Study Highlights Crisis Pregnancy Centers' Strategic Proximity to Abortion Clinics

A new study sheds light on how crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) try to be close to abortion clinics, which can make it harder for women to get all the reproductive care they need. Based on a report published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, there were three times as many CPCs as abortion clinics in the U.S. in 2021. This difference is likely to have grown since the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision in 2022, which overturned Roe v. Wade.

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Andrea Swartzendruber and Danielle Lambert, two public health experts, did the study and made a map showing how close women were to both types of centers. It found that almost 60% of U.S. women ages 15 to 49 live less than 15 miles from both a CPC and an abortion center. But more than 25% of them live within 15 miles of only a CPC, while only 0.8% live within that range of only an abortion clinic.

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CPCs, which are usually religious non-profits, try to keep women from getting abortions by giving them limited services like therapy and ultrasounds. Critics say that they often use deceptive strategies that make it more complicated or impossible for women to get full reproductive care. Patients at Planned Parenthood clinics say that CPCs who work next door or close often mislead them.

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Because of changes in the law after Dobbs, some states have increased funds for the CPC while others have made it easier to get an abortion, which has made the accessibility map even more complicated. This new information shows how strategically placed CPCs are as they compete with abortion doctors and change the choices women across the country have.

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