On Monday evening’s Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, host Samantha Bee, joined by a snazzily-dressed Patton Oswalt, investigated crisis pregnancy centers that claim to offer pregnant women counseling services, although their primary goal is to discourage these women from seeking abortions.
“A crisis pregnancy center is a fake abortion clinic,” explains Vicki Saporta of the National Abortion Federation in the segment. “They spread these lies hoping to frighten women and to persuade them not to go ahead with obtaining the abortion that they want.”
Sporta explains that these centers use names that sound similar to those of abortion clinics—including typefaces and logos—and staff people who seem like medically-trained professionals, but aren’t.
Cherisse Scott, who unwittingly attended a crisis pregnancy center in search of an abortion, was ultimately convinced to have the baby after “learning” she’d probably be unable to conceive again if she had an abortion. Now that she’s a mom, she says, the crisis pregnancy center has disappeared.
“They have disappeared without a trace,” Scott said. “When it was difficult to get food stamps or when it was difficult to get his father on child support, they weren’t there. My son deserved to have a situation where he didn’t have to worry about his mother struggling to make the ends meet until I was able to figure it out. He deserved to be able to come into a loving situation, not in a situation where I was confused or because of a lie.”
Watch the clip here.