U.S. Anti-Abortion Ceneters Rising

Courtesy Sergio Flores via Getty Images, 2021

Women use the historical Gadsden flag with a feminist twist to protest for their reproductive rihts in Texas, 2021.

Lekhya Kollu

Red & Black contributor

In many Republican-led states, nonprofit organizations called crisis pregnancy centers are receiving millions of dollars of funding from their state governments to talk women out of getting abortions. These centers, which are often religiously affiliated, are usually not even licensed as medical facilities. They are, however, often placed near actual abortion clinics in hopes of drawing women away from them.

The Associated Press found that almost $89 million has been allocated to these antiabortion centers across almost a dozen states: Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. This represents a significant increase from the $17 million allocated just a decade ago. As Republican lawmakers have passed more and more restrictive abortion laws in recent years, the funding these centers receive has only increased.

The centers themselves have been accused of misinforming their clients about the risks of abortion and birth control. For example, some claim that abortion can cause PTSD and breast cancer.

Despite this misinformation, these anti-abortion centers are thriving in states like Texas, which just last year passed a state law effectively banning abortion at six weeks. In Texas, state lawmakers recently promised $100 million in funding over two years to programs offering alternatives to abortions. Supporters of this funding allocation argue that in addition to anti-abortion counseling, these programs include classes in parenting skills, clothing, and food for young mothers.

The centers themselves have been accused of misinforming their clients about the risks of abortion and birth control.

“We have seen women still steadily seeking out resources and services,” said Chelsey Youman, Texas state director and national legislative adviser for Human Coalition, which receives major funding from the abortion alternatives program. “Women are saying, ‘All right, abortion isn’t available after my child has a heartbeat, so what is out here?’”

It’s almost impossible to know exactly how many of these centers receive state funding, because each state has a different way of distributing allocated funds. According to Julie von Haefen, a Democratic state representative in North Carolina, one of the states that funds anti-abortion centers, this state of affairs is unacceptable. “It’s bad governing. We’re supposed to be monitoring our taxpayer money and we don’t know where the money is going,” she said. “These clinics don’t provide medical care. They act like they do, but they don’t.”