How to spot a crisis pregnancy center (CPC)

They cosplay as health clinics (buildings and mobile vans). They draw in people who think they might be pregnant by offering free pregnancy tests and a promise of compassion. They’re called many things: pregnancy resource centers, crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), anti-abortion clinics, pro-life pregnancy centers, fake clinics. But there’s one thing no one calls them: legit. Because they’re not—not even a little.

There’s a good chance you or someone you know has been tricked by one. It can feel pretty awful to visit a place made to look safe and caring—only to find out it has the exact opposite goal. That goal? To stop people from getting abortions, birth control, real sex education, and honest information about their sexual health.

If CPCs had their way, everyone would be straight, cis-, married, and only having penis-in-vagina sex for the purpose of making babies. The darkest part is how they carry out this mission: by lying and straight-up messing with people’s heads. Your best defense is avoiding CPCs altogether—but they can be hard to spot. Here’s a little guide for how to scope them out.

What is a CPC?

CPCs are centers offering free services such as pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, and often provide false or biased information to patients as a way to deter them from getting abortions. While CPCs look a lot like health centers, they almost never have licensed medical staff or offer actual health care services. They’re often operated by religious groups to spread propaganda.

While some of them receive private or federal funding, states with abortion restrictions usually give lots of funding to CPCs, which means there may be many of them around, both in the area you live in and in online search results when looking for a real health center.

Crisis Pregnancy Center Map, a tracking resource from public health researchers at the University of Georgia, estimates that the U.S. has more than 2,600 CPCs. That means there are more than three times as many CPCs as verified abortion providers in the U.S. (of which there are around 800).

Use AbortionFinder.org to avoid CPCs and find a verified abortion provider in the U.S.

How can I tell if a CPC is a CPC?

It can be difficult to identify CPCs because each one may present itself a little differently from the next. Here are some for-sure signs to watch out for.

1. CPCs use specific tactics to look like real health centers

They will look the part

CPC staff may wear white lab coats and call themselves a “medical team” to look like real health professionals.

Their website and ads may use terms and cover topics just like a real health care provider would. They may even note well-known health resources like Mayo Clinic or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to make what they say look accurate. Some of them specifically put up ads near real clinics just to create more confusion.

They will collect your personal information

They’ll have you fill out forms just like any other health provider might. The difference is that they collect and use personal data to track and keep tabs on people. Most do not follow the law that protects your health info (known as HIPAA) in how they store people’s private, personal health data.

2. CPCs offer a certain set of services

CPCs will never offer the full range of sexual and reproductive health services. There are only a few services that they may claim to offer.

CPCs will always offer free pregnancy tests and information

All CPCs promote free pregnancy testing and “information” (which, again, is false information designed to keep you from taking birth control, getting an abortion, or just having accurate information about healthcare and your body). This is the first red flag to look for when trying to identify a CPC.

CPCs may claim to offer ultrasounds

A CPC may have an ultrasound machine, which they may use to give pregnant people fake ultrasound images and pregnancy information. They have been known to use these to lie to people about their pregnancy stage so that they can stop them from getting an abortion (like telling a patient they’ve been pregnant for 14 weeks instead of 10).

CPCs may offer limited STD and HIV testing

Some CPCs offer testing for HIV, gonorrhea, and chlamydia.

CPCs never offer birth control or abortion care

Rarely, for married people only, they may promote fertility awareness birth control methods (FAMs) as “natural family planning” and the only acceptable birth control method. But, you’ll never catch a CPC offering the birth control pill, the IUD, the implant, the shot, the ring, the patch, or other birth control methods. In fact, they’ll most likely give you false information that these methods damage your health and your fertility. (They don’t.)

3. CPCs may offer scam services that aim to prevent people from getting an abortion or to make people feel bad about having an abortion

If you use Google to find an abortion provider, you might see “Does not provide abortions” next to a CPC search result. Unfortunately, in real life, it’s a lot harder to figure this out–CPCs do a great job pretending they provide abortion-related services.

CPCs may claim to offer pre-abortion services

Look out for terms like “pre-abortion screenings”, “pre-abortion counseling,” and/or “source for abortion information”. These “services” are how CPCs connect with people who want abortions and try to delay them and/or convince them not to get one.

Their “abortion information” often refers to well-known health care organizations, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to seem legit. Then they mix in false claims— especially about abortion safety and long-term health effects–to make the lies harder to spot.

It’s worth noting: Abortion is one of the safest health care processes you can go through–it’s safer than getting your wisdom teeth out (and, thus, much safer than childbirth). Getting one or more abortions does not negatively impact your fertility or cause complications long-term.

CPCs may claim to offer “abortion pill reversal”

CPCs may advertise that they offer a service called “abortion pill reversal.” Abortion pill reversal is a fake service, full stop. No procedure actually exists to “reverse” an abortion. CPCs created the concept of abortion pill reversal to make people who have had a medication abortion feel shame.

CPCs may claim to offer post-abortion services

One of the largest tip-offs that a place might be a CPC is how they talk about services for people who have recently had an abortion. They may use terms and phrases like “abortion healing,” “emotional healing,” “emotional distress,” or “abortion recovery.” They may bring up “pressure to have an abortion.”

All of this aims to create stigma and imply that people always feel regret and grief after an abortion.

Fact: According to the Turnaway Study, a comprehensive research study that followed people who got abortions in the U.S. for 10 years, the most common feeling after an abortion is relief.

4. A CPC may be part of a larger chain

It’s pretty common for a CPC to be part of a larger network. If you poke around a place’s website or look closer at their materials and see any of the following organizations listed, then you’re definitely dealing with a CPC:

• Care Net
• Heartbeat International
• Birthright International

The takeaway

While they might be hard to spot, doing some research and using tools such as AbortionFinder can help you spot a CPC. The best next step is to identify the CPCs in your community and warn people. Use our Bedsider and AbortionFinder tools to find a verified health care provider. They will never include CPCs!

Check out part two in this series for a guide on what to do if you do end up finding yourself at a CPC (we hope you’ll never need it).