Fake Clinics: Funded By You & Me
Many get state and federal money from our taxes
Read more about the TANF siphoning on Think Progress
In 2013, 34 states directed money to fake clinics. Just in 2016, the Texas House voted to move $20 million from the Commission on Environmental Quality to the state's fake women's health centers, and by 2021 the state will have made a total investment of about $170 million to fake clinics. Texas is also one of several states that siphon money from TANF (i.e. cash assistance for poor families) right to these fake "clinics."
Now a new development has emerged in taxpayer funding for fake clinics: Title X, the crucial government program that, since 1970, has helped millions of low-income Americans access hormonal birth control, family planning services, and reproductive health care. The Trump administration made extreme changes to the program which allows fake clinics to qualify for this federal “family planning” funding and the Biden administration has not taken a single step to reverse this. In 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded $1.7 million in Title X funds to the California fake clinic chain Obria Group and an additional $1.7 million for each of the grant’s subsequent two years. Obria seeks to “replace” legitimate health care providers like Planned Parenthood and leave millions of LGBTQ folks, people of color, low-income, and rural Americans without access to reproductive health care.
From Title X and TANF dollars to "Choose Life" license plate programs or fully defunding Planned Parenthood, states are finding many nefarious ways to fund fake clinics that LIE TO PREGNANT PEOPLE.
Many fake clinics are also funded by by private donors from church networks, though few publicly acknowledge this connection. Dig a little deeper, and you'll find politician's wives, church leaders, and wealthy anti-abortion activists on the board of most fake clinics.
Check out these anti-abortion grants the Thirteen Foundation has recently awarded:
$2.2 million to Media Revolution Ministries. Also known as Online for Life, MRM "implements cutting-edge Internet and traditional marketing outreaches to connect with abortion-determined women and men," thereby directing expectant parents to one of MRM's more than 50 "life-affirming pregnancy centers." Essentially, MRM is a nationwide coaltion of crisis pregnancy centers with savvy, multi-media PR operations.
$1.1 million to Focus on the Family. A politically inclined advocacy group for Christian values, Focus on the Family supports individuals, church leaders, and crisis pregnancy centers in deterring women from having abortions. Focus on the Family distributes informational brochures and other materials to CPCs, and assists them in purchasing ultrasound equipment. The organization's website contains a wealth of resources for pregnant women and the community groups trying to keep them that way.
$725,000 to Life Dynamics. Its motto is "Pro-Life: without compromise, without exception, without apology." Based in Texas, Life Dynamics assists lawyers and anti-abortion groups around the country in legally challenging regional reproductive health clinics that provide abortion services. Life Dynamics also sends undercover operatives to spy on abortion providers. More curiously, Life Dynamics operates a direct mail program, through which it "alerts doctors and medical students to the stigma that attaches to abortionists."