Are you pregnant?
Having a crisis?
Whatever you do, don't visit a Crisis Pregnancy Center.
It's a trap!
Imagine this:
your father has a heart attack,
and you're physically blocked from
taking him to the emergency room
because a barrel of monkeys is
jumping around the sidewalk
yelling that heart attacks are "natural,"
and "beautiful."
You'd be justifiably pissed off, right?
Now imagine that your father is persuaded to skip the ER
to go to a "crisis heart center"
that dangles bogus alternative heart attack options
in appointment after appointment and he misses
the chance to have a life-saving bypass operation.
You probably can't imagine that --
because we wouldn't allow it.
There's a very good reason why we don't allow
any yahoo off the street to put throw up crisis medical centers
for heart disease, diabetes, or cancer.
Because it would be medically and ethically disastrous...
and also totally bonkers!
And yet, in thousands of unregulated facilities
all across America,
tax-payer funded religious groups are tricking people
into carrying pregnancies to term against their will
at so-called "crisis pregnancy centers."
Sounds like an outrageous conspiracy theory, doesn't it?
But this isn't a dispatch from an alternative
timeline where A Handmaid's Tale is thisclose
to becoming reality.
If you're pregnant, or just seeking family planning advice,
don't be fooled if someone offers you a
"free medical consultation" at one of these places.
Their names might be benign,
but the missions of these organizations is anything but.
Crisis Pregnancy Centers, or CPCs
are funded by rabid anti-choice bigots.
And the agenda?
Prevent people from exercising their legal and moral right to
decide if a pregnancy is right for them.
Now, if you buy into anti-choice propaganda,
you might think there's an abortion clinic
in every strip mall,
right next to the Target and the Starbucks.
You know, grab a unicorn frappuccino,
some dish soap,
oh, and you might as well grab a quick abortion
while you're running errands.
But in reality, there are less than 600 facilties
in this country where a pregnant person can
terminate a pregnancy.
600 clinics, to serve a country of over 300 million people.
Let that sink in for a minute.
There are currently 6 states that have
exactly 1 -- ONE -- clinic to serve all of their residents.
Contrast that with over 1500 CPCs.
CPCs work with the abortion protestors who harass
patients outside of bona fide women's health clinics.
They claim to provide options and support,
but what they actually do is deny people access
to licensed healthcare personnel and
legitimate family-planning advice.
If they do provide anything,
it's lies about so-called "abortion regret,"
"abortion risks," and maybe a bag of diapers
and a dollar store teddy bear.
If they can't convince a pregnant person to forego
a termination using their tricksy non-facts,
CPCs often resort to stalling.
They make patients come back over and over again
for medically-dubious advice until an abortion
is no longer an option.
Remember those 600 abortion clinics we mentioned?
Well, only a handful perform late-term abortions
after 21 weeks.
So for many, what used to be a challenge --
finding a facility within a reasonable distance
to secure a pregnancy termination --
is now an impossibility.
CPCs pull the wool over the eyes of every
pregnant person who walks through their doors.
But the groups who are the most vulnerable are folks
who don't have an abortion clinic anywhere near them;
folks who are mislead into thinking that a CPC
is a viable alternative;
and non-native English speakers
for whom the American health care system
can be a complicated mess to navigate.
Actually, the American health care system is a
complicated mess for everyone to navigate,
but that's a whole other topic.
These diabolical centers exploit the uncertainty and
social pressures so many women feel about
making the choice that is best for them.
All in the name of a so-called pro-life movement
that actually doesn't care a bit about the lives
of the people they damage.
This is a national health emergency.
There's an anti-choice misinformation campaign and it needs
to be denounced every time it rears its head.
Visibly, vocally, and financially support
pro-choice organizations like Planned Parenthood,
NARAL, Lady Parts Justice League,
and the National Network of Abortion Funds.
Groups that offer real support and real options.
Get involved with your local pro-choice women's
health centers and reproductive justice organizations.
Take a stand to help outlaw crisis pregnancy centers
and facilities like them.
There is a crisis here:
it's one that these so-called crisis pregnancy centers
have helped to create.
Thank you for watching.
Please share The FREQ Show with all of your friends
and remember, your donations are what
help keep us going.