Massachusetts’ Crisis Pregnancy Center Dilemma
The state legally protects women’s right to choose, yet those seeking reproductive care must navigate a treacherous landscape of misinformation to obtain services.
Dahlia Lyss
After the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in June, abortion is no longer legal in 12 states and seriously limited in many others. In response, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed legislation protecting abortion providers and the right to abortion in Massachusetts.
The new law also protects patients from prosecution if they access care that is legal in Massachusetts, opening the state to women seeking abortions if they cannot access them in their home states.
Yet, even in Massachusetts, those seeking help with their unwanted pregnancies must work hard to find a clinic that will actually perform the procedure. That’s because crisis pregnancy centers outnumber women’s health clinics 3:1 in the state.
Crisis pregnancy centers are set up by organizations committed to persuading women to carry their pregnancy to full term. Often, they’re not licensed medical facilities which means they don’t need to abide by HIPAA privacy laws. Because they are largely unregulated, they sometimes use deceptive tactics to attract pregnant people; once they’re inside, trained anti-abortion advocates do everything in their power, including lie, to convince people not to terminate their pregnancies.
As Massachusetts becomes a haven for women from other states seeking medical care, legislators are struggling to find legal ways to protect them from crisis centers’ predatory practices.
Navigating the landscape of crisis pregnancy centers
From the moment a person Googles “abortion,” they enter a world of deception and misinformation. Crisis pregnancy centers engineer their websites to appeal to women who are seriously considering abortion, which is why the top Google hits include a slew of crisis pregnancy centers. Google posts a small warning that the center may not offer the service the user is seeking, but it’s not easy to see. (A Bloomberg report found that the Google warning isn’t triggered when you search “Planned Parenthood” or “plan C.”)
The crisis centers focus their efforts on populations that might not be in a financial position to carry their pregnancies to term. Pregnancy Help Boston, with locations in Boston, Brockton, and Natick, has a whole page on its website tailored for students at nearby universities, with directions from the school to the center. In fact, a Google search for “abortion counseling near Boston universities” yields links to multiple crisis pregnancy centers.
When an unsuspecting person clicks on a crisis center website, they are confronted with gobs of misinformation. Several sites feature an entire page detailing the dangers of the abortion procedure, intended to scare a pregnant person into rethinking their decision. The Heartbeat Pregnancy Center in Burlington’s website, for example, includes the statement: “50% of women who have had abortions report experiencing emotional and psychological problems lasting for months or years.”
Untrue, reports the American Psychological Association, citing copious research that shows that having an abortion does not induce mental health issues. In one large study, 97% of women who terminated their unwanted pregnancies said that it was the right decision.
In spite of solid research showing that women know how to make the right choice for themselves, Rachele Monbouquette, an employee at Pregnancy Help Boston, told Student Dispatch, “Women who have had an abortion, say that one of their deepest regrets is that they didn’t seek out help and support when they made the decision.”
The websites are so convincing that “people walk into crisis pregnancy centers believing they’re about to get an abortion,” Senator Elizabeth Warren said at an event in Boston. That’s absolutely by design, says pro-life activist Abby Thompson who told Vice News that “the best client you ever get is one that thinks they’re walking into an abortion clinic, the ones that think you provide abortions.”
Once a pregnant person enters a crisis pregnancy center, they might be subjected to unethical tactics carefully designed to convince them to carry to term. Crisis center workers will go so far as to lie to women, telling them that they are not pregnant, or that their pregnancies will likely miscarry, so they don’t need to schedule a procedure.
Monbouquette says that her organization, which does not provide abortion, takes pregnant women to a nearby hospital for an ultrasound to convince them that they are making the wrong choice. (Monbouquette added that her center does not provide ultrasounds for women who are not seeking abortions.)
Abortion providers in Massachusetts worry that in a post-Roe world, crisis pregnancy centers will begin targeting women crossing state lines to access care. Massachusetts is already seeing an increase of patients from Texas and other southern states with abortion bans, Dr. Jennifer Childs Roshak, the president of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, told WBUR.
Often when women from states with abortion bans call Women’s Health Services asking for an appointment, they have already been subjected to deceptive tactics. Some think they are too far along in their pregnancies to receive help.
Juliette Carr, a medical assistant and lab technician at Women’s Health Services in Brookline, told Student Dispatch about a patient who had traveled from the south to Massachusetts to end her unwanted pregnancy. This patient said that she had been told by an urgent care worker in the south that she was 11 weeks along, when in truth, she was only 7 weeks pregnant.
In Massachusetts, policymakers at all levels are working to regulate crisis pregnancy centers. Massachusetts Attorney General, now Governor-Elect Maura Healey issued an advisory about crisis pregnancy centers’ use of false advertising. The Massachusetts governor’s website now features several warnings about crisis pregnancy centers as well as tips to ensure that people do not mistake crisis centers for women’s health clinics.
Healey’s advisory is being challenged by a coalition of crisis pregnancy centers, claiming that it violates their First Amendment rights.
Some municipal leaders in Massachusetts are concerned enough about false advertising and misleading practices that they are taking action. Somerville recently passed an ordinance prohibiting centers from advertising their services in any way “that is deceptive, whether by statement or by omission.”
Other cities, such as Cambridge and Northampton, are considering similar approaches, but because they don’t have any crisis pregnancy centers, these laws will only dissuade any from opening in those cities.
Worcester, home to multiple crisis pregnancy centers, is considering a similar ordinance. The city council voted in July to investigate ways that they could support abortion providers and regulate crisis pregnancy centers.
“It is critical that we take a stance in support of bodily autonomy for everyone in Worcester,” Councilor Thu Nguyen told Masslive. “But it is also important that we declare ourselves an abortion rights sanctuary city to support folks nationally who need a safe place to receive unbiased medical care.”
Whether or not crisis pregnancy centers’ tactics prove effective in any given town, women’s access to care is limited in many parts of the state. The Boston Globe recently reported that there are no clinics providing routine abortion care on the Cape, Martha’s Vineyard, or the south coast. Only nine hospitals in the state routinely offer abortion services, most in Boston and Cambridge.