Beware of “Crisis Pregnancy Centers”: 9 Facts about Fake Clinics
So-called crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) are not real health care clinics. Anti-abortion lawmakers use them to defend abortion bans and delay access to real care. Here’s how to spot them, and what you can do.
Learn about what “crisis pregnancy centers” really are: fake clinics run by a national network of anti-abortion extremists, far-right conservatives, and religious organizations
Nine facts that expose how fake clinics differ from real reproductive health care clinics—including how they’re used for political mobilization
Learn how to identify fake clinics, access real reproductive health care, and take action against these deceptive practices
🚩 Are you in a fake clinic? Watch for these red flags:
So-called “crisis pregnancy centers” are actually anti-abortion centers, designed to look legitimate.
Look for these warning signs that indicate that you’re in an anti-abortion center:
The use of vague or misleading names: “Pregnancy Resource Center,” “Women’s Care Center,” or “Support Center”—without clearly stating abortion service
“Free” services used as bait: Ads for free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, or counseling without disclosing limits or lack of medical care.
No clear statement about abortion: Websites or staff avoid saying whether abortion is provided or frame it only negatively.
Refusal to provide or refer for abortion care: Real health providers help patients access care. Fake clinics obstruct it.
Unclear privacy protections: Many are not licensed medical facilities, meaning patient information may not be protected the way it is at real clinics.
Anti-abortion centers (AACs)—also called crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs)—are actually anti-abortion extremist organizations that lie, shame, and mislead patients.
Their goal: to stop people from accessing abortion and other forms of reproductive health care including birth control.
Anti-abortion lawmakers use anti-abortion centers to claim their “support” for pregnant people while also supporting abortion bans that cause irrevocable harm.
In reality, these “clinics” do not replace abortion care, or any type of comprehensive reproductive health care.
They are misinformation propaganda centers, funded by dark-money networks (as well as our tax dollars)—and they’re even used to mobilize for anti-abortion political campaigns.
Want to take action? Explore ways to get involved and fight anti-abortion extremism with us:
$430m+anti-abortion centers have received at least $430 million in federal funding Source
9 Facts About Anti-Abortion Centers (so-called “Crisis Pregnancy Centers”)
Here’s what anti-abortion extremists don’t tell you about these dangerous anti-abortion centers.
1. So-called “crisis pregnancy centers” do not provide abortion care
These fake clinics do not provide abortion care and typically refuse to refer people to providers that do.
These centers disproportionately target young people, immigrants, uninsured patients, and communities of color—people who already face the greatest barriers to reproductive health care.
Unfortunately, these fake clinics are on the rise. Even in New York where abortion is legal and protected, anti-abortion centers outnumber abortion clinics, as reported by TheNew York Times in 2022.
Researchers identified more than 2,600 anti-abortion centers nationwide, compared with about 765 clinics that actually provide abortions—meaning fake clinics outnumber real providers more than three to one.
2. Anti-abortion centers do not offer comprehensive reproductive health care
Most of these fake clinics do not provide:
Birth control (pills, IUDs, implants, and condoms)
Prenatal care
Miscarriage management
STI treatment
3. Anti-abortion centers are not bound by HIPAA privacy protections
Many anti-abortion centers collect personal health information even though they are not medical providers and may not be bound by the same HIPAA/privacy laws that protect patients at legitimate clinics.
Those risks may only grow. President Trump told Time that he’d “let red states monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans“—a proposal aligned with Project 2025’s vision for expanding federal oversight of reproductive health in order to criminalize abortion.
4. Anti-abortion centers spread medical misinformation and rely on deception
These centers do not follow national medical or ethical standards.
Many operate under looser rules that allow them to:
Promote “abortion pill reversal” myths
Exaggerate abortion risks based on junk science and straight-up lies
Delay care with false timelines
One well-known tactic used by anti-abortion centers is exaggerating how far along someone is in their pregnancy. By intentionally misleading pregnant people to believe they are beyond the gestational limits of their local or neighboring states’ abortion bans, they cause delays in accessing legitimate, legal abortion care.
