Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and 16 other state AGs signed on to an open letter supporting the internet review site Yelp in its efforts to add alerts to Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC) listings, noting that the centers do not provide comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion services.
“Yelp’s notifications provide accurate information about what services are and are not available through crisis pregnancy centers,” said AG Tong in a statement. “This is a powerful step towards combatting confusion and misinformation, and will help ensure that women receive the care and services they are looking for.”
CPCs have come under fire from pro-choice advocates who accuse the centers of willfully misrepresenting themselves to women seeking abortion care. CPCs are faith-based, pro-life organizations that seek to steer women away from such services. In 2017, Hartford’s mayor proposed a city ordinance that would prohibit such misrepresentations after a longtime abortion provider – Hartford GYN – accused a facility that had set up shop across the street – Hartford Women’s Center – of intercepting patients to dissuade them from seeking an abortion. In a statement to the Hartford Courant, the director of the CPC Leticia Velasquez, said: “Our mission at Hartford Women’s Center is to ‘intercept’ young women who feel they have no other choice than abortion.”
In 2018, the city officially adopted new rules that required CPCs to state in their entryways that they did not employ licensed medical professionals who can perform services.
In 2021, the state adopted similar rules for CPCs, making it illegal for the organizations to misrepresent themselves in advertising, either through direct statements or through omissions. Organizations found in violation of the rules would be required to correct the errors and could be fined up to $500 per violation.
In the open letter signed earlier this week, the 17 AGs wrote “CPCs do not provide full-scope reproductive healthcare and often use deceptive tactics to lure in patients seeking reproductive healthcare. These tactics can have dire health consequences and rob patients of their healthcare choices. Efforts such as Yelp’s warnings help educate consumers and ensure patients are informed of what services are and are not available at CPCs, which ultimately protects the public health.”
Neither Yelp’s rules nor those implemented in the state of Connecticut limit a CPC’s ability to operate as they wish or require them to provide services that are against their religious beliefs and practices. Early this year, a lawsuit filed against the state on behalf of a CPC found that at the time, AG Tong said he was unaware of any CPC that was in violation of the new state rules. The suit was then dropped.
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