Fake Clinics are playing doctor.
Playing dress up in medical professionals' uniforms
Check out this incredible segment from Samantha Bee that breaks down this deception!
The phonies at fake women's health centers have little to no medical training and act with authority but little knowledge. Their offerings may include ultrasounds, pregnancy testing, referrals for prenatal care and adoption, diapers and formula, occasionally pap smears, or they just focus on "post-abortion counseling."
Fake clinics do not offer birth control, condoms, facts about childbirth risks, facts about abortion, or facts about patients' right to medical privacy. Ya know, all the important stuff.
Along with exaggerating the risks of abortion, fake women's health centers also underplay risks of childbirth. The risk for a first trimester abortion, the most common in the US, is .5%. Did you know that the maternal risk in childbirth is TEN TIMES more deadly?? Yeah, the fake clinics leave that part out. Surprise!
Avow went undercover and discovered the following tactics, which are very common in fake clinics across the country
Ultrasounds: Depending on state laws, an ultrasound is required before a person can get an abortion. The ultrasound needs to happen at the same place that will be performing the abortion, a fact that many people do not know. (Que the deception.) Fake clinics advertise free ultrasounds as a way to draw people into their doors. During the ultrasound, fake clinic staff will misrepresent how far along a pregnancy is as a way to mislead the patient on their options. The further along you are, the harder it is to get an abortion. The staff of the fake clinic will force the person to look at the ultrasound and may describe the fetus as being more developed than it actually is, all in the hopes of deterring the person from seeking an abortion.
Stalling: Fake clinics play a really sick game with unsuspecting pregnant women, transmen, and gender non-conforming folks. They will delay and cancel appointments, hoping to push people past the legal limit for abortion, at which point a person is left to fend for themselves when the fake clinic had once offered endless amounts of “support”. The farther along a pregnancy goes, the more expensive the procedure. These fake sick-o's are hoping to whittle away at a person’s options and make accessing an abortion that much harder.
Downright Lies: Anti-choicers like to tell all sorts of lies like, “Abortion causes breast cancer,” and “You’ll regret your decision and have emotional trauma!” These lies are based off of absolutely nothing and end up hurting pregnant people in the process. The experts with actual facts at the American Cancer Society say that abortion does not cause breast cancer. Period. And as far as regretting your abortion? Of course everyone is different and has a range of emotion that may change over time, but nearly everyone reports feeling one emotion; relief. How do you like them truth apples?