The Texas State Legislature in April of this year...
You know what comes next isnât going to be good, right? No sentence that starts with âThe Texas State Legislatureâ has ever ended well. Not for women, not for people of color, not for queers or kids or the poor or the environment. âThe Texas State Legislatureâ is never followed by "voted to fully-fund education programs," "raised taxes on the wealthy to pay for healthcare," or "gives truly excellent head."
Anyway...
In April of this year the Texas State Legislature cut millions of dollars from clean air programs and redirected those funds to the âCrisis Pregnancy Centers.â Texas Observer:
Texas lawmakers voted Thursday to double funding for the stateâs Alternatives to Abortion (A2A) program by taking money from environmental initiatives, a move that fed Democratâs accusations that Republicans are more concerned with health inside the womb than out... [Lawmakers] tentatively approved by a 93-52 vote the addition of $20 million over two years to the program that largely funds controversial crisis pregnancy centers, which counsel women against having abortions. The funding is taken from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) air quality assessment and planning program, which monitors air pollution levels. âThis is not a pro-life amendment, this is a pro-birth amendment,â said Representative Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas. âAfter that, youâre on your own, youâre going to have to breathe dirty air.â
If you donât know what a pregnancy crisis center is, Caitlin Bancroftâs piece at Huffington Post (âWhat I Learned Undercover at a Crisis Pregnancy Center") sums it up pretty well:
CPCs use a variety of tactics to lure women into their buildings: they offer free pregnancy testing, are known to list themselves under âabortionâ in online directories and search results, and may use misleading names with the hope that women will confuse them for legitimate healthcare providers. Once inside, women are treated to a carefully crafted program of manipulation designed to dissuade them from choosing abortion, birth control, and, if theyâre not married, sex.
CPCs are "often disguised as medical facilities," as the Texas Observer reported. â[They] provide scientifically inaccurate information to pregnant women, including claims that having an abortion would increase risk of breast cancer, infertility, and psychological traumaâstatements that have been debunked by the Texas Medical Association.â
Texasâwhich defunded Planned Parenthood in 2011 only to see STIs and unplanned pregnancies skyrocket (along with maternal death rates)âhas more CPCs than it does legitimate womenâs health clinics. But let's not get smug (or any smugger): we live in one of the bluer of blue states but Washington state has almost as many crisis pregnancy centers as we do legit women's health clinics:
Most people arenât aware of the existence of CPCsâand that's by design. These fake clinics fly under the radar on purpose, to lure in unsuspecting women. "Counselors" at CPCs tell scared, uninformed, and often poor womenâmany of them mothers already (most women seeking abortions already have children)âthat they shouldnât bother using condoms (because they're "porous"), that IUDs kill, and that abortion causes breast cancer (bullshit). Women see âWomenâs Health Care Providerâ on the side of a building or Google âabortionâ and the click on the first results (ads for CPCs) and wind up being lied to by people who dress like doctors, but arenât, and work in places that look like clinics, but arenât.
CPCs are a scamâa dangerous oneâand they should be illegal.
Groups working to protect womenâs health and women's access to necessary reproductive healthcare servicesâincluding abortionâare staging week of action to protest and expose CPCs. NARAL, Lady Parts Justice League, Shout Your Abortion, and more are leading protests online and IRL across the country this week. This week of action started today, July 17, and goes through July 26. Go to ExposeFakeClinics.com, or search the hashtag #ExposeFakeClinics on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram.
There are more than 4,000 CPCs across the United States, according to NARAL, compared to just 780 abortion care providers. And, again, CPCs arenât just a problem in red states like Texas. Theyâre a problem in blue states too. Expose them all.