CPC Watch

Due to the continued politicizing of women's bodies, many women facing unintended pregnancies are not always able to find honest, unbiased information about her options. Having an anti-choice agenda, crisis pregnancy centers are the largest distributors of false, misleading, and biased information.

Below, we've listed the most common claims and distortions from CPCs around the country. If you have heard other claims that you'd like checked out, you may contact us.

FICTION: Abortion is a dangerous procedure with high complication rates.

FACT: The arrest of Kermit Gosnell, a Philadelphia-based physician who performed thousands of unsafe and illegal abortions, serves as a reminder that the days of dangerous back-alley abortions are not behind us. It is true that not everyone who advertises abortion services is licensed and trained to provide them, though this has become rarer in the past several decades.

Abortion procedures can take two forms: medical and surgical. Both procedures are safe when performed by a licensed practitioner, which is why it’s imperative to keep abortion legal and accessible.

Medical abortions involve two pills: mifepristone and misoprostol. This is a method for women who are less than 9 weeks pregnant. Complications are rare and may include allergic reaction to the pills, infection, or heavy bleeding. Your doctor will give you an information sheet with early warning signs of complications. Complications with medical abortions are rarely serious.

According to the World Health Organization, surgical abortion is one of the safest and most common surgical procedures in practice. Complications are rare and similar to those of medical abortions, but these complications are generally detected earlier because the entire abortion is monitored by a doctor.

Instances of life-threatening complications from abortion are lower than complications in childbirth. Fewer than 0.5% of abortion patients in the first trimester will experience a complication that requires hospitalization; complications that lead to death occur in about 0.0006% of all cases (1st and 2nd trimester). Talk with your doctor about any concerns you have regarding complications.

If you are considering abortion, browse our resource list for help finding a licensed abortion provider. If money is an issue, you may want to contact the National Network of Abortion Funds. No woman, no matter her situation, should be forced to seek care with anything less than a fully-licensed provider.

FICTION: Abortion increases your risk of developing breast cancer.

FACT: Of all the distortions and misinformation spread by crisis pregnancy centers, this is the most common. Thorough studies and expert statements by the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, and the American College of OB/GYNs have concluded that there is no link between abortion and breast cancer.

CPCs often cite studies to "prove" the link, however, these studies in and of themselves are problematic. The most recent studies that suggest a link between the two are case-control studies, a research method that is highly fallable and prone to misinterpreted cause-effect conclusions. In this design, recall bias and biased reporting are common methodological problems. More recent, accurate research conducted with prospective cohort studies cut down on recall bias and suggest no casual link between abortion and breast cancer.

FICTION: Abortion can cause infertility, increases a woman's risk of miscarrying, and increases the risk of preterm birth in future pregnancies.

FACT: Studies that suggest any of these claims are true were conducted during the 1970s. This is significant because, prior to 1973, abortion was illegal in most U.S. states. Women who had abortions prior to this likely had them at the hands of an inexperienced, untrained, and unlicensed practitioner, or performed them themselves. The major risks of illegal abortion included pelvic inflammatory disease and perforated uterus, both conditions that can, in fact, lead to the inability to carry a normal pregnancy.

Today's abortion procedures, when performed by a licensed doctor in a medical facility, carry few of these risks. During a first-trimester surgical abortion, the cervix is opened less than 1cm to let surgical instruments through. During childbirth, the cervix opens 10cm to let the baby through; by the logic of CPCs, if dilating the cervix 1cm for abortion caused problems in future pregnancies, women who have given birth would be unable to become pregnant again, which is completely ridiculous! To date, there is no medical research that suggests a cause-effect relationship between abortion and future pregnancy risks.

If you have additional concerns regarding future pregnancy after abortion, discuss these with your doctor.

FICTION: Many women develop a depressive condition called "post abortion stress syndrome" following an abortion.

FACT: A recent study published in the British Medical Journal determined there was no casual link between depression and abortion. Reviews by the American Psychological Association echo such conclusions. Studies show the most common emotion women feel following an abortion is relief.

There are many factors, however, that can cause psychological and emotional stress for women who have had abortions. One major factor is the guilt and stigma created and perpetuated by anti-choice groups and CPCs. If women are repeatedly being told abortion is bad, then they may be more likely to feel bad about their decision. That is why it’s important for women to follow their own convictions regarding their reproductive destinies, and following one’s own convictions requires access to as much unbiased information as possible. Trust yourself; no one can define the way you feel but you.

Again, if you have any concerns about emotional strain or psychological distress following an abortion, discuss it with your doctor or counselor. There are many unbiased post-abortion resources available to you including Exhale, a free after-abortion talkline.

FICTION: You can't trust clinic counselors to help you make your decision because they are only there to make a profit.

FACT: No organization does more to prevent unplanned pregnancies (and therefore abortions) than groups like Planned Parenthood, and yet many still try to claim they are still out there just to profit off of other people's abortions. Many CPCs even go so far as to claim that abortion providers will perform a termination procedure on a woman who's not even pregnant just to "make money." However, the cost of abortion has risen less than inflation, making it one of the few medical procedures that has actually gotten less expensive in the last 15 years. Abortions in 1991, for example, cost nearly half of what they did in the early 1970s. A 2001 statistic suggests women on average paid nearly $100 less for a surgical abortion than the actual cost of the procedure, and family planning clinics overall remain perpetually underfunded to be able to continue providing low-cost contraception and abortions.

