There are 50+ unregulated pregnancy centers in wisconsin

WHILE ONLY 5 CLINICS ARE OPEN FOR PATIENTS SEEKING ABORTION CARE

Centers run by groups working to ban all abortions are a hazard to our community.

Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs), also known as uregulated pregnancy centers, are facilities designed to confuse and shame individuals from seeking abortion care, contraceptives, or having premarital sex. (Chen, 2012) While often presenting themselves as medical clinics, they are largely unregulated, typically lack licensed clinical staff, and do not adhere to medical ethics. Their core services are limited to free pregnancy tests and handing out information to steer decisions away from abortion by shaming the patient seeking care. Some also offer very limited ultrasounds or STI testing.

These centers frequently engage in deceptive practices, providing inaccurate medical information. One of their goals is to collect people’s private health data for national groups seeking to ban all abortions. These groups then use this data to harass women well after their appointments, sometimes for years. They also collect this data to sell to other third-parties controlled by groups seeking to completely outlaw abortion. (McGloin, 2025)

CPCs disproportionately target young people in low-income, marginalized communities. In Milwaukee, they are primarily in majority Black and Latino neighborhoods. They pose significant public health risks by delaying access to comprehensive care. (NARAL Pro-Choice America, 2015)

Their business model is based on deception.

LIES AND DECEPTION SPREAD BY unregulated pregnancy centers

These are some examples of lies told by CPCs

FALSE: “Abortion increases your risk of breast cancer by 50%.”

FACT: Recent studies show no causal link between induced abortion and an increase in cancer risk. (Shen et al., 2023)

FALSE: “Birth control and the morning after pill are abortion pills.”

FACT: Both emergency and other forms of birth control prevent the release of an egg from the ovary so fertilization doesn’t occur, avoiding pregnancy. (World Health Organization, 2011)

false: “MEDICATION ABORTION CAN BE REVERSED.”

FACT: The “abortion reversal” regimen CPCs offer has not been approved by medical and ethics boards. Because of safety concerns for study participants at UC Davis, research of this regimen has been halted. (Stifani & Lavelanet, 2024)

How many CPCs are there?

As of February 10, 2026, there are only 5 legitimate clinics and health providers offering abortion care in Wisconsin.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MILWAUKEE?

Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) disproportionately harm Black and Latina communities through deliberate and systematic targeting strategies that exploit structural vulnerabilities. As documented in a Reproductive Freedom for All’s (formerly NARAL) Pro-Choice America report, Care Net’s “Urban Initiative,” an “underserved outreach” program active since 2003, is explicitly designed to target African-American and Latina women by placing advertisements in bus shelters and on Black Entertainment Television (BET), even invoking offensive comparisons between abortion and slavery to manipulate and shame women by leveraging historical trauma. (NARAL Pro-Choice America, 2015)

CPCs further concentrate their facilities in low-income urban neighborhoods and near colleges and comprehensive health clinics, ensuring they are more physically accessible to women of color than legitimate reproductive health providers. This predatory outreach is compounded by the widespread dissemination of medically inaccurate information, including false claims about abortion risks, mental health, breast cancer, and infertility, which undermines informed decision-making and reproductive autonomy.

*The City of Milwaukee has 6 total Crisis Pregnancy Centers, more than half are in majority Black and Latino neighborhoods*

How are CPCs funded?

In Wisconsin, Crisis Pregnancy Centers receive public funding from the sale of Choose Life Wisconsin license plates (Conklin, 2019) and state funding with taxpayer dollars (Wilson, 2018), although those estimates are thought to be higher since public funding for CPCs is hard to trace in the state.

They also receive funding from national anti-choice organizations such as CareNet, Heartbeat International, and Abortion Pill Rescue Network. These orgs are not only anti-abortion, they are anti-contraception as well, aiming to limit women’s control of their own bodies. (Wikipedia contributors, 2025)

Other forms of funding are from private donors, who usually don’t have any local connection to the clinic, and are based out-of-state. Since these unregulated pregnacny centers operate as non-profit entities, donations are tax deductible. In 2024 alone, Alliance Family Services, a CPC based in Kenosha, WI, generated a total revenue of $1.2 million. (Suzzo, 2025)

CPCS IN THE NEWS

direct action

Reproductive Justice Action Milwaukee’s (RJAM) campaign called “CPCs Out of MKE” is combatting these attacks on our community. Our goal is to bring attention and educate community members on unregulated pregancy centers and the harm they cause to reproductive health. For more information, join RJAM.

CLICK HERE TO Join RJAM and FIGHT AGAINST CPCs