THE WOMEN’S CLINIC AROUND THE CORNER? The role of crisis pregnancy centers in the new fight to ensure quality reproductive health care for all By Lauren Baggett There are more than 2,500 crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) operating in the U.S. 2,546, in fact, as of December 2021. That’s according to data from the Crisis Pregnancy Center Map, an online directory of CPCs, created and maintained by two faculty epidemiologists at the UGA College of Public Health – Andrea Swartzendruber and Danielle Lambert. Now, as most states are looking to ban abortions, the role of CPCs in the anti-abortion movement and the ways in which they impact reproductive health care is receiving more attention. CPCs are non-profit organizations with a primary mission to dissuade women from seeking abortions, but most people don’t know much about them.
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COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH 2022 MAGAZINE
In 2018, Swartzendruber and Lambert created the CPC Map to support academic research on CPCs and to help build awareness about the centers and their mission for individuals seeking health services. Since its launch, the map has grown to be a resource for consumers, policymakers, academics and journalists. But neither Swartzendruber nor Lambert planned for their academic careers to focus so intently on a subject that was, until recently, a niche and largely unknown area of reproductive health research – or for their work to catapult into the national spotlight.
NOT VERY PUBLIC HEALTH PROMOTING Shortly before joining the epidemiology faculty at