The Crisis Inside Crisis Pregnancy Centers: How to Stop These Facilities from Depriving Women of Their Reproductive Freedom

Abstract

Since the late 1960s, pro-life activists have been flooding the United States with crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), facilities disguised as legitimate reproductive health clinics but, in reality, are mostly unlicensed centers that do not provide contraception or abortion services. These facilities deprive women of their reproductive freedom when they engage in deceptive practices to coerce women out of terminating their pregnancies. This Note examines recent unsuccessful attempts to curb CPC practices and highlights the destructive impacts of CPCs, particularly on young, low-income, and minority women. Misleading CPC tactics bar women from exercising their constitutional right to command their reproductive decisions, including if and when to have an abortion. To better protect a woman’s reproductive liberty, this Note demands the discontinuation of government funding to CPCs, and advocates for contemporary strategies to challenge and regulate CPCs through the use of consumer protection laws and medical conduct claims.