Hello DWC PBC members & friends, here is a message from Progress Florida about Rep Kelly Skidmore’s bill to defund fake clinics. Floridsa NOW also endorses this action:
“I think that every taxpayer should be outraged that we’re spending $29 million on these centers that don’t provide medically accurate information.”–– Rep. Kelly Skidmore (D-Boca Raton)
Floridians seeking health care are being routinely deceived and manipulated by anti-abortion centers (often called “crisis pregnancy centers”) and taxpayers are paying millions of dollars for this dangerous agenda.
Anti-abortion centers disguise themselves as health care providers or abortion clinics to lure people in, then use shame and disinformation to talk people out of accessing abortions and birth control. Many have no medical or safety standards so imagine, not only could these centers share private medical information without a patient’s permission, some may not even be following safety standards for using medical equipment like ultrasound machines.
In recent years, Gov. DeSantis and his allies in the Legislature have dramatically increased the amount of taxpayer dollars handed out to unaccountable anti-abortion centers – from $4.45 million in 2022 to an enormous $29.5 million in this year’s budget.
Florida’s working families are struggling to pay the bills, but instead of addressing skyrocketing costs for our health care, housing, and groceries, the legislative majority is handing out tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to fund an extremist agenda.
Making matters worse, new reporting from NBC has exposed potentially life-threatening protocols being implemented by the networks funding and overseeing anti-abortion centers. Despite centers advertising ultrasounds, they are being instructed not to diagnose, follow up, or assume responsibility for patients they suspect may have a pregnancy complication. This presents an extreme danger for patients who may have an ectopic pregnancy, which is the case for 1-2% of all pregnancies.
Floridians should not be spending our precious tax dollars on deceptive and dangerous anti-abortion centers – thank you for speaking out.
