San Francisco takes on 'crisis pregnancy centers'
San Francisco officials are scrutinizing what they say is deceptive marketing by “crisis pregnancy centers” that purport to offer a full range of healthcare alternatives to women but actually proselytize against abortion.
Supervisor Malia Cohen was to introduce a proposal at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting to prohibit “limited-services pregnancy centers” from making false or misleading statements in their advertising.
And the city attorney’s office notified a local pregnancy center called First Resort that it must declare in its advertising that it does not provide abortion services.
The center advertises “Pregnancy Counseling Women’s Health Clinics,” but its real purpose is to “build an abortion-free world,” according to its articles of incorporation released by City Atty. Dennis Herrera.
“First Resort is certainly entitled to advocate for ‘an abortion-free world’ to anyone who wants to hear it,” Herrera said, “but the center is breaking the law by misrepresenting itself as an abortion provider for the purpose of luring women with unwanted pregnancies into its office.”
Plunkett said in a written statement that she was “confident that our clinic is a model and complies with local, state and federal laws.
“First Resort rejects in the strongest possible terms any representation that our advertising misled women,” she continued. “We treat women with dignity and respect and respect their right to choose."
ALSO:
Yosemite deaths highest in recent memory
LAPD urges drivers, cyclists to get along on the road
Ex-Marine arrested in Valley fires served time for arson in Japan
-- Maria L. LaGanga in San Francisco
EDITOR'S PICKS:
