Montgomery County (MD) Regulates Crisis Pregnancy Centers

This week, the Montgomery County Council in Maryland passed a bill that requires pregnancy centers without licensed medical professionals to post signs telling women that they are not receiving information from medical professionals.

This bill is expected to affect the operations of crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), the majority of which do not have medical professionals on staff, and often use deceptive advertising practices to give the appearance that they are legitimate medical clinics that provide a variety of reproductive health care services, including family planning and abortion care.

In reality, most CPCs do not provide full options counseling and generally will not refer for abortion care or birth control. Women who mistakenly visit CPCs describe being harassed, intimidated, and given blatantly false information at their appointments.

The bill passed on a vote of 7-2.

If you have experience with a deceptive CPC, we would be interested in hearing your story.

>Learn more about CPCs.