Editor’s note: This story is part of Family Values, a series investigating crisis pregnancy centers in Onondaga County. 

LIVERPOOL — Evening traffic passes Care Net Pregnancy Center of Central New York, located less than a mile from Liverpool High School. A photo of a woman staring seriously is displayed on a large yellow sign outside the center alongside messages offering free pregnancy tests and ultrasound confirmation.

The center is one of three crisis pregnancy centers in Onondaga County. Care Net of CNY does not perform or refer for abortions, and contraception is not offered. “Options counseling” and “community referrals” are listed as services on the organization’s website. At the bottom of the website is a disclaimer stating the organization doesn’t provide or refer for abortions. 

“Our approach is like this: We don’t judge people for what they do, but we do believe that women have a right to be fully informed,” said Paul Marshall, president and executive director of Care Net of CNY.

Crisis pregnancy centers, or CPCs, aim to “intercept women with unintended or ‘crisis’ pregnancies who might be considering abortion,” according to an article published in the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics. Some are religiously affiliated, and most are not licensed medical facilities. 

Pamphlets offered at Care Net of CNY. One pamphlet, titled “Before You Decide,” includes misleading information. Lauren Miller | Senior Staff Videographer

The organization provides free pregnancy tests, parenting classes and post-abortion support, among other services. The center sees about 1,500 new clients per year, with about 800 seeking pregnancy tests, Marshall said.

Care Net of CNY, founded in 1989, is a nonprofit organization with seven locations across the region, including in Rome, Utica and Oneida. The organization is affiliated with the Heartbeat International and evangelical Care Net CPC networks, which have 1,100 and 1,800 affiliates, respectively. 

Inside the center, in a room off to the right, sits an exam table and ultrasound equipment. 

The organization also provides free screening and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and first trimester ultrasounds with a local physician. About 400 ultrasounds are performed yearly, Marshall said. 

The ultrasounds serve an additional purpose aside from affirming or revealing a pregnancy, according to Care Net of CNY’s page on the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability website.

“In addition to confirming pregnancy, the ultrasound scan is an opportunity for mothers of unplanned pregnancies to bond with their preborn child. During this bonding period, many mothers who are on the fence choose life,” the webpage states.

About 400 ultrasounds are performed yearly at Care Net of CNY. Lauren Miller | Senior Staff Videographer

Women who visit Care Net of CNY are offered a pamphlet titled “Before You Decide.” Though the pamphlet acknowledges that serious medical complications in early abortions happen infrequently, some of the information it provides is misleading.

The pamphlet depicts women staring pensively into the distance, seeming to mull over their options. On pages six and seven are photos of developing fetuses, coupled with captions detailing the hiccups and unique fingerprints that occur between nine and 12 weeks. The following pages detail the physical, emotional and spiritual risks of abortion.

Abortion may cause hemorrhaging, infection and death, the pamphlet states. Medical experts debate the link between abortion and breast cancer. The procedure “significantly increases” the risk of symptoms like those of post-traumatic stress disorder. A spiritual component of abortion “deserves” consideration. 

“What might God think about your situation?” the pamphlet reads.

Legal induced abortion is 14 times safer than childbirth — a fact not explicitly included in the pamphlet. Hemorrhaging occurs in less than 1% of abortions, and the American Psychological Association found no increased risk of adverse mental health outcomes for women who had one legal, first-trimester abortion of an unplanned pregnancy. The National Cancer Institute concluded that abortion doesn’t increase one’s risk of breast cancer.

CPCs often target low-income women and women of color and can endanger women by providing false medical information, said Syracuse Common Councilor Bryn Lovejoy-Grinnell in an email to The Daily Orange.

“The primary purpose of a CPC is to persuade women not to pursue their legal right to an abortion,” said Caitlin Coulombe, associate director of Stop the Shaming, a sexual education advocacy group.

Karleigh Merritt-Henry | Digital Design Editor

Two other CPCs operate in Onondaga County: Birthright Syracuse on Midler Avenue and New Hope Family Services, which has a main office on James Street and an outreach center on North Salina Street. The county’s two abortion clinics, the Planned Parenthood’s Syracuse Health Center and Women’s Health Horizons, are both located in the city. 

If a person comes to Care Net seeking an abortion, they are told up-front that service isn’t provided, Marshall said. The center goes through a limitation of services form with each client that states the center doesn’t provide abortion services or referrals. The form also states Care Net’s staff and volunteer peer counselors receive training in crisis counseling, but do not necessarily have licenses or degrees.

The information the center offers is two-fold, Marshall said. One pamphlet provides information on pregnancy, and the “Before You Decide” pamphlet also warns of the psychological and emotional effects of abortion. 

