The Associated Press spreads misconceptions about pregnancy centers

A recent Associated Press (AP) article about pro-life pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) perpetuates the lie that PRCs "lack accountability," while arguing that they should be held to a higher standard and offer more services than Planned Parenthood in order to be taken seriously. The piece also highlights how abortionists feel threatened by these organizations.

Key Takeaways:

• A recent Associated Press article demanded more accountability and oversight for PRCs.

• Abortion facilities, however, are under-regulated and exempt from standards to which legitimate health clinics are held.

• Women deserve to have alternatives and resources to help them choose life.

The Details:

Writing for the AP, Geoff Mulvihill reported that PRCs are adding more medical services to their organizations. PRCs exist to help women who choose life while facing challenges during pregnancy. Some offer material goods and parenting education, while others offer additional services like housing, childcare, assistance with college, and medical services.

According to the AP, "The expansion [of PRCs] — ranging from testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections to even providing primary medical care — has been unfolding for years. It gained steam after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade three years ago, clearing the way for states to ban abortion."

Yes, as states began protecting women and preborn children from abortion, PRCs knew there would be a greater need to expand and provide even more tangible support to pregnant women and their children. This isn't the 'gotcha' that abortion advocates want it to be.

The AP continued, "The push could get more momentum with Planned Parenthood closing some clinics and considering shuttering others following changes to Medicaid. Planned Parenthood is not just the nation’s largest abortion provider, but also offers cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and other reproductive health services."

To be clear, Planned Parenthood's string of closures did not begin with its one-year loss of federal Medicaid funding in 2025. It began closing facilities a long time ago, especially those that did not commit abortions. After the Biden administration began allowing abortion via telemedicine, Planned Parenthood took the opportunity to further scale back its brick and mortar facilities, cutting overhead costs while selling abortion pills online, sent by mail.

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Zoom In:

While Planned Parenthood has long claimed that abortion is a fraction of its services, its annual reports tell a different story. Its abortion numbers continue to increase yearly, and its true health care services — such as STI testing and treatment, cancer screenings, and prenatal care — have been decreasing. In addition, it only serves an estimated 2% of women of reproductive age.

According to its 2023-2024 annual report, it committed 402,230 abortions, up nearly 2.5% from the previous year. But other things are down:

• STI testing and treatment services declined nearly 11% in 2023-24 from the previous year.

• Total cancer screenings also fell over 8% (down over 80% since 2004).

• Breast screenings declined by over 10% ("breast care" has dropped over 82% since the year 2000).

• Pap tests dropped by over 12% in a year (down over 85% since 2004), and since 2016, "well woman exams" have dropped 45% at Planned Parenthood.

It is an abortion business first and a health care provider last, and PRCs offer more services that abortion businesses do. The DuPont Clinic, The Women's Centers, Southwestern Women's Options, and CARE Clinics offer only abortion.

The AP continued with false accusations meant to squash support for PRCs. This is what the AP had to say about PRCs adding services, as Planned Parenthood takes them away:

The changes have frustrated abortion-rights groups, who, in addition to opposing the centers’ anti-abortion messaging, say they lack accountability; refuse to provide birth control; and most offer only limited ultrasounds that cannot be used for diagnosing fetal anomalies because the people conducting them don’t have that training.

A growing number also offer unproven abortion-pill reversal treatments.

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Reality Check:

It's laughable that the AP would print that pro-abortion groups are "frustrated" that PRCs lack accountability, because Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities have largely been held unaccountable by state health departments across the country.

• The AP is quick to forget Kermit Gosnell, who in 2013, was convicted of killing three babies born alive at his abortion business. He routinely committed illegal abortions beyond Pennsylvania's 24-week limit, had nearly 50 aborted babies stored in freezers in his facility (as well as jars of tiny severed feet on shelves), had facility floors that were covered in cat urine, and had furniture and medical equipment that were covered in blood. At the time, the AP reported, "Pennsylvania authorities had failed to conduct routine inspections of all its abortion clinics for 15 years by the time Gosnell’s facility was raided in 2010."

• In 2012, it was revealed that abortion facilities in Virginia had been kept in unsafe conditions. Even when facilities knew an inspection was going to take place, they managed to fail. Staffers didn't know which instruments had been used and which were clean, and were not disposing of expired medications. One facility even had a freezer filled with blood and the frozen remains of aborted babies, which had spilled out.

