https://rewire.news/article/2017/11/09/watchdog-massachusetts-fake-clinic-illegally-deceives-abortion-patients/
[links in on-line article]
Watchdog: Massachusetts Fake Clinic Illegally Deceives Abortion Patients
Nov 9, 2017, 12:57pm Amy Littlefield
“The Center appears to be advertising abortion services that it intends
not to offer in apparent violation of the law."
A consumer watchdog group has filed a complaint with Massachusetts
Attorney General Maura Healey accusing an Attleboro crisis pregnancy
center, or fake clinic, of breaking state law by masquerading as an
abortion clinic.
The Campaign for Accountability sent the complaint Thursday after Rewire
revealed how the website for Attleboro Women’s Health Center offers
detailed information about abortion procedures, cost estimates, and
appointments “to discuss the abortion methods that may be available to you.”
That offer “seems incompatible” with the fact that the center does not
provide or even refer for abortion care–a reality it concedes at the
bottom of the website’s “About” page, the complaint notes.
“The Center appears to be advertising abortion services that it intends
not to offer in apparent violation of the law,” Katie O’Connor, legal
counsel with the Campaign for Accountability, wrote in the complaint.
O’Connor’s complaint accuses the fake clinic of deceptive business
practices and misleading advertising. In addition to “deliberately
trying to confuse and deceive” abortion patients, the website has
inaccuracies about the purported psychological risks of abortion care
and the unproven claim that a medication abortion can be reversed,
O’Connor notes.
The center is located about half a mile from Four Women Health Services,
an abortion clinic whose mission statement Attleboro Women’s Health
Center appears to have copied nearly verbatim on its website.
The complaint also alleges the fake clinic is making unauthorized use of
a corporate name. That’s because Attleboro Women’s Health Center shares
an address and business hours with Abundant Hope Pregnancy Resource
Center, a self-described “Christian pro-life ministry.”
“We are under that umbrella,” a representative at the health center told
Rewire, when asked if the health center is the same organization as
Abundant Hope.
The health center’s website is registered to Darlene Howard, executive
director of Abundant Hope, an affiliate of Heartbeat International,
which describes itself as the world’s largest network of crisis
pregnancy centers, and instructs these anti-choice clinics to conceal
their intentions by scrapping religious language, for example.
“Abundant Hope appears to be operating as Attleboro Women’s Health
Center, yet does not appear to have filed an amendment to its articles
of incorporation in apparent violation of Massachusetts law,” O’Connor
wrote in her complaint.
Howard was unavailable for comment on the complaint.
Attempts to regulate crisis pregnancy centers at the state, county, and
city levels have faced legal challenges. But Attorney General Healey has
taken steps to protect abortion access, reaching a settlement agreement
this year to prohibit a Boston-based firm hired by anti-choice groups
from targeting “abortion-minded women” in Massachusetts with digital
propaganda while they visit abortion clinics. The settlement also
followed a Rewire investigation.
“Massachusetts has really robust consumer protection laws and obviously
an attorney general who’s willing to enforce those laws,” O’Connor told
Rewire. “We’re hopeful in this pretty egregious case that she would
decide to investigate.”
A spokesperson for Healey confirmed the office has received the
complaint about Attleboro Women’s Health Center and will review it. The
violations detailed in the complaint can carry fines or even
imprisonment, but O’Connor said her hope is that Healey’s office stops
the fake clinic from deceiving people.
“I think what I would most like to see is the Attleboro Women’s Health
Center having a website that more accurately describes what it actually
does,” O’Connor said.