In Massachusetts, we pride ourselves on our strong reproductive rights legislation that allows people 16 and older to receive abortion services if they so choose. However, we still have more to do to fully protect pregnant people’s rights in our state.

“Crisis Pregnancy Centers” are fake clinics, usually religiously affiliated, that seek to deceive and coerce pregnant individuals into continuing their pregnancy. There are approximately 30 so-called crisis pregnancy centers in Massachusetts, and they currently outnumber real family planning clinics 3:1. Former Attorney General Healey released a consumer warning in the post-Roe era regarding these harmful centers that often provide misleading and false information. Crisis pregnancy centers have been supported by the religious anti-abortion movement, and in other states by government funding, to dissuade pregnant people from getting abortions.

One example of such a local anti-abortion center is the Alternatives Pregnancy Center in Greenfield. On the Standingwithyou.org website (affiliated with the Right to Life movement) they refer to their various nationwide Alternatives Pregnancy centers by saying: “Alternatives is not just another voice telling you what you should do. They’re a safe place where you can get free pregnancy tests and information about your choice between abortion, adoption, and parenting. They provide education so you have everything you need to make the best possible decision.”

On the Greenfield center’s website, they proclaim that they are “committed to offering our services objectively, without judgment, giving information that is factual and complete,” and even claim that in order to receive “accurate information about abortion procedures, risks, costs and more,” that “the trained staff at Alternatives can provide you with this information in a professional, in-person setting.”

But this language of choice, objectivity, professionalism and non-judgmentalism hides the fact that there are zero trained doctors or nurses on staff; thus they are not bound by any professional medical oath to provide accurate information on the benefits and risks of abortion. Additionally, as non-medical staff, they are not bound by patient privacy rules. One can easily miss their one sentence statement that they do not refer for or provide abortions. Until recently on their website, the information provided under the abortion option tab was only a general statement about the risks of abortion, along with minimal information defining ectopic pregnancies.

One of this column’s authors, Ann Ferguson, had an illegal abortion in 1966. She feels strongly that those of reproductive age have the right to more information and safe choices than she had then, and maintains that these misleading fake clinics undermine these rights. We feel strongly that we need to protest their deceptive practices, which, in not acknowledging the religious bias of the center, deny their clients the religious freedom to make their own informed decisions about abortions.

To educate the public about the harmful practices of crisis pregnancy centers, a coalition of local organizations will join state-wide educational standouts against such anti-abortion centers in the next two months, called for by the Feminist Action Team of the Indivisible Mass Coalition. In our area, there will be standouts against the Clearway Center in Springfield, and in Greenfield a rally at the Common with a march to the Alternative Pregnancy Center at 466 Main St. We urge you to defend reproductive justice and join one of these local standouts. For information on the dates and times of standouts in Springfield and Greenfield, contact ferguson3638@gmail.com or generationratify.amherstma@gmail.com.

Ann Ferguson, of Leverett, is a member of Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution, and Marisol Pierce Bonifaz, of Amherst, is a member of Generation-Ratify Amherst. Co-signing organizations include: Western Mass Code Pink Women for Peace; River Valley chapter, Democratic Socialists of America Reproductive Justice Working Group; Indivisible Northampton-Swing Left Western Mass; Students Against Sexual Harassment; Feminist Action Team of the Indivisible Mass Coalition; Collective Power for Reproductive Justice; Massachusetts Coalition to End Anti-Abortion Disinformation; Abortion Rights Fund of Western Massachusetts.]]>