• In 2019, it came to light that Missouri's Planned Parenthood abortion facility was kept open without a license. It failed multiple health inspections, and had a history of frequent injuries to women requiring emergency care and ambulance transport. In 2017, it was cited for failure to follow acceptable standards of practice for hand hygiene. The facility's medical director, Dr. David Eisenberg, “questioned if hand hygiene between glove changes was a new standard” when he was caught failing to wash his hands between patients. In 2018, the facility was cited for the same violation along with others, including using long-expired medications and supplies, repeatedly using single dose injectable meds for more than one patient, failure to properly sterilize instruments between patients, failure to train employees on infection control procedures, and failure to record patients’ vitals before discharge. Yet a judge allowed it to remain open without a license.

You get the picture.

PRCs did not originate as medical clinics, but offered resources for women who needed material goods, and financial and emotional support during pregnancy and early stages of parenthood.

When a PRC does offer medical services, it is held accountable to the same standards that a medical facility should be. For example, Clearway Clinic, a pro-life pregnancy center in Massachusetts, is licensed by the state as a women’s health clinic.

Zoom Out:

According to the AP, abortion groups are also "frustrated" that PRCs don't offer birth control, and offer "only limited ultrasounds that cannot be used for diagnosing fetal anomalies because the people conducting them don’t have that training."

Birth control is not a health service, but even if abortion groups believe it to be a necessary component of health care, does it matter that PRCs don't offer it to clients? Birth control is widely available and easily accessible over the counter at pharmacies, convenience stores, online, and often at local health departments (some of which even offer condoms for free).

As for ultrasounds to diagnose fetal anomalies, Planned Parenthood doesn't provide those. Radiologists and maternal-fetal-medicine doctors are the ones who interpret ultrasounds and provide a diagnosis and Planned Parenthood doesn't have either of those medical professionals on staff.

However, the AP admitted that PRCs are beginning to offer these services. "In Sacramento, California, for instance, Alternatives Pregnancy Center in the last two years has added family practice doctors, a radiologist and a specialist in high-risk pregnancies, along with nurses and medical assistants," it said. "Alternatives — an affiliate of Heartbeat International, one of the largest associations of pregnancy centers in the U.S — is some patients’ only health provider."

The Other Side:

Another outlandish complaint published by the AP about PRCs is that "a growing number also offer unproven abortion-pill reversal treatments (APR)."

The misconception that APR is unproven is widespread, but Heartbeat International has credited APR with saving more than 7,000 babies. Yet pro-abortion groups continue to claim it is “dangerous and unproven,” even though APR is simply the administration of the pregnancy hormone progesterone in an effort to outcompete the progesterone-blocking effects of the abortion drug mifepristone (the first drug in the abortion pill protocol). 

Mifepristone works to starve and kill a preborn child in the embryonic stage by blocking the naturally occurring pregnancy hormone, progesterone. If the woman takes the mifepristone (but not the second drug in the abortion pill protocol — misoprostol), and regrets that choice, there is a chance she can counteract the effects of the mifepristone by taking progesterone prescribed by a doctor.

Progesterone has long been administered to women at risk of miscarriage in order to help sustain their pregnancies. Researchers in the UK found that in women who had at least three previous miscarriages, 72% who used progesterone were able to have live births, compared to 57% in the placebo group.

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The Big Picture:

Mulvihill wrote, "Because most of the [pro-life] centers don’t accept insurance, the federal law restricting release of medical information doesn’t apply to them, though some say they follow it anyway. They also don’t have to follow standards required by Medicaid or private insurers, though those offering certain services generally must have medical directors who comply with state licensing requirements."

Just because a center isn't legally required to keep their patients' information private doesn't mean they won't. Planned Parenthood, however, is required to... and has a history of failing to do so. Over the years, there have been multiple instances of privacy breaches at Planned Parenthood facilities.

As for following standards, Planned Parenthood consistently goes to court to argue that it should not have to follow the same standards as ambulatory outpatient facilities even when abortions are done on-site.

The Bottom Line:

Though the AP article was critical of PRCs, it at least noted the assistance and support they provide to women, and the author even interviewed women who said they would recommend a PRC to other women.

Even amid false claims against PRCs, it was difficult for the AP to avoid the truth: PRCs exist to serve women and meet their needs. Abortion businesses exist to abort babies.