What Are Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) and Why Should I Avoid Them?

A Crisis Pregnancy Center  commonly known as a CPC  is a fake clinic. Not a clinic with limited services. Not a clinic with a different specialty. A fake clinic — one that deliberately presents itself as a legitimate healthcare facility while operating without medical licensing, without ethical accountability, and with one singular mission: to stop you from accessing abortion care.

This distinction matters enormously, especially when you are navigating an unplanned pregnancy and searching for help under stress and time pressure. CPCs are specifically designed to intercept people in exactly that vulnerable moment — and to use it against them.

While CPCs may offer limited free services such as pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, or parenting classes, these offerings exist as tools to get you through the door — not as genuine healthcare. Once you are there, their goal is to discourage you from considering abortion, delay you from accessing care you may have already decided on, and fill the space where accurate medical information should be with misinformation, guilt, and ideological pressure.

CPCs are not regulated the way real medical clinics are. They are not required to employ licensed medical professionals. They are not required to give you accurate medical information. They are not required to tell you about all of your pregnancy options. And they are not required to refer you to an abortion provider — even if you ask directly.

In 2026, CPCs outnumber actual abortion providers across the United States by a significant margin — in some states by ratios of three or four to one. Understanding what they are and how to identify them before you walk through the door is one of the most practically important things you can do right now.

How to Spot a CPC?

CPCs invest heavily in appearing legitimate. Their websites look professional. Their storefronts look clinical. Their staff may wear white coats. Some deliberately locate themselves near real reproductive health clinics to intercept patients who meant to go somewhere else. Spotting them requires knowing exactly what to look for — before you make an appointment.

They Hide Behind Neutral-Sounding Names

CPCs almost never call themselves Crisis Pregnancy Centers in their own marketing. Instead they use names designed to sound like neutral, comprehensive healthcare facilities. Common CPC names and phrases include:

• “Pregnancy Resource Center”
• “Pregnancy Care Center”
• “Women’s Health Center”
• “Pregnancy Help Center”
• “Center for Pregnancy Choices”
• “Women’s Wellness Clinic”
• “Life Care Center”

These names are chosen deliberately to mimic the language of real reproductive health providers. Their online advertising follows the same pattern — using search terms and phrases like “pregnancy options,” “pregnant and scared?”, “need help?”, “free pregnancy test,” and “free ultrasound” to appear in search results alongside legitimate clinics. Much of the content you encounter when searching for pregnancy information online is actually written and funded by CPCs — making it appear neutral while being anything but.

Before you make an appointment anywhere: Call ahead. Ask directly what services the clinic provides. Ask whether they refer patients to abortion providers upon request. A real medical clinic will answer both questions clearly and without hesitation. A CPC will deflect, change the subject, or tell you they do not make abortion referrals. That answer alone tells you everything you need to know.

They Use Free Services as a Lure

Free pregnancy tests. Free ultrasounds. Free diapers, baby clothes, and formula. These offers are real — but they exist for a specific purpose. CPCs use these free services to bring you in, establish a relationship with you, and create the conditions for ideological persuasion.

The free ultrasound is particularly important to understand. A CPC ultrasound is not a neutral medical service. In many documented cases, CPC ultrasound technicians — who may have no formal medical training — have provided inaccurate gestational age readings, missed serious conditions like ectopic pregnancies that require immediate medical care, or deliberately overstated gestational age to make patients believe they have less time to consider their options than they actually do.

An ultrasound from a CPC is not a reliable medical result. If you have received one, we strongly recommend having it confirmed by a licensed clinical provider before making any decisions based on it.

Their Staff May Have No Medical Training

This is one of the most serious and least-discussed aspects of CPC operations. The person speaking with you at a CPC — who may be wearing clinical attire, sitting in an exam-style room, asking detailed questions about your health, and conducting or interpreting an ultrasound — may have received no formal medical education whatsoever.

Many CPCs have no licensed medical professionals on staff at all. Others have a small number of volunteer nurses or technicians whose clinical scope is extremely limited. None of this is disclosed upfront. Because CPCs are not licensed medical facilities, they are not required to meet the staffing standards that govern real healthcare providers — and they frequently don’t.

This matters because the advice, information, and test results you receive from an unlicensed CPC staff member carry none of the professional accountability of advice from a licensed provider. You have no legal recourse if they give you inaccurate information, miss a dangerous condition, or delay your care.

They Spread Medical Misinformation

This is the most dangerous dimension of CPC operations — and the one most thoroughly documented by peer-reviewed medical research and independent investigation.

CPC staff routinely present the following claims as medical fact. Every single one is false and has been disproven by extensive clinical research:

“Abortion causes breast cancer.” False. Decades of rigorous research have found no causal link between abortion and breast cancer. This claim has been formally rejected by every major cancer and medical organization.

“Abortion causes infertility.” False. Neither medication abortion nor procedural abortion, when performed correctly by a licensed provider, causes any harm to future fertility. Research consistently confirms this.

“Abortion causes long-term psychological damage and post-traumatic stress.” False. “Post-abortion syndrome” is not a recognized diagnosis in any clinical or psychiatric framework. Research following thousands of people over multiple years consistently finds that relief is the dominant long-term emotion following abortion — not regret, not trauma.

“Abortion pill reversal is safe and effective.” False. The protocol marketed by many CPCs as “abortion pill reversal” has not been proven effective in peer-reviewed clinical trials. Medical authorities have raised serious safety concerns about this practice, and it is not endorsed by any major medical organization.

They may also withhold your medical records. In documented cases, CPCs have withheld ultrasound results and other information from patients — preventing them from taking accurate, complete medical information to a real provider and forcing delays in care. This practice has no place in genuine healthcare — and it is one of the clearest illustrations of the difference between a CPC’s stated purpose and its actual behavior.

