United States: fake clinics, a new tool to fight against abortion

There are more than 2,500 “distressed pregnancy centers” across the United States, three times more than the number of clinics that provide voluntary terminations of pregnancies. These fake clinics do everything to prevent pregnant people from having an abortion. The documentary film 

Preconceived

tells their story and their rise. Last March, he received a jury prize at the South by Southwest festival.

Pro-abortion rights protesters take part in a demonstration outside the U.S. Supreme Court as justices hear oral arguments in an attempt by President Joe Biden's administration to preserve broad access to the abortion pill, in Washington, United States, March 26, 2024. © Evelyn Hockstein / Reuters

By: Thomas Harms Follow

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From our correspondent in Houston

,

In her office in Idaho

,

Brandi Swindell, president of Stanton Healthcare, says, “ 

There's often tears when I meet a woman for the first time. I say to myself

 ,

 “Lord, tell me what to say.” He does all the work, not me

!

 “, she says.

The Stanton Healthcare center is part of a group of "distress pregnancy centers," a place where pregnant people seeking an

abortion

believe they are in front of medical personnel. The

women

who work there wear stethoscopes around their necks and doctor's coats even though they have no medical training. When recruited, they must prove their Christian faith and their commitment against abortion. These centers all have a device for performing ultrasounds, a service that the clinic offers free of charge.

Maleeha, whose story is told in

the documentary

Preconceived

, wanted to get an abortion pill, on the advice of her cousin, a medical student. She then looked for a free abortion center, and came across one of these centers. “ 

When I entered their center, I saw all these crosses on the walls. It seemed odd to have even a religious image in what I thought was a medical center. They asked me to fill out some paperwork asking for a lot of very intimate information. And then they told me that an abortion could cause breast cancer, but also infertility. It started to bother me

 ,” she recalls.

“

She thought she was being medically monitored for her pregnancy

 ”

It is not uncommon to hear many stories like this. Some women, sometimes six weeks pregnant, say that center staff told them that they were in reality nine or ten weeks and could no longer take the abortion pill. Other people still say that they were made to have repeated ultrasounds, while they made their conscious decision, until the time for an abortion was passed.

Tara Murtha is part of the Women's Law Project, an organization that protects reproductive rights and is particularly active in Pennsylvania. “ 

We had a resident doctor. For example, he told me that a woman had been in a minor car accident. Right afterward, she had a check-up to see if everything was okay. She was seven months pregnant and told him

 :

 “You will see in my medical records that I am pregnant.” But in his medical file, there was nothing. There was no indication that she was pregnant. In fact, she had gone several times to these distress pregnancy centers for ultrasounds. And she thought she was being medically monitored for her pregnancy

 ,” regrets Tara Murtha.

“ 

In the 1990s,

they were murdering doctors. And there was a series of bomb attacks against centers that practiced abortion. Their own studies show that people at the time thought they were fanatics, terrorists, and lovers of fetuses. They said to themselves that they needed to change their marketing. So, rather than focusing on fetuses in public, they claimed that abortions damaged and harmed women. That way, ordinary Americans could support them, thinking they were protecting their loved ones

 ,” she continues. 

The strategy of anti-abortion movements

in the United States has been refined, in particular thanks to the development of these centers. Jenifer McKenna studies anti-abortion movements and the development of distressed pregnancy centers. “ 

Deception, disinformation and playing for time are essential tactics of the center industry. They set up shop next to abortion clinics. They copy their signs. They intercept patients who go there saying “come to us, our services are free”. They have evolved their dishonest maneuvers with digital technology. Now they are spreading misinformation on their websites about abortion and contraception. By targeting poor, young, uninsured women who have an unwanted pregnancy and who could be vulnerable

 ,” emphasizes Jenifer McKenna.

Also read: In the United States, a record number of abortions since 2011

These centers linked to anti-abortion movements have multiplied over the past 30 years

Since 2010, $500 million has been donated by 13 states to fund these distressed pregnancy centers, with $100 million coming from Texas. The industry is

expanding

. Sabrine Keane is one of the two directors of the documentary

Preconceived

. “ 

Heartbeat international

is an anti- abortion

 organization in our film. On their site, you can easily see that they have centers, even in France. When we went to interview their director, he told us that they really wanted to become more international, and that they were going to focus on that aspect in the future.

Besides, if you search on the internet for “abortion clinic near me”, you will come across these fake clinics first. And in some countries, like Poland, real clinics only appear on the third search page

 ,” she says.

Finally, these centers are not bound by medical secrecy or confidentiality. All data such as name, telephone number and IP address – when the person connects from a center –, medical history, pregnancies, abortions or even contraception are kept by the parent organization of all these anti-abortion centers. This data can help target their political marketing, or even serve as a national surveillance tool. And that really scares experts on reproductive rights and women's rights.

The premiere of the film Preconceived, with the crew and people interviewed in the documentary. © Thomas Harms / RFI

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