The Women’s Help Center – and others like it – are known as
Crisis Pregnancy Centers. They are run
by anti-choice groups, and they use deceptive techniques to get women in there
so they can shame them out of an abortion.
These centers are not clinics, yet the receptionist is not allowed to
tell you that over the phone. Second,
they always tell the caller that she needs to come in for a pregnancy test, even
if she already knows she’s pregnant, because over-the-counter pregnancy tests
“are unreliable,” which is not true (they are 99% effective). In short, their main goal is to get the
patient into the clinic, and keep her pregnant.
They use “statistics” – like saying that abortions cause breast cancer,
which is untrue, and films, all in an attempt to shame the woman. Some women even have problems when they try
to leave these places.
Time after time, only two things have been shown to reduce the teen birth rate and the abortion rate – comprehensive, medically-accurate sex education, and easy access to birth control. Unfortunately, anti-choicers are opposed to these things, which is why, in conservative states like Louisiana, there are more teen pregnancies and abortions than in the “blue” states.
