A senator in Côte d’Ivoire has expressed concern about a US-linked ‘crisis pregnancy centre’ in his country misinforming women and girls about their sexual and reproductive rights.
Months after openDemocracy first revealed the presence of such centres in 18 countries around the world, more have been identified in the francophone West African countries of Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Togo.
In Côte d’Ivoire, a counsellor with the Étoile du Matin ‘crisis pregnancy centre’ in Abidjan, the country’s largest city, provided misinformation about the laws and medical facts concerning abortion. The centre’s Facebook page says that it offers “advice” to pregnant women, but openDemocracy found that, faced with a young woman who said she was considering an abortion, the centre’s counsellor used misinformation and emotional manipulation to dissuade her from seeking one.
