As a follower of the issue of Crisis Pregnancy Centers, I have chosen to craft a response to the Students for Life column appearing March 14, as I believe it to be misleading and inappropriate.
Students for Life argues that the the state’s house bill 1146 is bad for Crisis Pregnancy Centers. I found, however, that this bill would only require CPCs to tell clients that “the information provided by the center is not intended to be medical advice or to establish a doctor-patient relationship,” and that “the center is not required to provide factually accurate information to clients.” The bill also states that the client should consult with a licensed doctor before proceeding with action regarding her pregnancy.
To me, this bill sounds like an important change, since most CPCs do not employ doctors. When anything physically goes wrong with my body and I need help, the ultimate assistance I seek is not that of a friend, my church or even a relative: It’s the guidance of a licensed medical practitioner. A law requiring CPCs to be honest with clients would be beneficial in avoiding damaging lawsuits. The only argument that I can think of for CPCs to want their clients to believe that they employ doctors is if they are attempting to further their agenda by lying to their clients.
Students for Life claims that the bill is based off of an NARAL Pro-Choice investigation. While NARAL did carry out reliable studies, an organization with an agenda is always likely to find data that favors its cause. Fortunately for the reader, other unbiased organizations have conducted similar studies. The U. S. Congress, for example, conducted a study in July 2006 of all CPCs that receive federal funding. Congressional investigators found that “the vast majority of federally funded pregnancy centers … provided information about the risks of abortion that was false or misleading. In many cases, this information was grossly inaccurate or distorted. A pregnant teenager who relied on the information from these federally funded centers would make her decision about whether to give birth or terminate her pregnancy based on erroneous facts and misinformation.” In essence, these CPCs provide false information about links between abortion and breast cancer, infertility and mental effects- and not just some CPCs, but most of them.
The only information that should be provided to pregnant women, especially from non-medical professionals, is that which has been proven accurate. The Guttmacher Institute, an internationally accepted and trusted sexual health think tank, works to collect and present data about sexual health with no bias whatsoever. They have found that “[A] preponderance of evidence from well-designed and well-executed studies indicates that abortion is safe over the long term and carries little or no risk of fertility-related problems, cancer or psychological illnesses.”
This doesn’t mean that either side is correct, but it does mean that the anti-abortion funded Elliot Institute (cited by Students for Life) as well as Crisis Pregnancy Centers across the country are providing factually inaccurate information about abortions, and that is unacceptable.
There are countless studies and examples I could provide of deceptive or immoral practices by Crisis Pregnancy Centers, but I won’t because most of them come from biased organizations like NARAL. I believe that unbiased studies from Guttmacher and congress are the most reliable. The bills in question do not hurt CPCs or pregnant women. CPCs are still permitted to give out assistance to mothers in need; they are only required to note that they are not doctors. The bills protect pregnant women from lies and political agendas associated with the issue of abortion. This is not an argument about the legality of abortion, or what is moral or immoral about abortion; it is the assertion that the common practices of most Crisis Pregnancy Centers are empirically and indisputably dishonest, unscrupulous and unacceptable.
Jeremy Turret is a junior government and politics major. He can be reached at jturret@umd.edu.
