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Sept. 11, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: In the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe. Vs. Wade, 22 states have enacted restrictive or prohibitive antiabortion legislation.
Abortion may be a hot topic for the commonwealth’s upcoming elections this November, but the issue of crisis pregnancy centers has been intertwined with this debate.
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Crisis Pregnancy Centers are “certain facilities that represent themselves as legitimate reproductive health care clinics providing care for pregnant people but aim to dissuade people from accessing certain types of reproductive health care, including abortion care and even contraceptive options.”
CPCs are not subject to HIPPA or doctor-patient confidentiality and often do not employ medically licensed professionals. They commonly use unethical persuasive techniques, manipulative data, and scare tactics to dissuade women from exercising their rights to have a safe and legal abortion. Many CPCs lie about abortion term limits, overemphasize health risks, and do not explicitly state they do not provide abortions under any circumstances.
The website crisispregnancycentermap. com lists over 2,500 CPCs operating in the United States, including one in Lexington (not named to avoid defamation claims). Despite not being an abortion provider, this facility offers “Abortion Info Consultation.” Their website contains the word “abortion” 70 times while stating they do not provide abortions once.
CPCs like Lexington’s can pose a severe health risk by delaying women’s access to abortions while offering a highly biased and selective viewpoint on the issue of women’s health. Crisis Pregnancy Centers should be on the radar of any family looking to make an informed decision about their future.
The closest abortion providers are in Roanoke, with information on www.abortionfinder.org.
KARENA RICHMOND Lexington
