Protesters outside of a crisis pregnancy center in Ireland (Credit: Ms. Magazine)

At the end of last week, three Democratic legislators renewed their efforts to protect women from right-wing crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), anti-abortion front groups that often use misleading advertising to market themselves as women’s health clinics. Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) have reintroduced the “Stop Deceptive Advertising For Women’s Services Act,” which would hold those facilities accountable for any deceptive marketing tactics that falsely advertise abortion services they don’t actually provide. The measure encourages the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to crack down on the facilities that falsely advertise abortion services that don’t actually exist, while the organizations that are already accurately depicting their services wouldn’t be penalized.

Crisis pregnancy centers have a long history of preying on vulnerable women with medical misinformation. CPCs present themselves as a valid alternative to women’s health clinics, hoping to lure in women who want more information about their reproductive options, but they actually use conservative propaganda to dissuade women from choosing an abortion. And CPCs like to locate themselves close to reproductive health facilities — often moving in right next door — specifically to confuse patients who may be seeking an abortion.

“Deception has no place when a woman is seeking information about her health or a pregnancy,” Maloney said in a statement introducing the new CPC legislation. “While I will defend crisis centers’ First Amendment rights even though I disagree with their view of abortion, those that practice bait-and-switch should be held accountable so that pregnant women are not deceived at an extremely vulnerable time in their lives.”

Nevertheless, CPCs across the country have largely escaped accountability by citing those First Amendment rights. In cities that have attempted to prevent crisis pregnancy centers from lying to women, CPCs have typically been able to overturn those ordinances by arguing that any additional regulation stifles their freedom of speech. But there has been some slow progress lately. Last year, a judge in San Francisco ruled that CPCs don’t deserve constitutional protections for their misleading advertisements. And lawmakers in Oregon are currently advancing a measure that would require the CPCs in that state to explicitly disclose accurate information about the medical services they offer.

So far, the federal bill to crack down on CPCs has won the support of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “We know these crisis pregnancy centers lie to women in the moment they most need accurate information to decide the future of their pregnancy and their lives,” Ilyse Hogue, NARAL’s president, said in response to the bill’s introduction. “We’re thrilled that Sen. Menendez is taking action to hold these fake ‘clinics’ accountable.”

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At the beginning of this year, a long political battle to expand reproductive access for women serving in the military successfully ensured that female servicemembers will have the same abortion coverage that civilian employees of the federal government already do. But that victory didn’t apply to another sector of Americans serving abroad: Peace Corps volunteers working across the globe.

That’s why Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) is currently working to expand abortion access to rape victims serving in the Peace Corps. On Wednesday, the lawmaker introduced a bill to offer Peace Corps volunteers the same type of reproductive health coverage that is offered to other women who get federal health benefits. “It is unacceptable that their own country restricts their access to care,” Lautenberg said in a statement this week.

Under the current policy, if a Peace Corps volunteer has been raped and wants to terminate a pregnancy resulting from that sexual assault, she will be forced to pay for the entire cost of that abortion procedure herself because the federal government won’t cover it. That’s a sharp departure from the national standard. Although the Hyde Amendment prohibits the federal government from providing insurance coverage for elective abortions, it does contain a narrow exemption for rape, incest, and cases to preserve the life of the woman. Thirty two states and the District of Columbia also offer this type of exception in their bans on public funding for abortion.

Lautenberg’s bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), who spearheaded the recent effort to remove the same abortion restrictions for women in the military who have been victims of rape or incest. Women’s health advocates were encouraged that Shaheen’s legislation was successful, and they’re hoping that a similar push on behalf of Peace Corps volunteers will see the same results. “Just as Congress took historic action last year to ensure women in the U.S. military have basic reproductive health care coverage in cases of rape or incest, members of the House and Senate must support and pass this bill swiftly to protect the fundamental human rights of women serving our country in the Peace Corps,” Nancy Northrup, the president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.

Fortunately, there is national momentum on this issue as well. The budget proposal that President Obama put forth earlier this month includes a provision that would eliminate the current abortion ban in the Peace Corps, bringing volunteers’ health coverage in line with the standards for other federal employees. That would also bring the Peace Corps’ policy in line with public opinion. Americans overwhelmingly support abortion access for victims of rape and incest.