If you had the means to provide diapers to a struggling new parent, what would you demand from them in return?
Would you require that they listen to your parenting advice for an hour before they could take their Huggies home? Would you subject them to a proselytizing lecture on your preferred interpretation of Christianity, or force them to sign up for a group counseling session with strangers? All so they could prove themselves worthy of receiving a few days’ worth of the most essential baby care products?
This is the service model favored by thousands of the anti-abortion pregnancy centers across the country that operate as the public-facing front of the movement to ban abortion both at the state and federal levels. These centers, which bill themselves as judgment-free resources for “vulnerable women and youth,” often present a warm, fuzzy facade that belies a darker mission: using fear, spiritual coercion, and shame tactics to spread lies and disinformation about abortion care. Few of these centers offer medical services beyond non-diagnostic ultrasounds, though they often strive to imitate full-service women’s health clinics in the hopes of being mistaken for providers of pap smears, contraception, and abortion care or referrals. To be clear: Even those anti-abortion pregnancy centers that do provide some medical services have one primary purpose—to mislead and shame people seeking abortion care.
