By: Hannah Kazemi, Staff Writer
Content warning: mentions of pro-life rhetoric.
Masquerading as support services for pregnant people, clinics known as crisis pregnancy centres (CPC) are dangerous and deceive those that require support services to deal with unwanted pregnancies. These centres operate under the guise of neutrality. In reality, they often have religious affiliations and anti-abortion motives. This should be illegal. However, if they continue to operate, they should at least be monitored for bias and medical malpractice. Using vague and misleading rhetoric to advance an anti-abortion agenda imposes on people’s ability to make informed decisions about their reproductive health. While knowing about abortion alternatives is valuable, they must be discussed alongside abortion as a viable option. Anything less is deceptive.
A new report from the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC) showcases how they impose anti-choice ideals onto individuals that unknowingly seek out help from them. These centres provide resources such as baby clothing and counselling services. On the surface, these seem like normal things for CPCs to offer, but the majority of these centres are “Christian ministries” that don’t offer abortion referrals or contraception, and spread misinformation. They often reference “post-abortion distress,” as a fear tactic, which is “not a medically recognized condition.” The issue is that these clinics are not neutral like they claim to be. Pregnant people seeking out care should be receiving unbiased and accurate information. They should not be misled and manipulated into a certain outcome in the process.
Tactics used to persuade individuals away from getting an abortion include discussing abortion risks and alternatives, giving ultrasounds, encouraging adoption, and offering parenting support. Support should exist for those who want to carry a child — but we shouldn’t be trying to persuade vulnerable people by misinforming them of potential risks and outcomes between carrying a child and having an abortion. We should be empowering people with the tools to make a decision for what is best for them.
The Canadian government needs to ban these centres from providing medical services like ultrasounds, which should only be performed by professionals in licensed medical facilities. According to a separate report by the ARCC on ultrasonography in CPCs, ultrasound misinterpretation can “delay pregnant people from seeking real medical care,” as volunteers can miss dangerous fetal abnormalities. Ultrasounds should be provided for medical purposes, not emotional manipulation.
The recent report makes it clear crisis pregnancy centres are not regulated in Canada nor are they licensed to provide medical care due to being charitable organizations. In 2021, the Liberal Party promised to remove the charity status of openly anti-abortion groups. However, there’s no way to guarantee that religious and anti-choice messaging doesn’t occur behind the scenes, which further puts pregnant people at risk of not getting the care they need.
Most crisis pregnancy centres now use vague and misleading language to “conceal their anti-abortion ideology so that potential clients are not deterred if they are considering terminating their pregnancies.” Some centres have been “actively adjusting their language and practices to appear less opposed to abortion” due to risk of losing their charitable tax status if they’re found to be anti-choice. Changing the language they use makes it more difficult to determine a clinic’s viewpoint, which is a sinister way of deceiving at-risk people with unwanted pregnancies.
Crisis pregnancy centres only do harm to those who go to them for help — the lack of regulation and transparency within these institutions allows individuals to be misled and manipulated by their anti-choice or “pro-life” perspectives. Often, those who seek support from CPCs are already vulnerable, which makes their tactics even more hostile. We should have a right to make informed decisions about our options when it comes to reproductive health. Crisis pregnancy centres violate this right, which is why they need to be stopped.
