Crisis pregnancy center

A crisis pregnancy center (CPC), sometimes called a pregnancy resource center (PRC) or a pro-life pregnancy center, is a type of nonprofit organization established by anti-abortion groups primarily to persuade pregnant women not to have an abortion.: 1 

In the United States, there are an estimated 2,500 to 4,000 CPCs that qualify as medical clinics that may also provide pregnancy testing, sonograms, and other services; many others operate without medical licensing under varying degrees of regulation. For comparison, there were 807 abortion clinics in the United States as of 2020. Hundreds more CPCs operate outside of the U.S., including in Canada, Latin America, Africa, and Europe.

CPCs have frequently been found to disseminate false medical information about the supposed physical and mental health risks of abortion; they sometimes promulgate misinformation about the effectiveness of condoms and prevention of sexually transmitted infections. CPCs are sometimes called fake abortion clinics by scholars, the media, and supporters of abortion rights, due to deceptive advertising that obscures the centers' anti-abortion agenda.

Many CPCs are run by Christian groups that adhere to a socially conservative and anti-abortion viewpoint, and they often operate in affiliation with one of three non-profit organizations: Care Net, Heartbeat International, and Birthright International. In 1993, the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) was formed to provide legal advice to CPCs in the U.S. During the presidency of George W. Bush (2001–2009), U.S. CPCs received tens of millions of dollars in federal grants. As of 2015, more than half of U.S. state governments helped to fund CPCs directly or through the sale of Choose Life license plates.

Legal and legislative action regarding CPCs has generally attempted to curb deceptive advertising, targeting those that imply that they offer abortion services by requiring centers to disclose that they do not offer certain services or possess certain qualifications.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.