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Read: Crisis pregnancy centers push back against AG’s consumer advisory warning
Her warning came after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, cautioning pregnant people seeking an abortion to avoid the centers.
After Attorney General Maura Healey issued a consumer advisory warning about crisis pregnancy centers in Massachusetts, a newly formed coalition of the centers wrote a letter urging her to lift the warning and demanding she defend them against vandalism attacks.
Her warning came after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, cautioning pregnant people seeking an abortion to avoid the centers, as they are organizations that “do NOT provide abortion care or abortion referrals, contraception, or other reproductive health care, despite what they may advertise,” per her advisory.
The response letter, signed by the Massachusetts Family Institute and the First Liberty Institute and dated Sept. 12, is an 18-page document detailing demands and asking questions of Healey. First Liberty Institute is a nonprofit law firm and Massachusetts Family Institute is a nonpartisan public policy organization; together, they’re representing a coalition of crisis pregnancy centers, or what they call “pregnancy resource centers,” in Massachusetts.
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Their letter defends these centers as groups of “men and women, motivated by their faith to provide medical and professional counseling services and give away diapers, baby wipes, and hand-knitted baby booties to those in need.”
abortion access
Rebecca Hart Holder, executive director of Reproductive Equity Now, an organization that aims to make reproductive health care accessible to all people, says that crisis pregnancy centers are specifically designed to make a pregnant person’s options confusing.
“Crisis pregnancy centers are trying to make it difficult for you to figure out that they’re not legitimate health care providers offering the full range of care,” she said.
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Much of the response letter focused around the vandalism at various crisis pregnancy centers, saying no arrests or attempts to “investigate and prosecute Jane’s Revenge” (one of the groups allegedly responsible for some of the vandalism) “or other anarchists” have been made.
The letter also accused Healey of “incorrectly” stating that crisis pregnancy centers use “deceptive and coercive tactics,” and asked that she take action to protect the centers.
“We remind you that, as an officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you have a duty to all citizens of Massachusetts, including those with whom you may politically disagree as they knit baby blankets and distribute baby food,” the letter said.
Though the attorney general’s office condemns vandalism and the destruction of any property, they said it is also unlawful to deprive a person of their right to access abortion or to threaten or convince people who are trying to invoke that right.
“It’s critically important that patients seeking abortion care are not misled, intimidated, or coerced, and that their constitutional right to make decisions about their pregnancies is protected,” a spokeswoman for Maura Healey said.
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Hart Holder said that crisis pregnancy centers are so harmful precisely because of the way they mislead people.
“They have an anti-abortion agenda, which is not made clear or transparent to people who access their care,” she said. “Their goal is to prevent any person who comes to their clinic with information that dissuades them from choosing abortion care. They often use fake science and misinformation to lie to people about abortion care.”
Hart Holder recommended the New England Abortion Care Guide, a resource for people to find legitimate abortion clinics in their area.
Crisis pregnancy centers outnumber legitimate health care providers three to one in Massachusetts, said Hart Holder, emphasizing that it’s important even in a state like Massachusetts, which is not historically anti-choice to the extent that other states are, to be aware of these centers.
Read the full letter from the First Liberty Institute and the Massachusetts Family Institute here:
Prc Letter to Ag Healey With Exhibits Redacted on Scribd
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