A global network of ‘crisis pregnancy centres’, backed by US anti-abortion groups linked to the Trump White House, has been condemned by lawmakers, doctors and rights advocates for targeting vulnerable women with “disinformation, emotional manipulation and outright deceit”.
There are thousands of such centres in the US. Many have been criticised for posing as neutral health facilities for women with crisis pregnancies while hiding their anti-abortion and religious agendas. But the global scale of these controversial activities has not been mapped until now.
In the first investigation of its kind, openDemocracy sent undercover reporters posing as vulnerable women with unwanted pregnancies to centres affiliated with the Ohio-based Heartbeat International in eighteen countries. Our investigation uncovered:
