or that the medical director overseeing your care is hours away, untrained in maternal health, and only reviewing your chart or ultrasound scan multiple days after your appointment. This isn’t theoretical—it’s how UPCs across the country are operating right now, with apparent state approval and taxpayer money.
The cruelty is compounded by who these centers target: young people, those who have low incomes, and the uninsured and underinsured. The very people with the fewest options and most in need of honest, evidence-based care are being steered—often unknowingly—into clinics where science takes a backseat to ideology.
Let’s be clear—financial hardship does not diminish a person’s right to transparency in their care. Regardless of their background, everyone has the right to know the name and credentials of their provider, receive honest representation of medical services, be accurately informed of potentially life-threatening test results, and access care based on medical standards rather than the personal beliefs of those providing it.
How can lawmakers justify gutting Medicaid, closing public health clinics, and stripping support from maternal health programs, while simultaneously writing blank checks to an industry that is unregulated, ideologically driven, and proudly deceptive?
The hypocrisy is staggering—and the harm is real.
Taxpayer dollars should support evidence-based health care, not ideologically-driven clinics that put lives at risk. It’s time to stop funding UPCs and start reinvesting in the systems that actually serve our communities with honesty, compassion, and scientific integrity.