A case headed to the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether the state of California can require "crisis pregnancy centers" to be honest with the people who come to them for help.
"Crisis pregnancy centers" (or CPCs) are run by people opposed to abortion — and they operate across the entire country. CPCs often advertise themselves as providing "free medical services" — particularly in communities of color — to make people think they're legitimate health care providers.
Spoiler alert: They're not.
Numerous reports and first-person accounts have shown that CPCs give people inaccurate, biased, and even false information in an attempt to shame or scare people out of having an abortion. CPCs may use deceitful or misleading films and pictures or tell outright lies about the medical and emotional effects of abortion. They may even lie about the gestational age of a pregnancy in order to make it harder for someone to access abortion at all by delaying their decision.
A person's decision about their pregnancy is deeply personal. Everyone should have full and accurate information about all of their pregnancy options, including adoption, having an abortion, or raising a child.
California's current law, which is being challenged on First Amendment grounds, requires CPCs to post notices stating that they are
not licensed medical facilities, as well as information about public programs offering free or low-cost abortion services. California State Attorney General Xavier Becerra has vowed to defend this law: "Information is power, and all women should have access to the information they need when making personal health care decisions."
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