A Worcester crisis pregnancy center is promising to continue its work, despite a lawsuit alleging it did not tell a woman she had a dangerous, unviable pregnancy. WBUR’s Deborah Becker reports that the lawsuit alleges Clearway Clinic told the patient her pregnancy was healthy after performing an ultrasound last fall. But a month later, she required emergency surgery because the fetus was growing outside the uterus. Her attorneys say if she had been properly diagnosed, the surgery and removal of one of her fallopian tubes could have been avoided.

And, on the heels of a new lawsuit accusing a so-called crisis pregnancy center in Worcester of deceptive advertising, Reproductive Equity Now is launching a public awareness campaign on abortion access. The group will hold organizing events in Gateway Cities, historically underserved communities and “abortion deserts” — areas of the state without clinics — starting in July.

“What we’re worried about is that someone travels to Massachusetts for care and their cell phone is tracked,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, president of Reproductive Equity Now. The concern, she said, is that “an anti-choice actor in their state buys the data and uses it to prove that they had an abortion and tries to go after them for that abortion care.”

Rebecca Hart Holder, president of Reproductive Equity Now, said the case should serve as a warning that centers like Clearway “not only harm the health and safety of people seeking abortion, but also patients in need of basic pregnancy care.”

A lawsuit filed Thursday in Superior Court by abortion-rights advocates on behalf of an anonymous Worcester woman claims the actions of Clearway Clinic, a pregnancy clinic that advises patients against abortion, led to a missed diagnosis of an ectopic pregnancy that threatened the woman's life.

Rebecca Hart Holder, president of Reproductive Equity Now, said women often face unnecessary clinical visits or examination requirements which prevents individuals from being able to get birth control, especially with a healthcare system which is backed up due to staffing shortages or from the aftermath of the pandemic.

Such education frameworks can aid children in a country that has seen recent attacks on health care, said Taylor St. Germain, communications director at Reproductive Equity Now.

Reproductive advocacy groups including Reproductive Equity Now, the ACLU of Massachusetts, and Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts are working to support the “Location Shield Act,” also known as Bill H.357, that would ban the selling, leasing, trading or renting of cellphone location data.

A coalition of organizations including the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts, and Reproductive Equity Now say that data brokers purchase movement and location data tracked by most cellphones and then resell it to anyone with a credit card. This includes anti-abortion groups and law enforcement agencies in states with bans on abortion services and gender-affirming care.

A coalition of organizations including the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts, Reproductive Equity Now and the ACLU of Massachusetts pointed to Vice reporting in May that found one location data firm allowed users to see roughly where Planned Parenthood abortion clinic visitors live.

“We are absolutely concerned,” Rebecca Hart Holder, the president of Reproductive Equity Now, told Playbook. “No state is immune to extremists of all shapes and sizes, and so we have to be extremely vigilant in protecting providers.”

Rebecca Hart Holder, President of Reproductive Equity Now telling 22News, “We know that getting co-pay free contraception not only lowers the rate of unintended pregnancy, but it also has really important side effects for gender equality. That includes increased participation in the workforce, better health outcomes in general, and lower rates of poverty.”

Yesterday, the Joint Committee on Financial Services held a hearing on several health insurance bills, including An Act Ensuring Access to Full Spectrum Pregnancy Care. Massachusetts residents testified to share their experiences navigating these exorbitant—and often unexpected—costs and what full spectrum pregnancy care would mean to them.