Reproductive Equity Now Publishes Organizing Zine on Dangers of Anti-Abortion Centers
This guidebook, titled ‘CAUTION: This Clinic Does Not Provide Abortion Care,’ guides readers on how to to identify, avoid, and take action against anti-abortion centers
BOSTON (May 21, 2024) – Reproductive Equity Now today published CAUTION: This Clinic Does Not Provide Abortion Care, an organizing zine that guides readers across New England on how to identify, avoid, and take action against dangerous anti-abortion centers, or so-called “crisis pregnancy centers.” The newly published zine is available for free download on Reproductive Equity Now’s website. The organization will also be distributing physical copies to advocacy and health care partners across New England. Zines are short, self-published magazines often with personal art and political calls to action that have origins back to the 1930s.
Anti-abortion centers are not legitimate health care providers. These facilities purport to be full spectrum reproductive health clinics, but exist to dissuade patients from accessing abortion care using medical disinformation, abortion stigma, and deceptive practices.
“Anti-abortion centers are deceptive, dangerous institutions. Our goal is to arm our communities with the tools to identify these anti-abortion facilities, protect themselves against disinformation and deception, and find legitimate, unbiased reproductive health care,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, President of Reproductive Equity Now. “We have seen and heard firsthand from patients who have been impacted by anti-abortion centers' shame, stigma, and deception. Today, we’re combatting this harm with a new organizing zine to spread accurate health care information, activate grassroots movement building, and take creative approaches to alert our communities to the dangers of anti-abortion centers.”
Click HERE to read CAUTION: This Clinic Does Not Provide Abortion Care.
The Zine includes information on:
How to access and make an appointment for legitimate abortion care in New England
Ways that anti-abortion centers deceive and manipulate patients
Where anti-abortion centers exist throughout New England
The digital privacy concerns anti-abortion centers pose in a post-Roe world
How to spot anti-abortion centers over the phone, via their website, and in person
How to report anti-abortion centers throughout New England
Ways to raise public awareness around anti-abortion centers’ dangerous and deceptive practices
How to engage with local elected officials about anti-abortion centers in your community
Resources to access and learn more about abortion care throughout the region
Reproductive Equity Now’s Past Work to Combat Anti-Abortion Centers:
Reproductive Equity Now advocated for major funding to launch a public education campaign on the harms of anti-abortion centers in Massachusetts. In February of 2023, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey approved $1 million for a public education campaign to illuminate the dangers of anti-abortion centers for Bay Staters.
In December, Reproductive Equity Now filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, urging the state to investigate Worcester anti-abortion center, Clearway Clinic, for alleged deceptive advertising, out-of-scope medical practice, and improper delegation of medical services. The call for investigation comes after a Worcester woman, Jane Doe, filed a class action lawsuit last summer after Clearway allegedly misdiagnosed her ectopic pregnancy, forcing her to receive life-saving, invasive surgery that resulted in the loss of her fallopian tube.
In October, Reproductive Equity Now sent a letter to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services calling for an investigation into Your Options Medical licensed clinics, and specifically, the group’s new mobile unit that is preparing to operate on Cape Cod. The letter drew attention to the mobile unit’s potential deceptive advertising practices, and called for an investigation into whether out-of-scope medical care is occuring at these licensed clinics.
In January, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued guidance to combat anti-abortion centers’ deceptive practices. The Department sent a memo outlining and reminding licensed providers, clinics, and hospitals of their obligations under state law and as a condition of licensure. These obligations include “providing patients accurate and complete information for informed decision-making, accurate portrayal and advertising of clinical services, and licensees practicing within their scope of practice and their license.”
To find legitimate abortion care in New England, visit Reproductive Equity Now's New England Abortion Care Guide.
MASSACHUSETTS:
Individuals who have had a negative experience with an anti-abortion center can file a Civil Rights Complaint with the Attorney General’s office. Patients may also reach out to the Abortion Legal Hotline, a free and confidential resource, created by the Reproductive Equity Now Foundation, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, the Women’s Bar Foundation, the ACLU of Massachusetts, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, and five private law firms, to connect people with pro bono legal advice on their rights to access abortion care.
CONNECTICUT:
People who have had a negative experience with anti-abortion centers’ deceptive practices in Connecticut can file a report with the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office. Patients in Connecticut can also reach out to Reproductive Equity Now at info@reproequitynow.org.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
People who have had a negative experience with anti-abortion centers in New Hampshire can reach out to Reproductive Equity Now at info@reproequitynow.org to discuss different courses of action.
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