5. AACs are funded by a network of conservative policy, religious organizations, and anti-abortion extremist groups
Fake clinics routinely blur the line between medical care and religious/ideological counseling. They might bring up prayer, scripture, or moral lectures that have no place in medical care unless you ask for them.
These fake clinics are supported by legal organizations such as anti-abortion extremist organization Alliance Defending Freedom, which has represented AACs in lawsuits opposing state oversight and disclosure requirements.
Often, people seeking abortion care will find themselves in an AAC because of deceptive advertising practices.
Common tactics include:
Using a vague name like “Women’s Care Center” or “Pregnancy Resource Center”
Offering “free” services such as ultrasounds or “pregnancy counseling” without disclosing their real motives
Setting up shop near an actual abortion provider to cause confusion
Implying that they offer abortion services on their website, even though they do not offer it
How is this even legal? The fight to regulate
The fight to regulate so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” has been thwarted by anti-abortion groups and Republican lawmakers.
Several states and cities have attempted to thwart these deceptive practices. For example, requiring anti-abortion centers to disclose that they do not provide abortion care, and that they are not licensed medical facilities.
But anti-abortion networks frequently challenge these rules in court. For example, Colorado recently faced a lawsuit by an anti-abortion center after the state tried to prevent AACs from performing risky, medically unsound treatments.
Meanwhile, Republican-led states are actively blocking attempts to regulate AACs. For example in 2025, Montana enacted a bill to prevent state and local governments from regulating anti-abortion centers, and this year Wyoming enacted a similar bill.
6. Anti-abortion centers intentionally delay care until abortion is no longer a legal option
By confusing, shaming, or misinforming people, AACs can run out the clock on abortion access.
This is especially harmful in today’s abortion access landscape. For example, if a fake clinic exaggerates how far along someone is in their pregnancy in South Carolina, a person may believe they are no longer eligible for telehealth medication abortion—or that they no longer qualify for care in neighboring North Carolina—even though care may still have been available with accurate information.
AAC misinformation compounds existing barriers to abortion access. As a result, people may give up on care that was still legally available to them.
7. Anti-abortion centers offer so-called “free supplies” instead of real support
Diapers and baby clothes are often cited as proof of “support,” but they are not a substitute for reproductive health care or real economic support for families.
Many CPCs also advertise “free ultrasounds” to appear like legitimate medical clinics. A 2024 study published in JAMA found that 77% of anti-abortion centers advertise ultrasound services, even though many operate without licensed medical oversight.
In reality, these services are often used to delay care or persuade people not to seek abortion.
8. Lawmakers fund AACs with taxpayer dollars to avoid accountability for abortion bans
Yet instead of addressing these harms, anti-abortion lawmakers increasingly point to AACs as proof that pregnant people still have “support” and allocate our taxpayer dollars to fund them.
Most of the states that fund AACs have abortion bans, and higher-than-average maternal and infant mortality rates.
Rather than address this crisis, lawmakers expanded funding for fake clinics, allocating $6 million taxpayer dollarsto 95 anti-abortion centers through a grant program marketed as supporting “pregnancy resources” and through “Choose Life” license plate sales.
In Texas, where maternal and infant mortality has increased 56% since its abortion ban, lawmakers enacted a 2025 bill to create a tax credit for donations to anti-abortion centers.
9. Fake clinics are the political backbone of the anti-abortion movement
The only solution to the public health crisis caused by abortion bans is repealing abortion bans.
Lawmakers cannot use AACs to claim their “support” for pregnant people while also supporting abortion bans that cause suffering and preventable deaths.
As abortion bans gut our reproductive health care, anti-abortion extremist lawmakers are increasingly promoting anti-abortion centers as the answer—even though these centers operate without the standards, accountability, or evidence-based care required of legitimate health clinics.
Anti-abortion centers are not a solution to abortion bans—if anything they cause more harm to pregnant people.
What Real Accountability Looks Like
Everybody deserves timely, dignified medical care that is scientifically accurate, comprehensive, and unbiased. We need this in order to make personal decisions about our lives, our bodies, and our futures.
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