Dear John,

Welcome to the September edition of the #BadFaithMedicine Breakdown! Each month, we chronicle our work to call out anti-abortion fake clinics and their efforts to push #BadFaithMedicine.

Latest Updates:

Gender Affirming Care for Young People Webinar: The Reproaction team held an awesome webinar about the importance of gender affirming care for young people. The discussion explored what gender affirming care is and the overlap between the anti-trans and anti-abortion movement.

Fake Clinic of the Month: Obria Group

Starting out in the 1980s as one Birthright International affiliated anti-abortion fake clinic in southern California, Obria Group has since become a major player among anti-abortion fake clinic networks, receiving government funding for their unethical anti-abortion centers. [1] Obria earned scrutiny in 2019 for being awarded 1.7 million dollars from the United States Department of Health and Human Services Title X funding – money intended for family planning and preventative health services. Title X grants require that organizations receiving these funds provide hormonal birth control, which prevented Obria from receiving the same funds the previous year. [1, 2] Obria still does not have information about providing hormonal birth control on their website despite becoming a Title X beneficiary since.

In fact, when other anti-abortion fake clinic chains scrutinized Obria for their use of Title X funds that require they provide hormonal birth control, Obria proceeded to send an email to their followers claiming that they will never provide birth control or abortions at their facilities. [3, 4] The only resources available on Obria’s website that someone might think is to find birth control is the “Family Planning Services” page, which directed users to a fertility tracking app that been accused of stealing user data and is operated by another anti-abortion organization. [5]

As if 1.7 million dollars for questionable ‘services’ wasn’t enough, Obria Group went on to receive additional funding in 2019 through the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, awarding Obria along two other anti-abortion fake clinics 1.5 million dollars between the three to bolster abstinence-only education programming. [3, 6] We know that abstinence-only education is not comprehensive and often riddled with misogynistic and homophobic language that often negatively impacts the young people it targets. And if Obria Group’s evasive persona wasn’t clear, they keep the #BadFaithMedicine going with their promotion of the unproven, unethical “abortion pill reversal” myth. [7] Not only does Obria promote the regimen on their website, listed as a sub-recipient on one of Obria’s Title X applications is Culture of Life Family Services, the anti-abortion fake clinic operated by the creator of the “reversal” regimen, Dr. George Delgado. [4, 8, 9]

If you want to learn more about unethical and unproven “abortion pill reversal,” check out the #BadFaithMedicine Campaign page!

That’s all for this month’s edition of the #BadFaithMedicine Breakdown!

In Solidarity,

Tenaja Henson
Campaign Coordinator
Based in Greensboro, North Carolina

P.S. Donate to our work and support the #BadFaithMedicine Campaign today!

Sources:

1- https://campaignforaccountability.org/work/trolling-for-title-x-funds/

2- https://psmag.com/social-justice/what-its-like-to-get-reproductive-care-at-an-anti-abortion-anti-contraception-

3- https://rewire.news/article/2019/05/14/an-anti-choice-group-pledged-it-would-never-provide-contraception-as-it-pursued-title-x-funds/

4- https://theslot.jezebel.com/obria-knows-its-winning-the-abortion-wars-1835586079

5- https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fertility-app-anti-abortion-activists-bankroll_n_5cf21cf6e4b0a1997b6abc95

6- https://rewire.news/article/2019/07/23/hhs-awards-nearly-1-5-million-in-teen-pregnancy-prevention-funding-to-anti-choice-organizations/

7- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/25/revealed-doctor-reverse-abortion-trump-administration

8- https://www.obria.org/services/abortion-pill-reversal/

9- https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/07/22/new-federally-funded-clinics-california-emphasize-abstinence-natural-family-planning/?_ga=2.208046544.336273453.1566504223-1656055509.1563201873