Anti-Abortion Centers
Equity Forward examines anti-abortion centers (AACs) and alternative to abortion programs (A2As), including the tactics they use, states that use taxpayer dollars to fund them, the elected officials and lawmakers that support them, and the negative impact they have on people, families, and communities.
Anti-abortion centers are also referred to as crisis pregnancy centers. Equity Forward uses AAC as it accurately describes all centers that oppose abortion and engage in tactics that seek to discourage, delay, and divert people from accessing abortion care.
Key Facts
AACs are often funded with tax-payer dollars.
At least 17 states fund anti-abortion centers with taxpayer dollars; more than $89 million dollars were allocated toward AACs in 2022 alone. In at least seven of these states, millions of federal TANF funds (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families), which are meant to support families working to make ends meet, instead get diverted to AACs.
AACs put people’s privacy at risk.
AACs collect people’s information – including STIs, past pregnancies, and how many partners they have had. Most AACs are not medical providers and are not governed by the privacy protections afforded under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Some AACs purposely model their centers after medical facilities, even when they are not. This makes it difficult for people to know if a center is an actual medical clinic and whether or not their health information will be protected.
AACs engage in deceptive marketing practices.
Anti-abortion centers use multiple advertising tactics to make people believe they are medical centers or provide abortion care. AACs rely on search engine optimization to target people searching for abortion care and serve them misleading online ads. These ads direct them to websites that look like abortion clinics but instead are AACs.
AACs claim to provide free services that aren’t actually free.
Anti-abortion centers tout free goods such as baby clothing and diapers. However, participants must earn these items by attending mandatory counseling sessions and classes that are often religiously based. The dispensation of material support is contingent upon course completion.
AACs in many states have been found to misuse funds and harm people seeking care but still face little or no oversight.
AACs have been the subject of investigations and complaints regarding how they use public funds and deceive people. Despite this, many states continue to provide them with funding and fail to put guidelines in place to protect people’s privacy or to ensure transparency from AACs.
Public Funding
Arizona
- Year program/funding began: 2022-2023
- Most recent funding: $1,500,000
- Year program/funding began: 2022
- Most recent funding: $1,000,000
- Year program/funding began: 2004
- Most recent funding: $25,000,000
- Year program/funding began: 2017
- Most recent funding: $1,981,009
- Year program/funding began: 2022
- Most recent funding: $500,000
- Year program/funding began: 2015
- Most recent funding: $3,000,000
- Year program/funding began: 1999
- Most recent funding: $338,000
Louisiana
- Year program/funding began: 2003
- Most recent funding: $1,260,000
Minnesota
- Year program/funding began: 2005
- Most recent funding: $3,357,000
Missouri
- Year program/funding began: 2006
- Most recent funding: $6,458,561
North Carolina
- Year program/funding began: 2013
- Most recent funding: $7,085,000
- Year program/funding began: 2005
- Most recent funding: $600,000 over two years + $1,500,000 in one-time funding
- Year program/funding began: 2013
- Most recent funding: $6,000,000 over two years
- Year program/funding began: 2006
- Most recent funding: $3,000,000
Pennsylvania
- Year program/funding began: 1995
- Most recent funding: $7,263,000
- Year program/funding began: 2021
- Most recent funding: $20,000,000
- Year program/funding began: 2006
- Most recent funding: $140,000,000
- Year program/funding began: 2023
- Most recent funding: $1,000,000
Key Players
Profiles of organizations that either operate anti-abortion centers or have been instrumental in supporting them.
- Care Net
- Charlotte Lozier Institute
- Heartbeat International
- Human Coalition
- National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA)
- Obria
- Real Alternatives
Resources
In The Grand Scheme: Six Sinister Tactics Employed By Anti-Abortion Centers
This report looks at the six major tactics used by anti-abortion centers and how those tactics support the proliferation of AACs nationwide.
- Search engine optimization (SEO) - How AACs target and mislead people seeing abortion care
- Model legislation - How anti-abortion extremists influence policymaking
- “Choose Life” license plates - How a seemingly benign ‘90s trend raised over $28 million to fund AACs
- Medical licensing and the use of ultrasound technology - How AACs mimic medical providers and dupe patients
- Mobile AAC units - How AACs target high school and college students
- “Earn While You Learn” programs - How AACs trade mandatory religious education for diapers and other material necessities
Mapping Deception: A Closer Look at How States’ Anti-Abortion Center Programs Operate
This report maps Alternatives to Abortion programs that receive public dollars and analyzes the patterns of these programs across state lines.
Seven Reasons Why Anti-Abortion Centers Are A Problem, Not A Solution
Families Need Legitimate Support, Not Anti-Abortion Propaganda
Recent Court Ruling Makes Need For AACs Accountability Crystal Clear