Words by Melissa Cortes Santiago
Edited by Abigail Vela
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, effectively ending the right to abortion, there have been many changes when it comes to reproductive health in our communities. For one, access to abortion care and reproductive healthcare has become limited or outright inaccessible. Activists throughout the RGV and across the border have been diligently working to continue providing resources and community support.
Although things have improved in the last two years, mainly due to grassroots efforts from activists, it’s still difficult to navigate the system. The immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court decision brought uncertainty and fear nationwide. People who wanted to access abortion care weren’t sure who to turn to or trust. For many, that fear still persists, and now more than ever, our community needs unobstructed access to reliable information.
Unfortunately, there has been a rise of “fake clinics,” also known as crisis pregnancy centers, which spread misinformation and prey on people in vulnerable situations who are seeking reproductive care. These centers receive substantial state funding and taxpayer money, raising serious questions about the negative impacts that they have on our communities.
These centers are nonprofit organizations that present themselves as legitimate reproductive health clinics. They market themselves as a “resource” center for pregnant people, often luring them in with the promise of a free ultrasound or pregnancy test. However, in reality, they are deeply anti-abortion and tend to be affiliated with some sort of religious organization.
Their main purpose is to persuade people to carry their pregnancies to full term and keep the future baby or opt for adoption. To achieve this, they often give misleading or outright false information about abortion care to scare people who have unplanned pregnancies and may be seeking information about termination.
“They will tell people that they can offer abortion care or information about medication abortion. However, they don’t offer that at all. It’s just a tactic to lure people in so that way they can push their agenda and force people out of not getting an abortion. They’ll even go as far as performing a quote-unquote ultrasound and give someone the wrong gestation so that they can persuade people out of care,” said Cathy Torres (she/her), organizing manager at Frontera Fund, the only abortion fund in the RGV.
Torres explained that these centers “cosplay” as medical clinics, meaning they aren’t licensed medical facilities and are often staffed by volunteers or counselors without medical training. This means that they are not subject to HIPAA laws, so they’re not required to keep client information confidential and may even share information about pregnancy or abortion intentions with people outside the clinic.
It’s terrifying to think that these anti-abortion centers exist and are completely legal. Unfortunately, they have established themselves in our community. There are about 6 of these centers in the RGV.
After the court’s decision, abortion became illegal in Texas, and Whole Woman’s Health, the last remaining abortion clinic in the RGV, closed its doors. The building, once a sacred space for reproductive freedom, was sold to the McAllen Pregnancy Center, a crisis pregnancy center that had been spreading false information and harassing patients and activists alike for years. Local activists who had been fundraising to buy the building to turn it into a safe space for the community were left feeling devastated and abandoned by the move.
“I guess, to put it in words, it was like a punch in the gut,” said Torres. “It just goes to show that it is very important to cite and check your sources, even when selling property.”
The building is now being renovated to expand the pregnancy center’s operations and continue spreading false information to people seeking help. According to a recent report by ProPublica, the McAllen Pregnancy Center received $3.5 million in taxpayer money from 2020 to 2022 under a state program called Thriving Families. The program, which is meant to help families who find themselves with unplanned pregnancies, has little oversight, and millions of taxpayer dollars are not being accounted for. Out of the $3.5 million, McAllen Pregnancy Center spent less than $1 million running its programs.
“It’s frustrating because there are people like Frontera Fund and other really great reproductive justice groups that are actually doing community care and ensuring that people are able to access healthcare across the spectrum. And these clinics simply are not,” said Torres. “They are cosplaying someone who cares about healthcare and has that knowledge or that skill just so that they can fulfill some anti-abortion extremist agenda.”
As our communities continue to navigate this new landscape, which includes anti-abortion centers, we must lean on one another for support. By staying informed and sharing that with others, we can ensure access to accurate reproductive healthcare and uphold the dignity and rights of everyone in our community
“It’s important that we arm ourselves with knowledge,” said Torres. “That really transcends so many different levels of making abortion accessible for all.”
If you or anyone you know needs to access accurate information about abortion, visit Frontera Fund or call their helpline at (956) 887-0706.
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