A while back I posted about the Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women’s Services Act here. The NOW Foundation is currently asking people to contact their congressional representatives in support of this legislation. Here is an excerpt from the NOW Foundation’s overview:
“Pregnant? Scared? We Can Help.” So claim billboards popping up around the country advertising the services of local “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” (CPCs). While these so-called clinics claim to offer help for women facing unplanned pregnancies, they are in fact run by anti-abortion organizations with the aim of preventing women from obtaining abortions. These fake clinics use deceptive methods to get women in the door and then bombard them with misleading information. To address this problem, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) has introduced the Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women’s Services Act (H.R. 5052) which would enforce truth-in-advertising standards for reproductive centers. Please urge your representative to support this legislation…
…CPCs lure women in by offering free pregnancy tests. Women have reported that the CPCs lied to them about the results of the pregnancy test (telling them they weren’t pregnant) so that they would miss the window of time during which they could safely obtain an abortion. Because CPCs are often located near actual clinics, women with appointments for abortion services may mistakenly enter the CPC instead. Such women are sometimes fed orange juice and donuts so that even if they find their way to the real clinic they can not obtain an abortion that day. Also, some of the workers and volunteers at CPCs have no medical training and are only there to deter women from having an abortion.
The full text of the bill is accessible here.
–Ann Bartow
