Crisis Pregnancy Center - History and Activities

History and Activities

The Family Research Council describes the beginnings of the crisis pregnancy center movement in a 2009 report. In 1968, the first network of centers was established by Birthright, in Canada. Alternatives to Abortion, today known as Heartbeat International, was founded in 1971. Christian Action Council founded its first center in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1980. Christian Action Council eventually would become Care Net. Others cite Robert Pearson as the founder of the CPC movement. After abortion was legalized in Hawaii in 1967, he started a crisis pregnancy center in Honolulu to fight it.

While CPCs often look like abortion clinics and are intentionally located near them, the overwhelming majority are not legally licensed as medical clinics and do not offer medical services. Most CPCs offer free pregnancy tests, often over-the-counter ones, and there is a movement towards obtaining medical clinic status, largely so that more CPCs may offer sonograms in an attempt to convince women to carry their pregnancies to term. They may also provide screening for sexually transmitted infections, adoption referrals, religious counseling, financial assistance, prenatal services, child-rearing resources and other services.

Peer counselors are typically covered by mandated reporting laws with regard to statutory rape, and they are encouraged to ask about the age of the woman and the biological father. While some centers refer clients for contraception, most do not and the service may be limited to married women. Others may offer Bible study sessions and peer counseling for women who have recently had abortions.

CPCs have been criticized for using heavy-handed methods such as graphic, detailed videos, religious proselytism, dissemination of inaccurate medical information and the use of misleading advertising. Many are buying ultrasound machines, employing staff with medical training, and otherwise moving toward a "medical model" of serving women in the communities where they operate. Paige Johnson, a spokeswoman for Chapel Hill based Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina stated, "I don't discount the work that they do for women who know they want to keep their babies."