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The Public Health Risks of Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Author(s) -
Rosen Joanne D.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
perspectives on sexual and reproductive health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.818
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1931-2393
pISSN - 1538-6341
DOI - 10.1363/4420112
Subject(s) - public health , citation , library science , reproductive health , point (geometry) , journal of public health , psychology , sociology , medicine , health policy , nursing , population , public health policy , computer science , demography , geometry , mathematics
Joanne D. Rosen is associate lecturer, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore. Crisis pregnancy centers are organizations that provide counseling and other prenatal services from an antiabortion (prolife) perspective. According to a report prepared for Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) in 2006, they seek “to persuade teenagers and women with unplanned pregnancies to choose motherhood or adoption.” Many of these centers—which are also known as pregnancy resource centers, pregnancy support centers and limited-service pregnancy centers—are affi liated with national antiabortion organizations and belong to evangelical Christian networks. Crisis pregnancy centers have been the focus of investigation by federal, state and local lawmakers, as well as by reproductive choice (prochoice) advocacy groups, and have been subject to attempts at municipal regulation. However, they have received little attention in the public health literature. The women who visit these centers to obtain free pregnancy tests or seek abortions are in need of accurate medical information and prompt medical attention. However, the centers often provide inaccurate information that may delay or interfere with women’s access to abortion and contraceptive services, improperly infl uence women’s reproductive health decisions and potentially increase the number of unintended births.