As the fall of Roe v. Wade looms, anti-abortion fake clinics are trying to rebrand their dangerous lies and #BadFaithMedicine as a solution to the ongoing, and soon to be elevated, abortion access crisis. However, they’re deeply incorrect in thinking minimal, biased, so-called ‘services’ and predatory campaigns will benefit the public health crisis their movement has helped manufacture by pushing for laws that shutter real abortion clinics and restricting access to abortion care. It’s certainly convenient for these groups to create a public health crisis and then promote themselves as the solution to it, but anti-abortion fake clinics are doing just that, and seeking public money to do so. [1]

Anti-abortion fake clinics attempting to rebrand just helps prove the point that they are nothing more than lying, manipulative, fundamentalist schemes appropriating Christianity that seek to force pregnant people to give birth, no matter the circumstances they may face. Why else would they try so hard to trick people into going to their clinics? Why else would they use similar names to local abortion clinics, or advertise free services only to come and find out you can only get them if you attend their events and classes, steeped in religious indoctrination? They don’t want people to know who they really are and what they really do. So much so, that international anti-abortion fake clinic chain, Heartbeat International, sent Reproaction a ridiculous letter making demands and acting like we are the ones deceiving people about their clinics. As if!

Fake clinic operators believe the racist, sexist disinformation they spread about abortion; making their existence deeply ill-equipped to deliver vital services and meet the needs of millions of people with capacity for pregnancy who will be left without care options when Roe falls. What can an anti-abortion fake clinic do for someone facing an ectopic pregnancy, when their ultrasound technician (if they even have one) may not even be qualified to provide a diagnosis? Especially when ‘pro-life’ lawmakers increasingly want to prevent life-saving abortion care?

How could fake clinics’ performative programs to ‘help’ expecting parents actually stand in the gap for pregnant people post-Roe? Someone with a rigid work schedule, multiple jobs, or other children to parent has no time for an anti-abortion fake clinic’s ‘services,’ like ‘mommy bucks’ programs, that force people to take anti-abortion, Christian-influenced indoctrination classes in order to earn meager aid like a box of diapers or bottle of formula. Not to mention, anti-abortion fake clinics seem to have no ability nor plan to address the heinous maternal and infant mortality rates apparent (and unfortunately likely to rise) in the Black and brown communities they prey on.

Anti-abortion fake clinics have done nothing discernable to improve birth outcomes or make this country more hospitable to people with unexpected pregnancies. If anything, their malicious disinformation about reproductive health exacerbates an already tumultuous environment for someone deciding whether or not they are ready to parent. Their promotion of stigma and shame around sex, single parenthood, and our bodies pushes people into the shadows when their autonomy should be celebrated. We cannot forget the mission of anti-abortion fake clinics is to use disinformation about abortion, religion, and reproductive health to manipulate and coerce pregnant people. They can try and repackage their #BadFaithMedicine as a community resource but we will continue to expose them! I hope you join us.

Sources:

1 – https://www.theregreview.org/2022/02/14/bass-crisis-pregnancy-centers-state-funded-harm-state-based-solutions/