Clinics Try to Steer Women From Abortions

Nov. 16, 2006 — -- Abortion clinics are now outnumbered nationwide by "crisis pregnancy centers," which, usually funded by Christian groups, often set up near abortion clinics to dissuade women from having abortions.

When Andrea went to have an abortion in Indianapolis, she arrived at what she believed was Planned Parenthood. She saw signs advertising "free pregnancy test" and went inside the building.

When she started talking to the staff, she was asked how she felt about having an abortion, and she became suspicious.

"I said, 'Is this Planned Parenthood? I had an appointment,'" she said

She was then told it was not, and she realized she had mistakenly walked into a crisis pregnancy center."I felt deceived. I felt confused," Andrea said.

One Building, Two Clinics

In recent years, crisis pregnancy centers have proliferated across the country. There are now more than 2,000 of them, and they outnumber abortion clinics.

"We're in the same building as two abortion clinics," said Chris Slattery of Expectant Mother Care, a crisis pregnancy center located a few floors above a Planned Parenthood in New York City.

"We want to beat the abortionists to reaching these mothers. There's no doubt about it," he said.

To accomplish that goal, they show women a graphic video of an abortion procedure, after warning them they are about to see an explicit video.

They also offer her an ultrasound, so she can see moving images of the unborn child.

"This is a very powerful tool," Slattery said. "Now it's much harder for them to actually think of destroying a child."

Slattery said he's providing information women need to make an informed choice. But abortion providers say the centers harass and mislead women by telling them, as Slattery often does, that abortions can lead to breast cancer, sterility and depression.

These claims have all been widely discredited by the medical community.

"They're absolutely using scare tactics," said Betty Cockrum of Planned Parenthood.

One woman who spoke with ABC News said she didn't feel misled at all when she entered a pregnancy crisis center.

"When I first went in there, I was thinking that I was too young, that I didn't want a baby," Rachel Acosta said.

She went to one of Slattery's crisis pregnancy centers at age 15. Now she's 21 and is the single mother of three children. She said when she looks at her daughter and thinks about the fact that she nearly aborted her, it makes her "sad.

"It makes me want to cry," Acosta said. "I mean, I did cry when I gave birth to her. I was, like, look at what I almost gave up."

Whatever their critics say about the tactics of crisis pregnancy centers, the people who run them say this is what justifies their work, the children they call "gifts from god."