Beware of Anti-Abortion Centers: The Reality of Crisis Pregnancy Centers in Florida
Warning: Anti-abortion centers harm pregnant Floridians. “Florida women describe being harassed, bullied, and given blatantly false information at fake clinics. These fake clinics undermine the trust at the foundation of the patient-provider relationship by posing as health care providers and peddling inaccurate medical information.” – Dr. Nicole Fanarjian, OB/GYN
What are Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Centers?
Did you know there are 192 anti-abortion pregnancy centers operating across Florida? Sometimes calling themselves “crisis pregnancy centers”, these anti-abortion pregnancy centers deceive and shame Floridians seeking comprehensive reproductive health care including abortion care. Anti-abortion pregnancy centers dramatically outnumber actual women’s health care providers.
When someone has decided to have an abortion, they should have support and respect, and their experience should be without shame or pressure. Unfortunately, anti-abortion pregnancy centers create the exact opposite experience for folks as they exist to talk women out of abortions.
Funding and Legislation
Many of these are state-funded with taxpayer dollars: in the 2025-2026 budget, Gov. Ron DeSantis allocated $30.1 million towards these centers. Extremists in the Florida Legislature have repeatedly attacked reproductive health care, in particular targeting access to safe and legal abortion. One avenue of attack has been legitimizing anti-abortion pregnancy centers through legislation.
| Metric | Data Point |
|---|---|
| Total centers in Florida | 192 |
| 2025-2026 Budget Allocation | $30.1 million |
| 2023 Funding Increase | $25 million annually |
Deceptive Tactics and Manipulative Practices
Anti-abortion pregnancy centers purport to offer pregnancy-related health care and medical services, but fail to provide comprehensive, evidence-based medical care. Using lies and manipulative practices, they work to shame women out of getting reproductive care – particularly birth control and abortion. To achieve this, they utilize the following methods:
- Deceptive Advertising: Deceptive advertising is their M.O. as they adopt names that sound like actual reproductive health centers and place deceptive ads under internet searches for “abortion.”
- Strategic Location: They intentionally locate on the same block, sometimes even in the same building, as actual abortion providers.
- Impersonating Professionals: Their staff and volunteers may pose as medical professionals wearing scrubs or white coats.
- Scheduling Delays: They often schedule appointments as far out as possible because they know timing is critical with any pregnancy. Patients who wait may face costs that are prohibitive or be too far along to get an abortion.
Spread of Medical Misinformation
Fueled by a staunch anti-abortion agenda, they use free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds for persuasion instead of medical diagnosis. These centers provide inaccurate information to patients:
- They lie about risks associated with the abortion procedure, linking abortion to increased risk of infertility and breast cancer.
- They have no medical or safety standards, and there’s no way of knowing if they’re even disinfecting equipment between patients.
- You won’t get abortion help or even birth control at a fake clinic.
Tricking, shaming, and scaring potentially pregnant patients is unjust. Floridians deserve timely access and a full range of care options, not medically inaccurate information pushed on them by anti-abortion pregnancy centers. Despite the proven public health need for women and patients to be able to access the full range of timely and affordable reproductive health care services, our State government is funding anti-abortion pregnancy centers that do the exact opposite.