“If you talk to the hundreds and thousands of women, and some men, that have come forward years later, they talk about depression, sometimes so deep that it leads to suicidal thoughts,” Marshall said. Some turn to alcohol and drugs, anorexia, cutting, and usually you’ll find that these people never had a chance to grieve.”

Marshall confirmed he was talking about post-abortion syndrome when discussing the mental health effects of abortion. 

Ramah International, a nonprofit ministry that aims to help those experiencing post-abortion syndrome, defines the syndrome on their website as “a form of post-traumatic stress disorder.” Symptoms include guilt, anxiety, depression, abortion flashbacks, substance abuse and thoughts of suicide.

These claims go against several studies conducted over the past 11 years.

The American Psychological Association found in a 2008 study that women who legally had one first-trimester abortion of an unplanned pregnancy face no greater relative risk of mental health problems than women who carry an unplanned pregnancy to term. 

Additionally, a study conducted in 2009 by the American Psychiatric Association found that “studies concluding that abortion causes psychiatric illness have numerous methodological problems and should not be used as a basis for public policy.”

Marshall said he’s lost two children to abortion. He went to Planned Parenthood in the 1970s with a woman he was with, thinking they’d be able to learn how to plan for their roles as parents.

All a nurse talked about was abortion, he said. When the couple asked about parenting classes, the nurse repeatedly told them they were too young to be parents. The woman ended up having an abortion. When Marshall spoke with her a few years ago, she described what she’s been through as “hell on earth,” he said.

“I don’t care what medical association says that there are no side effects, emotional or otherwise,” Marshall said. “There’s no question that there are people it doesn’t bother. I get that, but we’ve had hundreds that have come through our program that would tell you otherwise.”

Kathy Jerman, the executive director of New Hope Family Services, told The D.O. that the medical risks associated with abortion include bleeding and hemorrhaging, as well as possible struggles to conceive in the future.

“There’s a possibility that she would never be able to have children again after that,” she said.

A 1990 review of existing literature about abortion-infertility connections reaffirmed that “except in the case where an infection complicates induced abortion, there is no evidence of an association between induced abortion and secondary infertility or ectopic pregnancy.” 

Clients at Care Net of CNY go through a limitation of services form during their visit to the center. Lauren Miller | Senior Staff Videographer

Jerman said New Hope is a Christian, pro-life agency. New Hope operates as both an adoption agency and a pregnancy resource center. The adoption agency and pregnancy center began in 1965 and 1986, respectively, with the two organizations merging in 1992, Jerman said. 

The center offers pregnancy and parenting education, as well as pregnancy tests, all free of charge. They also have a “care corner” of baby goods, clothing and toys stocked through community donations, she said.

While New Hope is a licensed adoption agency, it is not a licensed health clinic. The center does not offer any medical services except first-trimester ultrasounds, which are given under the direction of a doctor, Jerman said. 

New Hope also doesn’t provide or refer for abortion. Contraception isn’t offered, and the center would refer clients to their doctor, she said. 

“Typically the goal of New Hope, once someone is in their office, is to get them to stay there until they’ve committed not to have an abortion,” Coulombe said. 

New Hope will give women cherry-picked facts and will talk about the dangers of abortion, some being accurate and some deeply inaccurate, such as the supposed correlation between abortion and breast cancer, Coulombe said. The goal is to do everything possible to get someone into their office and commit to not having an abortion, either through parenting or adoption, she said. 

If someone went to New Hope looking to have an abortion, the client would be told the center is not a medical facility and therefore does not perform the procedure, Jerman said. The client would not be referred for one because the center is a pro-life agency, she said. 

Jerman said New Hope would speak with the client and figure out what in their life is causing them to want an abortion. The center would also explain that they’re an adoption agency, though Jerman said that option is never pushed on the client. If they do show an interest in adoption, the client can talk with the center’s birth parent caseworker. 

“We really just want to talk to her and show her that we care about her,” Jerman said, adding, “We really try to defuse the crisis.”

New Hope previously operated a location on East Genesee Street, near Planned Parenthood of Syracuse. CPCs disguise themselves as women’s health centers in order to dissuade women from pursuing an abortion, often mimicking features of real clinics and situating their centers near legitimate abortion providers, Coulombe said.

Marshall said Care Net of CNY exists to offer information needed to confirm a pregnancy and understands if women chose to have an abortion. The organization wants women to know they can come back to the centers, whether two or 20 years in the future. 

Marshall said Onondaga County is underserved by what Care Net of CNY does. There’s a huge need in this area, he said. 

“This is the only location that we have today. I guarantee you it won’t be the last,” Marshall said. “We will definitely over the next 10 years have four to five locations.”

If you have had an experience at a crisis pregnancy center in Onondaga County, The D.O. wants to hear from you. Please contact: esfolts@syr.edu | @emmafolts

Published on October 28, 2019 at 1:01 am

Contact Emma: esfolts@syr.edu