SAN DIEGO — A San Diego County supervisor wants to shut down what she calls fraudulent crisis pregnancy centers.
Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer wants the county to do more abortion education and bring lawsuits against crisis pregnancy centers. The County Board of Supervisors will vote at Tuesday’s meeting at 9 a.m.
Lawson-Remer says she’s asking the County Board of Supervisors to approve spending County time and resources to tell women that crisis pregnancy centers are what she calls fake and dangerous. And she wants the County to determine if they can shut them down.
“They're fake centers pretending to offer reproductive healthcare advice to women, luring unsuspecting women into their doors. They do not offer actual medical advice. They do not offer any prenatal services. They do not offer a full range of healthcare to women. They instead try to prevent women from exercising their right to seek healthcare services and to seek an abortion," Lawson-Remer said.
CBS 8 called several clinics in the area that say they offer pregnancy services. They all directed us to the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates.
CBS 8 a statement from Carolyn Koole, the Executive Director of Hope Clinic for Women in Fallbrook that said,
"In the last year, Hope Clinic for Women provided over 3,380 free services to women, including pregnancy tests, maternity and infant resources, ultrasounds, parenting classes, and mentoring, totaling more than $678,000. Oftentimes, we establish long-term relationships with these women as we assist them after their pregnancies and continue to offer support. These women often have no other resources and the Board of Supervisors, through their misinformed and misguided efforts to shut down places like pregnancy centers that help women and their families for free, is a direct attack on women who are in need of assistance. If the Board really wanted to aid women in unsupported pregnancies, they would be promoting pregnancy centers, not trying to shut them down. It is a travesty that they are directly targeting centers whose mission is to aid women at no cost solely because they are pro-abortion and we are not."
Crisis pregnancy centers do not provide abortion services.
Dr. Toni Manego, the Chief Medical Officer for Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest says crisis pregnancy centers are run by anti-abortion volunteers who are not trained professionals and they pop up in Google searches when women are looking for pregnancy help.
“These centers advertise free pregnancy tests, and pregnancy or abortion counseling. They're often listed online as pregnancy resource or help centers, women centers, or abortion alternatives. All people should have access to the care and information they need about their own decisions about when and if to start a family," Manego said.
Lawson-Remer says local media reports have said there are at least 16 crisis pregnancy centers in San Diego County.
She would not name them, she said, unless the County’s legal department investigates and says if they are operating fraudulently, she wants the County to sue to shut them down.
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