By Rachel Kahn
Fake clinics are back on their bullshit (as if they ever stopped), and today we’re here to talk about one in particular: a West Virginian CPC that targets vulnerable pregnant people and confused Lyft drivers alike.
This week Abortion Access Front headed to West Virginia, home of the Golden Delicious apple and one single abortion clinic-- the Women’s Health Center. In this youtube video, AAF’s founder Lizz Winstead shows exactly how close WV’s single abortion clinic is to one of the state’s many fakes. Spoiler: too. damn. close.
As Lizz moves down the sidewalk from the Women’s Health Center over to the fake clinic, called Woman’s Choice, you’re able to see just how close these two buildings are. A sign outside the fake clinic says, “Considering abortion? Confidential, free pregnancy test, walk-ins welcome.” Woman’s Choice, of course, does not actually provide abortions, and will actively counsel you against one. Boy, it’s almost like the clinic is purposefully luring people who want abortions just to shame them and delay their procedures until it’s literally too late!
This is one of the 28 fake clinics in West Virginia, versus the -- all together now -- ONE actual abortion provider. As part of its mandatory counseling laws, West Virginia actually mandates that doctors must give people considering abortion a list of facilities that include clinics like Woman’s Choice, with no way of distinguishing between these anti-choice hellholes and the real clinics.
And the real kicker is that these tactics-- setting up camp next to real abortion providers, publicizing free pregnancy tests, naming themselves something so bafflingly antithetical to what they are that it would be funny if it weren’t so sad-- work. Lizz shares in the video that when Joyelle's (a performer on AAF’s Vagical Mystery Tour) Lyft driver went to drop her off at the Women’s Health Center, he asked “which one?” … Big yikes.
TL;DR-- let’s get some personal space up in here. If you want to learn more about West Virginia’s go-lucky attitude towards reproductive care, check out this article in the Huffington Post from last year by WV FREE (West Virginia’s leading reproductive justice non-profit) and peep the shout out to #exposefakeclinics!