Ashley Underwood: Ending deception from anti-abortion centers isn’t enough – we also need to fund real care.
By Ashley Underwood
Following the Dobbs decision in 2022, abortion access is getting more attention than it has in recent memory. It has emerged as a top issue for voters, ranking number one for women under 45. In the recent presidential debate, the candidates’ positions and policies were a proactive part of the conversation, in stark contrast to previous elections when advocates implored moderators to #AskAboutAbortion.
While increased conversation and attention on legal abortion is critical, it is just the tip of the iceberg. We also need to talk about the other crises we are facing—one of mis- and disinformation about abortion care and the horrific maternal health crisis. At the intersection of both these issues sits anti-abortion centers.
Anti-abortion centers (AACs), sometimes called “crisis pregnancy centers,” peddle lies, deception, and misinformation while doing very little to address the health care and parenting needs of people in America.
AACs operate with very little oversight. Our research found that in the past two decades, more than one billion dollars in public funding has gone to AACs, with nearly half of that coming after the fall of Roe v. Wade.
Every day, I work to raise awareness about the harm of these centers and to reduce or remove the astronomical amount of tax dollars they receive. However, pointing out or even eliminating the problem isn’t enough. We must also replace AACs with programs that provide the real care that parents and pregnant people need and allocate adequate funding to support them. I’m hopeful this will happen as elected officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, are beginning to question the tactics of AACs as well as the value of shoveling millions their way each year.
In 2022, Minnesota reallocated money from a former Alternatives to Abortion (A2A) program and increased the amount to more than $7 million each year for a new “Healthy Beginnings, Healthy Families” initiative, which almost exclusively supports nonprofits that provide real services and activities that are proven through sound data and reporting to improve infant and maternal outcomes. Later that year, Pennsylvania also ended its decades-long program that solely funded centers opposed to abortion and committed that funding to “women’s service programs that will aim to broaden health care access, amplify awareness, and cultivate well-informed decision-making with a particular focus on women, pregnant women, and new mothers.”
While this progress is instrumental, it must also be noted that it’s not just the purple or red states funding AACs that need our attention – as shown above, blue states have a lot of work to do as well. In fact, anti-abortion centers exist in all 50 states—even California is home to more than 150 AACs.
In 2014, while serving as the state’s attorney general, Harris launched an investigation into AACs’ misleading advertising tactics. This led to the Reproductive FACT Act, requiring these centers to provide factual information and not withhold information on abortion from clients who wanted referrals. AACs fought this law, however, arguing that withholding facts while spreading lies was protected by free speech.
Multiple states have since launched consumer protection and anti-fraud campaigns to inform people about the nature of AACs and make them aware of comprehensive programs. While this can help reduce the likelihood of people being lured to AACs under false pretenses, it doesn’t address why others may end up patronizing AACs, even if they know these centers don’t tell the truth: in maternity care deserts there are too few providers to support everyone who gets pregnant each year. Simply put, some people may patronize AACs because they are the only game in town. Ending AACs’ deception is necessary, but it must go hand-in-hand with increasing support for maternal health and parenting programs.
Throughout her career, Harris has made improving maternal health outcomes a cornerstone of her agenda. While in the Senate, she championed the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act. As Vice President, she spearheaded the White House Maternal Health Day of Action, with a particular focus on Black and Native American women, and the Call to Action to Reduce Maternal Mortality and Morbidity, with substantial investments in maternal health and a call to states to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage.
If the people who claim to care about parents and children were truly serious, they would enact policies that uplift and enrich our lives instead of supporting AACs. With all the power they have, it is truly tragic that they believe eroding access to abortion and peddling propaganda is the answer. It’s not.
As more people of reproductive age simultaneously lose access to maternity and abortion care, it is imperative that policymakers invest in programs that actually work and fund them at even greater levels. The need for this investment came into sharp focus this week, with the news of the tragic deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, two Black women and moms who died as a result of the chaos and confusion created by Georgia’s abortion ban. In Amber’s case, the ban led to her care being delayed and in Candi’s, the threat of facing criminal charges left her too afraid to seek care in the first place.
If we want to live in a country where people have the resources to be pregnant when they want to, end pregnancies if they decide to, and support families how they want to, we need leaders who support all of our decisions, not just by ending the policies that hurt us, but also by finding solutions that uplift us and allow us to thrive.
Ashley Underwood is the Director of Equity Forward. She is a reproductive justice and public health advocate with an extensive background in working to improve maternal and sexual health outcomes through program implementation and development.
