Gottheimer launches campaign to shutdown deceptive anti-choice clinics posing as women’s healthcare providers in New Jersey

NEW JERSEY – U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5), in front of an anti-choice clinic posing as a legitimate healthcare provider, announced Friday new action to prevent these brainwashing cult clinics, known as crisis pregnancy centers, from providing false or misleading information that puts women’s health at risk.

Gottheimer plans to stop at deceptive crisis pregnancy centers across New Jersey so women know they exist and to fight to shut these dangerous centers down.

There are more than 50 crisis pregnancy centers in New Jersey which are not staffed by licensed medical health professionals. Women often go to these healthcare hoax clinics thinking they will receive real medical help, but instead they are greeted by people with no medical background whose goal is to brainwash women with their own ideological agenda.

The dangers of crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs):

• CPCs pose as a healthcare clinic with doctors and nurses, but are not staffed by licensed medical professionals.
• CPCs regularly ignore medical ethics and are staffed by people with no medical background whose goal is to brainwash women with their own ideological agenda.
• New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin issued a consumer alert, warning people that crisis pregnancy centers do not provide health care. They are organizations that seek to prevent people from accessing reproductive health care and provide false or misleading information.
• CPCs lie about the risks associated with abortion, use aggressive tactics to manipulate women into changing their minds based on no medical information, and deceive women into thinking they’re too far along to legally get the care they need.
• CPCs promote dangerous medical misinformation such as abortion pill “reversal” — an unproven and unethical treatment. This so-called treatment can be potentially harmful by giving pregnant women misleading information that an abortion can be undone.
• In June, a woman sued a CPC for failing to diagnose her ectopic pregnancy, which resulted in an emergency surgery and the loss of her fallopian tube.
• CPCs don’t provide legitimate prenatal care or refer women to health clinics that would offer a full range of health services.
• CPCs locate their facilities near real healthcare clinics so their employees can physically divert women away from real healthcare providers.

Gottheimer’s new action to stop anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers:

• First, Gottheimer plans to stop at deceptive crisis pregnancy centers across New Jersey so women know they exist and to fight to shut these dangerous centers down.
• Second, Gottheimer is helping lead the Stop Anti-abortion Disinformation Act in the House to prevent crisis pregnancy centers from spreading deceptive advertising about health care. This legislation directs the Federal Trade Commission to prohibit mis- and dis-information related to abortion services and authorizes the FTC to penalize organizations that break this rule.
• Third, Gottheimer sent a letter to the Governor and leaders in the State Legislature asking them to build on their good work ensuring New Jersey is a safe haven for a woman’s right to choose, by restricting crisis pregnancy centers’ deceptive marketing practices. Gottheimer also wrote to support state legislation to outlaw this type of advertising that masquerades as health care.

“Women go to these healthcare hoax clinics thinking they will get real medical help, but instead they are greeted by people with no medical background whose goal is to brainwash women with their own ideological agenda,” Gottheimer said. “We need to do everything we can to shut down these brainwashing cult clinics. We need to stop the fake programming they’re pushing. Today marks my first stop at one of the many healthcare hoax centers around the state – women need to know they exist, and we must shut them down. We will make our voices heard and call out crisis pregnancy centers across the state so no women in New Jersey ever suffer from their abusive tactics. It’s up to all of us to spread the word about these dangerous centers.”

“We applaud Congressman Gottheimer’s efforts to ensure that all individuals have access to accurate and reliable information about reproductive health care services.  So-called ‘crisis pregnancy centers’ exist to push a dangerous agenda fueled by misinformation.  It is important that we work together to support quality health care providers that adhere to a higher standard of care with respect to individual privacy and health care decisions,” said New Jersey Family Planning League President Rachel Baum.

“Crisis pregnancy centers prey on women in the most vulnerable moments of their lives. A far cry from health care, these places compound trauma by misguiding and misrepresenting their true, ideological goals. Women deserve dignity, they deserve to trust their health care providers and they deserve to have all possible options to make the best and most mindful decision for themselves and their family. We have laws against false advertisement, we should have laws against drawing in desperate women under false and misleading pretenses,” said Assemblywoman Ellen J. Park (LD-37).

Gottheimer was joined by Bergen County Commissioner Germaine Ortiz, Bergen County Commissioner Mary Amoroso, and New Jersey Family Planning League’s Expanding Abortion Access Program Director Ashley Generallo.