Free, but at what cost? How US crisis pregnancy centres provide services

In the USA, the most popular form of anti-abortion activism, crisis pregnancy centres (CPCs), provide a variety of services to prevent abortions. Moving beyond debate about misinformation and the ethics of CPCs, this study considers the services they provide and given their popularity among state legislatures, their connection to the state. Using interviews with ten CPC staff in Ohio (a state providing support to CPCs) and supplemental data from both state and CPC organisations, we find three relevant themes. First, CPC services reflect ideas about personal responsibility and Christianity held by the CPC staff. Second, we show that CPCs have assumed a variety of state duties (e.g. pregnancy testing and parenting classes), appealing to lawmakers in conservative states eager to transfer responsibility for disadvantaged residents to other entities. Finally, we consider the future direction of CPCs, highlighting tension between organisational goals (focusing on abortion prevention) and the on-the-ground experience of CPC staff (where non-pregnant clients need material aid). Drawing theoretical connections between CPC staff and social service workers sheds light on whose responsibility it is to address poverty in a post-welfare era.