Crisis pregnancy centers in Virginia, which provide anti-abortion counseling, are offering misleading advice to women, the National Abortion Rights Action League said today.
A year-long investigation by the NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia Foundation found that the centers are seeking to intimidate women into not choosing an abortion, sometimes at risk to their health.
State Sens. Ralph S. Northam, D-Norfolk, and Mark R. Herring, D-Loudoun, and Del. David L. Englin, D-Alexandria, have proposed legislation to regulate the centers, including posting on the door a notice that the facility is not a health-care center. Northam is a pediatric neurologist.
According to the NARAL investigation, some women were told that 28 percent of women attempt suicide after an abortion and that a doctor performing an abortion could accidentally "suck out your bowels."
Victoria Cobb, president of the anti-abortion Family Foundation, said NARAL is making its claims because the crisis centers are "eating into their profits."
"Women deserve to know more than what NARAL wants them to know," Cobb added.
The NARAL investigation said that many of the 52 crisis pregnancy centers are staffed by personnel who are not medically trained. Its investigation, which included 28 in-person visits, found that some of the centers offered factually erroneous information.
The centers are not state funded, but money from "Choose Life" license plates, which the state began offering last year, goes to them, NARAL said.
The proposed legislation would require the centers to register with the Department of Health.
The anti-abortion forces also have proposed legislation that would regulate clinics that provide more than 25 first-trimester abortions in a year. Del. Matthew J. Lohr, R-Rockingham, is the sponsor.
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