“In a world where these centers outnumber abortion providers nine to one, the impact is significant,” Signe Espinoza, the executive director at Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates, told The New Republic. “Our state is saying that no longer will they publicly fund and use taxpayer dollars to organizations that first and foremost do not provide sexual reproductive health care.” According to Espinoza, crisis pregnancy centers not only manipulate pregnant people into carrying to term, but they don’t even provide prenatal care or refer people to legitimate health clinics that offer a “full range” of reproductive health services. In many cases, these centers will even mislead patients away from taking advantage of the full range of care that is readily available to them.
“I think a lot of people don’t understand that the CPC industry functions as a barrier to all forms of legitimate medical care, not solely abortion, although that is their primary mission,” Murtha says, adding that “it feels great” that those who have spent years sounding the alarm on the harms and dangers of crisis pregnancy centers ”have all finally been heard.”
While Murtha and Espinoza both praise this decision as a step in the right direction, they say it is still only a small piece of a larger puzzle that still needs to be pieced together. Murtha notes that while the actual impact this will have on abortion access “remains to be seen” since only 28 out of the more than 150 crisis pregnancy centers in Pennsylvania were part of the state-funded network, “what we do know right away is that reallocating the funds will increase access to legitimate medical care overall, whether that is abortion or someone seeking prenatal care.”