FICTION: A fetus can feel pain as early as 12 weeks gestation.

FACT: This is a widely publicized and widely debated issue that has, unfortunately, been filled with controversy and political agenda. When such issues become political, it is often the woman, the one whose health and well-being should be considered first and foremost, who has to make the greatest compromise in her own healthcare due to some politicians pretending to “know what’s best.” Fetal pain was rarely a consideration for women considering abortion before 2005 when anti-choice legislators first introduced the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act.

Some background: in 2005, the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act (S 51/HR 356) was introduced in both congressional houses to “ensure that women seeking an abortion are fully informed regarding the pain experienced by their unborn child.” After the first twenty weeks of pregnancy, authors of this bill charge, fetuses may be structurally capable of experiencing pain. The bill proposes creating mandatory a script stating this alleged fact to be presented to women seeking abortions after twenty weeks of pregnancy, and anesthetics must be offered for the procedure to take place. This script would be drafted by members of Congress, not the healthcare provider a woman has chosen to entrust with her reproductive decisions. The Act was reintroduced in January of 2007, but it has not gotten further than its referral committee in either case.

Supporters of this Act (and as seen in many CPC informational materials) declare a fetus can feel pain during abortion because of its “reflex” away from medical tools seen in a particular video of an abortion. However, in an August, 2005 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers concluded that “it was unlikely that a fetus experienced pain in the same manner as an adult human prior to twenty-nine weeks of gestation.” It also stated that it was unlikely that the “reflex response of the fetus was equal to our psychological and physiological perception of pain” [1]. The article also suggested that giving fetuses anesthetics may increase complications for the woman, not to mention add to the overall cost of the procedure. The number of providers would most likely shrink as well. Still, the way the script would be worded, a woman’s refusal of fetal anesthesia would seem like an almost barbaric decision, leaving her open to further guilt from the anti-choice camp.

What’s more, women already have the freedom to discuss issues surrounding fetal pain with their health care provider should that be a concern. We don’t need politicians telling us what our concerns should be. Providers don’t need mandatory scripts and unfounded medical decisions made for them. If you are considering abortion and are concerned about fetal pain, talk to your doctor. She/he will be happy to discuss the issue with you based on her/his professional opinion.

FICTION: Emergency contraception (the "morning after pill") causes early abortions.

FACT: Emergency contraception gives the body a slightly higher dosage of the same hormones found in daily hormonal contraception. It works in two ways: primarily, it prevents ovulation. No egg, no pregnancy. Secondly, emergency contraception might prevent a fertilized egg (zygote) from implanting in the wall of the uterus, a process by which pregnancy begins. No implantation, no pregnancy. Emergency contraception will not terminate an established pregnancy, and while the effects of the hormones on an established pregnancy are unknown, emergency contraception is not the same as the abortion pill.

Implantation is the medical definition for when pregnancy begins. Anti-choicers (and therefore CPCs), however, claim that "life begins at the moment of conception," that is, the moment a sperm unites with an egg and becomes a zygote. This is medically inaccurate, seeing how pregnancy is undetectable at this time, and it is believed 30-60% of fertilized eggs fail to implant naturally. Today's medical institutions define implantation as the start of pregnancy. While CPC literature likes to bring up that, up until the mid to late-20th century, ACOG defined pregnancy as beginning at "conception," at this time ACOG also defined conception as "the implantation of a fertilized ovum" [2].

Such misinformation has allowed for the passage of new attacks on women's rights, such as the 2008 "provider conscience" clause that attempted to allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for hormonal birth control such as the Pill and emergency contraception if they believed them to be "abortifacients." The definitions of when pregnancy and life begin are up to you; know the medical facts and follow your heart. Remember that crisis pregnancy centers operate under an anti-choice agenda that also encompasses birth control.

FICTION: There is never a good reason to visit a crisis pregnancy center.

FACT: Despite our strong objections to the way CPCs advertise themselves and treat women who are considering abortion, we absolutely do not wish to convey the message that no woman could receive help at a crisis pr egnancy center. For folks who have decided to continue their pregnancies and desire Christian-based help, we see no reason why the majority of crisis pregnancy centers cannot provide a safe place to receive support. We understand that many CPCs refer women to the Medicaid office, help them with WIC paperwork, even work with local birth professionals to provide free and low-cost doula services.

This does not change the fact that CPCs work, primarily, to confuse and derail women who are seeking abortions. To be sure, women needed pregnancy support decades before CPCs came into existence: they have always been an arm of the anti-choice movement, founded only after abortion became legal in 1973. We wholeheartedly believe that women looking for a certain kind of support may find refuge in a crisis pregnancy center. The problem is not that they exist, it's that they operate to the detriment of CHOICE.

Sources Without Supporting Hyperlinks

[1] Perrucci, Alissa. “The Politics of Fetal Pain.” In Abortion Under Attack: Women on the challenges facing choice, edited by Krista Jacob, 137-142. Emeryville: Seal Press, 2006.

[2] American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Terminology Bulletin: "Terms Used in Reference to the Fetus." No. 1. Philadelphia: Davis, September, 1965.