We are monitoring several updates in the unregulated pregnancy clinic (UPC) industry and reproductive and maternal health rights this week.
- The 19th released a new look at how UPCs are getting involved in this year’s election. According to the article, “Anti-abortion centers and their leaders have been campaigning against the abortion ballot measures in 10 states in the lead up to Election Day. The organizations — also known as crisis pregnancy centers — have sought to remove those measures from state ballots and distributed materials with misleading talking points.”
UPCs “hold significant influence in their communities,” as Debra Rosen, RHFW’s executive director, said in the statement. Not only that, but their $1.7 billion in funding (including some taxpayer allocations from states and the federal government) also provides a significant boost to anti-abortion campaigners in states where abortion is on the ballot. - An anti-abortion doctor who works as a medical director at a UPC in Florida joined Governor Ron DeSantis to come out against Florida’s Amendment Four. From Orlando Weekly: One of the doctors he invited to join him at a press conference in Central Florida was Dr. Tamberly McCarus, a licensed “pro-life” OB-GYN and volunteer medical director of Choices Women’s Clinic, a Christian pregnancy center that poses as an abortion clinic in an effort to lure pregnant people in and convince them not to get an abortion. They’ve bragged about it in their email newsletters. Such pregnancy centers, often run by churches or faith-based nonprofits, are also known as crisis pregnancy centers, unregulated pregnancy centers, or simply fake abortion clinics.
- Finally, Jor-El Godsey, the president of Heartbeat International (one of the largest networks of UPCs) penned an op-ed in which he explicitly supports anti-abortion electoral activity. As a reminder, Heartbeat and many of its UPC affiliates downplay their anti-choice stance in an explicit bid to get women in their doors in order to push their own agenda, regardless of what might be best for the women seeking their care. His explicit endorsement of an anti-choice agenda shows the hypocrisy inherent in how UPCs operate.