Montgomery County, Md., Crisis Pregnancy Center Disclosure Bill Too Limited, Washington Post Editorial Says

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Pregnancy / Obstetrics;  Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 25 Nov 2009 - 6:00 PDT

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The Montgomery County, Md., County Council should reject "flawed" legislation "meant to target inaccuracies allegedly peddled by pregnancy centers that try to steer women away from abortion," a Washington Post editorial states. According to the editorial, abortion-rights advocates argue that "in the effort to persuade women not to terminate their pregnancies, the centers give out misleading or inaccurate information about the risks of abortion," the editorial says. For instance, the Web sites for two local centers falsely claim that women who have had an abortion face a higher risk of breast cancer -- an assertion that the National Cancer Institute has debunked.

However, the legislation "does not directly address this problem," the editorial continues. The bill, introduced by council member Duchy Trachtenberg (D) -- would require "pregnancy centers to tell women, either in writing or orally during a first visit, that the centers are not medical clinics and that women should seek professional medical advice before making a decision," the editorial states. "As long as a pregnancy center makes this disclosure, it is free to provide whatever advice or information it wishes," according to the editorial.

"Providers should be transparent about what services they do and do not offer," and "[n]o woman should be coerced -- by a pregnancy center or an abortion clinic -- into a decision" concerning her pregnancy, the editorial says. However, the "proposed disclosure is too cryptic to be an effective alarm bell for many women," it adds. The legislation is also "suspect because it singles out pregnancy centers while absolving abortion clinics of any disclosure requirements regarding adoption or parenting options," the editorial states. "If county leaders and abortion-rights advocates want women to have greater access to the full range of medical services," they could focus on publicizing the county's three full-time medical clinics that employ licensed health care providers and offer no-cost abortion, contraception and counseling services, according to the editorial (Washington Post, 11/23).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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