Statement on NIFLA v. Becerra
Press Release | June 26, 2018
Columbus — The 5-4 decision in NIFLA v. Becerra, gave fake women’s health centers a free pass to continue deceiving pregnant women. While the case originated in California, over 150 of these organizations deceive women throughout Ohio.
NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio Executive Director Kellie Copeland released the following statement: “Ohioans believe that women deserve the truth about their health, not lies. Fake women’s health centers, sometimes referred to as crisis pregnancy centers, purport to offer pregnancy-related health care and medical services but instead push an anti-choice agenda. John Kasich and Mike DeWine, however, have sided with fake women’s health centers and continue to hand them public funds year after year just to mislead women. This is the tax payers’ money that should be helping low-income Ohioans but is instead paying anti-choice organizations to lie to women. This is not acceptable and we’re not done working to expose these groups and DeWine’s support for them.”
She continued: “Fake women’s health centers, sometimes referred to as crisis pregnancy centers, purport to offer pregnancy-related health care and medical services but instead push an anti-choice agenda. They give women medically inaccurate information. They use deceptive advertising, running misleading websites, and engaging in a variety of other dishonest tactics to lure women seeking care and information about their full range of health care options into visiting these facilities. Ohio voters will have a chance on November 6th to do what the US Supreme Court failed to do today, they can take action to stop the lies by voting against Mike DeWine, David Yost and other politicians that prop up these fake clinics.”
Ohio funds fake women’s health centers with $1,000,000 per biennium through an amendment inserted in to the state operating budget. Funds are diverted from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and given to organizations to lie to women.
The staff and volunteers of fake women’s health centers, who are often untrained individuals who pose as medical professionals, frequently deceive women and lie about medical facts to convince them not to have an abortion. They inaccurately claim abortion poses health risks such as infertility, breast cancer, and birth defects in future pregnancies. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, these claims are false and deliberately misleading. Many of these fake women’s health centers also perform ultrasounds with the sole purpose of manipulating women and convincing them not to have an abortion.
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