Dear John,

Welcome to the July edition of the #BadFaithMedicine Breakdown! In it we chronicle our recent activities to call out anti-abortion fake clinics and their efforts to push #BadFaithMedicine.

Fake Clinic of the Month: Real Alternatives

This month we are going to take a look at Real Alternatives, a Pennsylvania-based network of fake clinics that’s possibly best known for their misuse of public funds, specifically their siphoning of state taxpayer dollars intended to support families in need. Real Alternatives has as many as 98 locations in Pennsylvania and also operates in Indiana and Michigan, but has used Pennsylvania taxpayer dollars to help grow their business in other states, contradicting their agreement with the state to serve Pennsylvanians. And they’ve been found in other states to have offered few to none of the purported services they claimed they’d provide based on their grant agreements costing millions in public spending. Despite all this, while former Vice President Mike Pence was governor of Indiana in 2015, he diverted $3.5 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) dollars to a state contract with Real Alternatives, an increase from the $1 million he gave them the year before.

A recent article from The Guardian [1] breaks down even further how Real Alternatives played a major role in states diverting money from TANF programs to anti-abortion fake clinics, and the harm that it’s piled on needy families. Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) started the federal Alternatives to Abortion program in 2001, and that was the first year Pennsylvania diverted $1 million TANF dollars to the program. This program served as a template for other states to begin siphoning welfare funds to anti-abortion fake clinics. For example, since 2017, Missouri sent a total of $26 million TANF dollars to anti-abortion fake clinics.

Real Alternatives is not alone in their selfish scheme to reroute public funds to anti-abortion fake clinics. Equity Forward recently released a report detailing their research to better understand the increase of states using public dollars to fund anti-abortion fake clinics, and the misuse of those dollars due to lack of oversight. [2]

Over the years, Reproaction has been keeping up with Real Alternatives and other fake clinics that collect public money for their unethical, anti-abortion missions. Here are some resources to take a deeper dive into this practice:

- Millions of Tax Dollars Go to Fake Clinics. For What?

- Fake Clinics, Real Taxpayer Dollars Misused

- Real Alternatives or Real B.S.?

- How Are Crisis Pregnancy Centers Robbing Taxpayers?

Looking to take action against tax dollars going to anti-abortion fake clinics, like Real Alternatives? Check out our Fake Clinic Direct Action Toolkit for some ideas on how to fight back against fake clinics in your community.

Are you looking for an action to take right now? Sign our petition demanding no federal funding to anti-abortion fake clinics!

Thank you for reading the July edition of the #BadFaithMedicine Breakdown, until next month!

In Solidarity,

Tenaja Henson
Campaign Coordinator
Based in Greensboro, NC

P.S. Donate to support this work today!

Sources:

1 - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/04/states-divert-federal-welfare-funding-anti-abortion-clinics?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

2 - https://equityfwd.org/research/mapping-deception-closer-look-how-states-anti-abortion-center-programs-operate