Despite everything CPCs tell you: abortion is safe, effective, and does not cause any of the long-term medical concerns they describe. If you have received information from a CPC that frightened you about abortion, please speak with a licensed medical provider before making any decisions based on it.

What Clinics Can I Trust?

When you are looking for a place to confirm your pregnancy, have an accurate ultrasound performed, or receive honest information about all of your options — the standard for a trustworthy clinic is straightforward.

A trustworthy medical clinic will:

• Answer all of your questions about your pregnancy openly and accurately
• Provide information about every option available to you — parenting, adoption, and abortion — without steering you toward one
• Refer you to an abortion provider upon request, without hesitation or judgment
• Employ licensed medical professionals whose credentials are verifiable
• Be regulated, inspected, and accountable to state medical licensing standards
• Respect your privacy and protect your medical information under established patient privacy law
• Never charge you to withhold your own test results or medical records

A trustworthy clinic will never:

• Refuse to tell you what services they do and do not provide
• Decline to refer you to an abortion provider
• Present medically inaccurate information about any pregnancy option
• Use free services to create conditions for ideological persuasion
• Employ staff without appropriate medical licensing for the services being provided
• Withhold your ultrasound results or medical records

If a clinic meets the first list and avoids everything on the second, you are in the right place. If it fails on any point from the second list — leave, and find care somewhere else.

At Serenity Choice Health, every single one of these standards is a non-negotiable part of how we operate. Our providers are licensed. Our information is accurate. Our counseling covers every option. And our patients’ right to make their own fully informed decision is the foundation of everything we do.

Why Serenity Choice Health Cares

We see what happens when people are misled by fake clinics at one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. We see patients who arrived at a CPC believing they were receiving neutral medical care — and who left with inaccurate information about their gestational age, false beliefs about the risks of abortion, and in some cases, dangerously delayed access to care they had already decided they needed.

This is not a political position for us. It is a patient safety issue.

At Serenity Choice Health, we are committed to giving every patient who walks through our door — or reaches out to our team — the accurate, complete, compassionate information they deserve. We believe you are capable of making the right decision for your own life. We believe that decision belongs to you. And we believe that supporting your right to make it freely, with full information and zero pressure, is the most important thing a healthcare provider can do.

We offer complete pregnancy options counseling that covers parenthood, adoption, and abortion honestly and without bias. We offer licensed clinical care with verifiable credentials. We offer a space where your questions are welcomed, your circumstances are respected, and your decision — whatever it is — is supported.

Because your care matters. And you deserve the real thing.

About Serenity Choice Health

Serenity Choice Health is a fully accredited, licensed reproductive healthcare provider committed to giving patients accurate information and compassionate care at every stage of their pregnancy journey.

Our team of licensed medical providers, counselors, and support staff offer comprehensive pregnancy options counseling, clinical pregnancy confirmation, accurate ultrasound services, medication abortion care, procedural abortion services, prenatal referrals, and adoption guidance — all under one roof, all with the same standard of honest, evidence-based, judgment-free care.

We understand that navigating an unplanned pregnancy in 2026 — in a healthcare landscape full of misinformation, fake clinics, and political noise — is genuinely difficult. Our goal is to cut through all of that and give you exactly what you need: real information, real care, and real support for whatever decision you make.

If you have questions about your pregnancy, your options, or whether a clinic you found is legitimate contact Serenity Choice Health today. Our team is available for confidential consultations, and we are here to help you find the path forward that is right for your life.

For a complete, honest breakdown of all your pregnancy options from a clinic you can actually trust, read our full guide: Unplanned Pregnancy: Understanding All Your Options

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I know if a clinic near me is a Crisis Pregnancy Center?
Call before you visit and ask two direct questions: what services do you provide, and do you refer patients to abortion providers upon request? A real medical clinic will answer both clearly and without hesitation. A CPC will deflect, decline to answer, or tell you they do not make abortion referrals. That response alone identifies them. You can also search the clinic’s name online alongside the word “CPC” to find community-sourced information about their affiliations.

2. Can a CPC give me an accurate ultrasound?
Not reliably. Many CPC ultrasound technicians have no formal medical training, and documented cases exist of CPCs providing inaccurate gestational age readings — sometimes deliberately — to limit patients’ awareness of their options. If you have had an ultrasound at a CPC, have it confirmed by a licensed provider at a real clinic, like Serenity Choice Health, before making any decisions based on those results.

3. Is the information CPCs give about abortion accurate?
No. CPCs routinely present medically false claims about abortion — including that it causes breast cancer, infertility, or long-term psychological trauma. All three of these claims have been comprehensively disproven by decades of peer-reviewed clinical research. Abortion is safe, effective, and does not cause the long-term medical consequences CPCs describe.

4. What is “abortion pill reversal” and is it real?
Abortion pill reversal is a protocol promoted by many CPCs claiming to reverse a medication abortion after mifepristone has been taken. It is not supported by peer-reviewed medical evidence, has not been proven effective in rigorous clinical trials, and has been flagged as potentially dangerous by medical authorities. It is not endorsed by any major medical organization. If you have questions about medication abortion at any stage, speak directly with a licensed provider at Serenity Choice Health.

5. What if I already visited a CPC — what should I do now?
Do not make any decisions based solely on information or test results you received at a CPC. Contact a licensed medical provider — like Serenity Choice Health — for an accurate clinical pregnancy confirmation, a reliable ultrasound, and honest, complete options counseling. Whatever stage you are at, we can help you get accurate information and move forward from where you are now. Contact our team today for a confidential consultation.