THE WEEKLY REVEAL

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Also, in this issue:

• The lack of significant regulation for anti-abortion pregnancy centers.
   
• The Philadelphia homicide detective who abused his power in bizarre and extreme ways.
   
• Our new documentary film was described as a “love letter to investigative journalism.”

NEW

How Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Centers Can Claim to Be Medical Clinics and Get Away With It

By Laura C. Morel

Credit: Photo collage by Reveal, photos from Getty Images

Hundreds of thousands of clients visit anti-abortion pregnancy centers yearly. Many boast of having medical directors and other licensed staff. But beneath the veneer of medical professionalism is an industry that authorities have done almost nothing to regulate.

A new Reveal investigation has found that only a few states require anti-abortion pregnancy centers that provide medical services to be inspected or formally licensed as clinics. In many states, tanning salons, massage parlors and even pet stores face significantly stricter oversight.

The issue of regulation is more urgent than ever in the post-Roe v. Wade era. As abortion providers have shuttered, pregnancy centers are trying to fill the gap in some core reproductive services, like ultrasounds, tests for sexually transmitted infections and in some instances even prenatal care.

OB-GYNs from around the country have underscored how reproductive health providers are often held to higher medical standards than abortion foes.

“In any other field of medicine, this would not be tolerated,” said Dr. Jasmine Patel, an OB-GYN in California associated with Physicians for Reproductive Health. “How can you just set up shop and claim to be medical but have no medical training?”

THIS WEEK’S PODCAST

The Suspect Detective

Philip Nordo, a third-generation cop, was considered a highly effective homicide detective in the Philadelphia Police Department, helping secure nearly 100 convictions. But he abused his power in bizarre and extreme ways.
 
This week on Reveal, we partner with The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Chris Palmer and Samantha Melamed to dig into Nordo’s career, examine who he hurt along the way and to understand how he got away with it for so long.

INSIDE THE NEWSROOM

Nancy Schwartzman on “Victim/Suspect”

Last week, the news broke that our new documentary film, “Victim/Suspect,” will have its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, one of the most exclusive festivals in the world. This Netflix original documentary features CIR reporter Rae de Leon as she uncovers a nationwide pattern of young women reporting sexual assaults to police, only to be charged with making a false report, arrested and imprisoned.

Now we’re pleased to share this inside look into the film via director Nancy Schwartzman, who described reporter de Leon as someone who never gave up in her search for the truth and the film, overall, as a “love letter to investigative journalism and the effort it takes to expose these harms at a nationwide and systemic level.”

📽️  Watch the full video.

“Victim/Suspect” will be available to watch both in person in Park City, Utah, and online. Sundance runs Jan. 19-29, 2023. It will also be available on Netflix later in 2023. Get the full details.

On Social

In its ongoing investigation into Amazon’s safety practices, the U.S. Department of Labor announced Friday that the company had “failed to properly record work-related injuries and illnesses at six warehouses in five states,” Reuters writes. 
 
Our reporting has shown that there’s a worker injury crisis in Amazon’s warehouses and that the company had a policy for systemically hiding those injuries. But that’s not the whole story as Reveal’s Will Evans explains in this Twitter thread. Amazon has deflected by claiming its injury rates are above industry average because it is so diligent in counting injuries, but yet has gone as far as to hide injuries.
 
Still, the company’s injury rate remains high, jumping by 20% last year, The Seattle Times reported.

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