Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this guest post are solely those of the guest author.
There is a targeted and systematic attempt by abortion advocates — including professional medical societies — to delegitimize, berate, and detract from the valued work provided by community pregnancy centers (CPC).
For example, this screenshot from a daily e-mail blast sent by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ (ACOG) warns that “providers should be aware that their pregnant patients might have previously attended a CPC and might have been exposed to misinformation that needs to be corrected” (emphasis added):
It’s astounding. The message is that community pregnancy centers simply cannot be trusted! That is all propaganda because CPCs are against the pro-abortion stance.
But that is only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.
In an ACOG Issue Brief titled, “Crisis Pregnancy Centers,” the ACOG poses the following questions: “What Misleading Practices Do CPC Staffs Use?” and “How Do CPCs Endanger Public Health?” The responses are heavy laden with a pro-abortion directive.
‘Misleading’ and ‘endangering’?
For close to a decade, I served as the pro-bono medical director for a pregnancy center in the heart of the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex. I often collaborated with other CPC directors to review and update guidelines for ultrasound gestational dating, patient counseling, and sexually transmitted infection screenings.
Adherence to national standards of care* was expected and enforced. In fact, each pregnancy center was overseen by a licensed medical professional to ensure best practices. [Live Action News note: A 2022 report showed that 27% of paid pregnancy center staff are licensed medical professionals; among volunteers, 12% are licensed medical professionals.]
In my current community, one local CPC states on its website’s welcome page:
If you’re considering abortion, we provide free pre-abortion screening, including ultrasound services to confirm and date your pregnancy. We also offer education about the different types of abortion specific to your stage of pregnancy. We do not profit from your decision and neither perform nor refer for abortions.
Hardly coercive. Hardly subversive.
Nonetheless, the press and attention pregnancy centers have received have been less than complimentary. As a Board Certified OBGYN physician, a prior pregnancy center medical director, and as a past National Officer of the American College of Obstetrician and Gynecology (ACOG), I can tell you the culture’s “play book” regarding these community-based centers: criticize them into humiliation, minimize the services offered, and demonize their very existence.
Why? The answer is simple: anything counter to the pro-abortion stance is not tolerated, ironically despite the outcries for “tolerance” among us.
The ‘threat’
“How Do CPCs Endanger Public Health?” That is the question posed by the ACOG in their publicly accessible Issue Brief. The ACOG answer: “The immediate effect of delaying or preventing abortion care isn’t the only threat that CPCs pose.”
According to the leading professional medical society for obstetricians and gynecologists, pregnancy centers are a public threat because they provide “unilateral” life-affirming counseling, which the brief implies is “coercive.” But because of that, they are public enemy #1 for the pro-abortion movement — even though the ACOG’s own guidance calls on women’s healthcare providers to offer “non-directed” pregnancy counseling for patients facing a mistimed/unplanned pregnancy.
The ACOG recognized that three options may be offered to interested women: Raising the Baby, Adoption, and Abortion. Yet, despite this acknowledgement, the ACOG unilaterally endorses abortion as the “main” option. This is contradictory to its own guidance.
Accuse your enemy of what you are doing as you are doing it to create confusion is a pretty effective strategy.
A good question to pose in response to the accusation that pregnancy centers provide limited and unilateral life-affirming counseling is this: Do Planned Parenthood facilities discuss parenting and/or adoption universally with clients seeking pregnancy termination?
‘Misinformation’?
The ACOG also states that pregnancy centers provide “misinformation” regarding the effects of mifepristone, while failing to correct claims made by abortion advocates that “mifepristone is as safe as Tylenol.” That claim can be traced back a 2003 Chicago Tribune article.
However, a recent analysis in BioTech by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) reported that approximately 11% of women who took mifepristone for abortion experienced a serious adverse event within 45 days, including infection, hemorrhage, or other serious complications. This study claims that this rate is 22 times higher than the “less than 0.5 percent” serious adverse event rate reported on the FDA-approved drug label. The investigators describe their analysis as the “largest-ever study of the abortion pill,” having reviewed 865,727 prescriptions for mifepristone abortions from 2017 to 2023 using a health insurance claim database.
So it seems that “misinformation” is simply a term used to discredit any data that goes against the pro-abortion culture.
A resource worth protecting
Several pieces of legislation have been drafted to protect pregnancy centers. Most recently, as of May 29, 2025, Montana passed the first of its kind legislation (the Pregnancy Center Autonomy and Rights of Expression Act – H.B. 388) to protect pregnancy centers in the state. This is encouraging, inspiring and is a gust of wind to the sails of the life-affirming movement.
I am proud of my past work with pregnancy centers. I am proud to have pregnancy centers in my community. They are a valuable resource to many.
*”The national ethical code “Our Commitment of Care and Competence” has been adopted by the Leadership Alliance of Pregnancy Care Organizations, a network of pregnancy center organizations, including the three most well-known national networks which the vast majority of U.S. centers affiliate with – Care Net, Heartbeat International, and the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates….
The full code addresses compliance on a wide range of topics… and a provision which states that all medical services be under the supervision and direction of a licensed physician and in accordance with applicable medical standards.” [Source]
Bio: Hector O. Chapa, M.D. is an OBGYN and Diplomate for the American Board of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Editor’s Note, 6/6/25: This post has been updated with additional information since original publication.
