On Crisis Pregnancy Centers and Journalistic Integrity: A Tale of Two NPRs

Madelaine Assi
Jul 28, 2017 · 5 min read

Growing up in Florida, road trips were not complete without glancing up at billboards that served as propaganda for crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs). Peppering the long stretches of highway in the state’s most rural areas between Jacksonville and Tampa, the billboards utilized a wide spectrum of imagery ranging from grotesque to angelic; a photo of an aborted fetus on one billboard, a photo of a toddler on the next. Effective messaging would accompany the imagery: “Pregnant? Worried? Call now!” “Free pregnancy tests!” Though I wasn’t always conscious of these advertisements’ insidious mission, something always felt off about them. As I grew older, I learned about the agenda of CPCs, which was quite the opposite from giving women real reproductive health options. Across our nation, CPCs use deceit and shame as weapons against women who are often our society’s most vulnerable: poor, women of color, and others with very limited resources and education about reproductive health.

To be clear, at the heart of this issue is not abortion — it is the principle of honesty. CPCs are notorious for using an array of carefully-crafted messaging, deceit, and emotional coercion to prevent women from receiving abortions. In adapting to the age of technology, CPCs have been known to pay for their advertisements to populate when women would perform internet searches related to abortion. Until 2014, Google searches for “abortion centers” would populate advertisements for CPCs nearly 79% of the time. Google only began removing the ads when NARAL Pro-Choice America, an advocacy organization, filed multiple complaints. A Vice documentary produced in 2014 told of a trend in which when call CPCs to ask about the cost of an abortion and are told by the representative that they’re unable to discuss pricing over the phone. This practice forces women to visit the CPC only to find out they don’t provide abortions at all. CPCs also not-so-mysteriously appear directly adjacent to abortion providers with ambiguous names, aiming to confuse distressed women and lure them into their center instead of the abortion provider which they intended on visiting. Once inside a CPC, a woman can expect exposure to various materials designed to be a powerful emotional guilt-trip: videos laden with the faces and sounds of newborns, nursery-like rooms filled with baby clothes, and intimate discussions with people who possess a clear agenda and expertise in the art of emotional manipulation.

You can imagine, then, my surprise upon hearing about the great work that CPCs are doing by helping disadvantaged women enroll in Medicaid. No, I wasn’t listening to Fox News or an anti-choicer fanatic with a megaphone on a street corner. I heard this while listening to NPR’s All Things Considered this past Monday, July 24th. The story featured an anecdote of a woman who was not seeking an abortion and was helped by a CPC to enroll in Medicaid, which gave her the necessary resources and aid to receive prenatal and neonatal care for her child. I patiently waited in vain for the caveat, for the host to mention how these centers utilize deception and manipulation to prevent women from accessing abortions. The story briefly stated that these centers counsel women against abortion, and a director of a CPC chimed in that she simply “persuades” them against abortion. This is nothing more than sanitized language for a shameful and embarrassing institution that exists today in our neighborhoods.

Absent from the NPR story was the reality of the reproductive health landscape. Planned Parenthood goes beyond the capabilities of CPCs because their mission is based on the fundamental right of a woman’s autonomy, regardless of the path she chooses to take. Planned Parenthood provides free pregnancy tests and Medicaid counseling, but without the emotional blackmail that comes with visiting a CPC. Planned Parenthood also provides the tools and education necessary to help women avoid unplanned pregnancies.

As of 2016, there are 6 CPCs for every 1 abortion provider, and the number only seems to be increasing as more abortion providers close every year due to financial and legislative constraints. This story seemed like an attempt on behalf of NPR to balance their usual liberal-leaning coverage and shed light on “the other side” of the abortion debate. To be clear, my desire to hear different opinions and perspectives ends where those opinions attempt to control my body and my decisions. Stories like this whitewash the true nature of CPCs and do a disservice to reproductive health and to a larger extent, to women’s bodily autonomy. Stories like this matter, especially those disseminated on platforms as large as that of NPR. As such, I expect NPR to balance freedom of speech with journalistic integrity and not give positive publicity to an indefensible institution that makes the difficult situations of often-marginalized women even more difficult.

Update: I submitted a version of the above to NPR through a submission form on Wednesday, July 26th. I was surprised to hear back from them despite being disappointed by their response. Alexandra from the audience relations department explained that NPR listeners should assess their coverage of issues “comprehensively.” She also provided me links to pro-choice leaning stories by NPR. Let’s examine this nicely-crafted PR statement. The fact that NPR has previously produced material with a pro-choice angle doesn’t do much for the first-time listener who has never before heard of CPCs. After the dishonest and misinformed July 24th story, the listener is then armed with incomplete information and more dangerously, a misinformed opinion about CPCs. The field of journalism always seems to be wrestling with the balance between honest reporting and “fair” reporting. If the actions of a side of an issue are harmful to a segment of our population, I don’t think it deserves a platform so that the media outlet can pat itself on the back for being “fair.” I don’t believe that an institution which manipulates and coerces women should ever be given positive attention, even if they do occasionally provide positive support and help for some women. Helping women sign up for Medicaid does not erase CPCs’ legacy of coercing women against exercising rights to their bodies. I’m sure that I’m not the only person who submitted negative feedback for this story, and I hope that in the future, NPR is more conscientious about what it is broadcasting.

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