What Is A
Fake Clinic?
Fake Clinics, also known as “crisis pregnancy centers (CPC)”, “pregnancy resource centers”, or “pregnancy medical clinics,” all obscure what they really do. In New Mexico, as in many other states, there are more crisis pregnancy centers than abortion clinics.
In reality, fake clinics:
Mislead and shame people seeking abortion care.
Push their own faith on someone seeking reproductive care.
Shame people for their sexual history or wanting to choose to have an abortion.
Give incorrect information about their own pregnancy and how far along a person’s pregnancy is.
Lie about the procedure of an abortion and what its side effects could be.
Lie about rates of miscarriage and sway people into thinking a pregnancy may end on its own which could push someone past the legal termination date.
Give incentives to carry the pregnancy to term and offer services like diapers and formula and not follow through.
Fake Clinics are
Designed to Deceive
Many fake clinics depend on presenting themselves as if they were not anti-abortion, but rather neutral and legitimate health care providers. Even worse? Some even pose as medical professionals when they actually have no training or education.
You may see them advertising on the web, billboards, mailers and even have the power to target you while you’re browsing on your phone! They will purposefully use terms like “options”, “choice”, ir “reproductive health” in their names to fool you into thinking they’re a legit clinic.
You may have
seen a Fake
Clinic
before and
not even
have known it!
![Thinking Emoji [Free Download IOS Emojis].png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e0b2fe_7cd7c71ad9cc4c9cafd065281e93a93d~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_100,h_105,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/Thinking%20Emoji%20%5BFree%20Download%20IOS%20Emojis%5D.png)
Fake Clinics will strategically advertise their “services” to people searching for abortion care.
You may seen their ads on the web, billboards, mailers.
Fake clinics even have the power to target you while you’re browsing on your phone! They will purposefully use terms like “options”, “choice”, ir “reproductive health” in their names to fool you into thinking they’re a legit clinic.
Fake Clinics Collect your Data
Fake clinics rarely provide health care. Most cannot even diagnos pregnancy beyond reading the results of an at home urine test. Fake clinics are typically registered as a non-profit and do not have to follow HIPAA regulations on personal information. However, they still have access to all the information they obtain from you and during your visit. This information can include:
-
Your Name
-
Address
-
Email address
-
Ethnicity
-
Marital status
-
Living arrangement
-
Education
-
Income source
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Alcohol, Cigarette, and Drug intake
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Medications and medical history
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Sexual transmitted disease history
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Name of the referring person/organization
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Pregnancy symptoms
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Pregnancy history
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Medical testing information
-
Ultrasound Photos
Fake clinics can use this information to call you long after you visited them. They will try and keep track of your pregnancy, try to get information on your abortion, and share this information with their larger organization.
In a post-Roe world where abortion is criminalized, the use of this information may even be used to alert authorities an abortion has occured.
Fake Clinics Cause
Real Harm
Often, fake clinics target our most vulnerable communities: people of color, young people, those facing poverty and people living in rural areas who have less options and less access.
Fake clinics also harm people facing intimate partner abuse or violence.
Even while they have their own locations, they visit schools to offer their “services” and offer incentives like “mommy boxes” that promise support and offer sex ed, pushing abstinence and faith-based junk science, failing young people
No one should have to sit through lies and peddling just to get help for you or your family.