Today, the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM)  and the North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology (NASPAG) issued a joint statement taking the position that so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs)  are a health risk for young people.  

SAHM and NASPAG confirmed what young people have known for years: that CPCs draw young people in with misleading advertising, but do not provide abortion or contraception care or referrals. Further, these centers provide misleading and biased information about reproductive health.  

Increasingly, CPCs also receive state and federal funding to conduct abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in schools:  programs which leave out vital information that can protect young people’s health, and which instead offer messages of shame and outdated gender role tropes.  

Some CPC networks like Obria Group, an anti-abortion nonprofit in California,  are even receiving Title X funding, intended to pay for confidential reproductive health care services for low income families and young people.  Since Planned Parenthood has been driven out of the Title X program by the Trump administration, it is likely that even more funding will go to these fake clinics.

SAHM and NASPAG asserted the following: 

• Crisis pregnancy centers do not adhere to medical standards. 
• Taxpayer dollars should support programs that offer real health services and quality sex education.
• Regulatory boards should investigate those who work at CPCs to ensure they are adhering to standards of care.
• Schools should not allow CPCs to impose abstinence-only-until-marriage programs on students or otherwise outsource sex education to CPCs. 
• Companies like Google and Yelp should make sure CPCs are properly identified in searches and reviews,
• Everyone should learn more about CPCs so they can make sure young people understand that CPCs offer only limited services and may share biased informatio

“Young people lead the movement to expose and de-fund crisis pregnancy centers,” said Debra Hauser, President, Advocates for Youth.   “Around the country, young people are fighting to expand access to contraception and abortion, while politicians and extremists are taking access away and putting misinformation and deception in its place. We add our voices to SAHM and NASPAG’s call for these centers to be defunded and banned from offering sex education.”