Crisis Pregnancy Centres - What You Should Know

What are Crisis Pregnancy Centres (CPCs)?

Crisis Pregnancy Centres are anti-abortion agencies that attempt to disguise themselves as unbiased medical clinics and pregnancy support services. They tend to use scare tactics,  misinformation, and stigma to dissuade people from having abortions. CPCs are known for spreading harmful and false information about the safety of abortions, often making false claims about mental health impacts including rates of depression and regret in people who have had abortions.

Networks of Crisis Pregnancy Centres started popping up across Canada in 1968 with the establishment of an organization called Birthright. CPC’s are typically registered charities with religious affiliations, that are run by volunteers without medical training. They are not legally licensed medical clinics but they will situate themselves near abortion clinics to create confusion for folks who try to access abortion care. CPCs usually don’t provide medical services, but instead offer services like prenatal and family planning support, pregnancy options “counselling” that excludes abortion as an option, and “post-abortion counselling”. Some CPCs have also started offering pregnancy tests and ultrasounds as a way to bring pregnant people into their spaces.

CPCs and Abortion Access

These organizations target youth, low-income folks, newcomers, and other vulnerable people who are unsure or unaware of their options. While no laws prohibit abortion in Canada, a lack of access severely limits folks’ options. In Ontario, there are more CPCs than there are abortion clinics. Despite this, the current Ontario government is not interested in expanding access to reproductive health care. This creates huge barriers for those in rural areas of the province, and those without transportation who can’t travel to an abortion clinic. Ontario is also not alone in facing barriers to abortion access due to inaction from provincial government. Since CPCs are often very well-funded international organizations, they tend to be the first results to show up in online searches for “abortion clinics”. This lack of access and misinformation can cause significant delays for pregnant people trying to access abortion. 

BIPGM (Black, Indigenous, People of the Global Majority) folks, and trans and non-binary folks are disproportionately impacted by barriers to abortion and stigma due to systemic oppression. Access to quality and affordable healthcare, including abortion, is determined by economic status, citizenship status, physical and social location, among other intersections. Reproductive spaces can be very hetero & cis-normative, marginalizing trans and queer folks seeking abortion. Indigenous folks often have to leave their communities to access abortion, which is not always possible with family, financial, or social constraints. Additionally, BIPGM folks have long experienced racism and violence in reproductive health care spaces that increases stigma around abortion, such as instances of reproductive coercion and forced sterilization.

Identifying CPCs

While some Crisis Pregnancy Centres are explicit about not providing abortion information, others are not. Here are a few tips to identify a CPC and tell it apart from a sexual health/abortion clinic.

  • Untrue statements about the physical and mental impacts of abortions

  • Language that targets people in vulnerable states such as “Unsure?”, “Alone?”,  “Afraid?”

  • Very gendered language - will only mention “women” and “men” with services geared towards each

  • Testimonials of “hope” from people who chose not to get abortions

  • May make religious references (e.g. God, hope, faith) and link to religious groups

  • Images of pregnant people, babies, families

See this resource on How to Identify Fake Clinics from ARCC for more information on CPCs and how to identify them.

For a full list of anti-abortion organizations in Canada, including Crisis Pregnancy Centres, check out this resource from Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada.

Finding Unbiased Support

This interactive map lists Abortion Clinics and trusted support services in Toronto & Hamilton. Birth Mark’s Doulas offer unbiased pregnancy support so folks can make informed decisions about their reproductive health. Visit our services page to see support options or donate to Birth Mark to help us reach more people and provide care, including abortion doula support!

Additional Reading (Note: some of these articles use gendered language)

Birth Mark