State-Funded Crisis Pregnancy Centers Talk Women Out Of Birth Control, Condoms: Report

Laura Bassett, HuffPost, Posted: 08/07/2013 5:23 pm EDT | Updated: 08/07/2013 5:33 pm EDT

When a woman walked into a state-funded "crisis pregnancy center" in Manassas, Va., this summer and told the counselor she might be pregnant, she was told that condoms don't actually prevent STDs and that birth control frequently causes hair loss, memory loss, headaches, weight gain, fatal blood clots and breast cancer.

"The first three ingredients in the birth control pill are carcinogens," the CPC counselor said, adding that she always tries to talk women out of taking it.

The counselor also told the woman that condoms are not effective at preventing pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases because they are "naturally porous."

"Safe sex is a joke," she said. "There's no such thing."

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia recorded the exchange, released Wednesday, as part of its undercover investigation into the 58 state-funded "crisis pregnancy centers" in Virginia. The organizations are part of a national network of about 2,500 Christian centers that advertise health and pregnancy services, but do not offer abortions, contraception or prenatal care. Instead, they are intended to talk women out of having abortions and to advocate abstinence until marriage.

(More here.)