Crisis pregnancy centers have been around since the late 1960s. But, in the increasingly fraught battle over reproductive rights in this country since the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, they’re front and center.
Crisis pregnancy centers offer free pregnancy and STD tests, ultrasounds and parenting classes. But, they’re controversial. In March, Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes hit them with a consumer alert — calling them “an obstacle hiding in plain sight” for people considering abortion.
There are more than 40 crisis pregnancy centers in Arizona. At the same time, there are just nine licensed abortion providers here. Natasha Yee, investigative reporter at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, dove deep into it all and joined The Show to discuss what she found.
Full conversation
NATASHA YEE: So crisis pregnancy centers offer free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, among other services, but most are not licensed medical facilities and don’t provide comprehensive reproductive health care.
They are largely funded by individuals who just believe in their cause. They’re also known as anti-abortion centers or pregnancy resource centers. So they’ve been around since the 1960s. But in more recent years — and certainly since the Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade — they’ve been more and more funded by public and state funding. So state and at the national level, funding being poured into these centers right.
LAUREN GILGER: And I want to talk more about that landscape in a moment. But talk first a little bit more about who they serve. You found sort of in your analysis here in Arizona, that they’re often targeting kind of low-income communities of color.
YEE: Sure. Low-income communities of color, going into these spaces and saying, “Hey, we’re here. We offer free pregnancy tests. We have ultrasounds,” which is great. And so they certainly can be good resources for the community. Like in 2022, centers across the country, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, provided $367 million worth of goods and services at virtually no cost to clients.
But the problem can occur when they can be misleading in that care, because again, most are not licensed medical facilities. You’re not being seen by a doctor. And so they’re limited in what they can do. Limited ultrasounds, urine pregnancy tests. But if someone goes into a facility and doesn’t know that that’s the case, I think that’s where the problem can lie.
Attorney General (Kris) Mayes, for example, issued a consumer alert back in March warning against the deceitful tactics. She called them in the alert, an obstacle hiding in plain sight for those thinking about terminating their pregnancies. She said, they often portray themselves as medical clinics, but instead aim to discourage people from seeking abortion care and to persuade those seeking abortions not to access care.
GILGER: Right. So you’re getting at the big political divide that these centers are really at the center of right now. As you said, we’ve got conservative states, many that are bolstering them. They’re expanding in post-Roe America. They’re sometimes getting taxpayer state funding.
And then you have people on the Democratic side, like Kris Mayes you’re talking about, who are going so far as to say these places are misleading. There’s a consumer alert on them.
Talk a little bit about what they say they do. Like, did they respond to you in your reporting here?
YEE: Yeah. The alert is pretty robust in just saying, hey, they’re doing misleading things like they have staff wearing white coats to emulate, you know, like they’re not medical facilities. But when you go in and see that, you might think, oh, that’s a nurse, that’s a doctor. Because when I go to the doctor, that’s what they wear.
They locate close to abortion clinics, for example, or they have information about abortions on their websites, but they don’t offer abortions. They don’t offer full spectrum of reproductive health care. Many of these places offer, for example, like a pill to reverse an abortion. But that’s something that’s not really backed by science or backed by doctors. So AG Mayes pointed that out in the alert.
GILGER: Right. And the stakes have really changed, given the new kind of patchwork of laws across America. In Arizona right now, we have a 15-week abortion ban in place. So one of the things Mayes was pointing out is that the clock is ticking and these can delay care, essentially.
YEE: Absolutely. And Richie Taylor, a spokesman for the AG’s office, told us there’s a time clock running on when an abortion can be provided, especially with the 15-week bans currently in place in our state. So any time that’s delayed or missed because of going to a clinic that doesn’t actually provide those services can be critical for a woman.
GILGER: Let’s talk about the connection to groups like Turning Point USA, which is where you kind of start the story. They have partnerships with some of these centers and lots of churches. This is pretty outwardly religious.
YEE: Yes. So the Turning Point connection, they are partnered with Choices Pregnancy Centers, which operates three of Arizona’s 40-plus crisis pregnancy centers. And Turning Point USA is very involved, for example, in the Trump campaign and has like this mobilize the vote. They’ve poured millions of dollars into that.
They have, for example, held rallies at Dream City Church. And this is where they announced their partnership with Choices Pregnancy Center. And you’ve got the guy who runs these, Joshua Chumley, he’s on staff at Dream City. So you see this kind of mix between ideology, absolutely religion and politics. So it’s this kind of big mix but how it’s influencing then this movement.
GILGER: I wonder, like from a religious point of view, they’re obviously driven by that in terms of anti-abortion stances. But is their follow up? Offering resources for women to carry through a pregnancy or adoption resources, things that could help prevent abortions in that way?
YEE: And actually, from my research, certainly a lot of these crisis pregnancy centers do offer that. For example, they’ll offer support groups, they offer material assistance in the form of diapers or even classes for first-time parents. You know, what does it look like to be a good parent or how do you nurse, things like that, post-abortion support groups.
So they do offer assistance, both material assistance and training, things like that. But a lot of the time it’s through these earn while you learn programs, meaning you have to go in, you have to be educated in their ideology, which is often religious. You’ve got Bible studies, things like that. So again, it’s not very straightforward. You’re not just going there to pick up diapers. There are other things involved.
