PA Attorney General asked to investigate deceptive practices from anti-abortion organization

A complaint filed with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office accuses a Scranton-based crisis pregnancy center of misleading women about patient confidentiality on their website.

The Campaign for Accountability, a watchdog organization based out of Washington DC, filed a second complaint urging the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office to investigate whether or not Options Women’s Center, an Scranton-based crisis pregnancy center, violated Pennsylvania’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law. 

The watchdog group is alleging that Options Women’s Center violated the law by posting misleading confidentiality statements on their website.

“Addressing renegade anti-abortion data collection is a critical component of protecting Pennsylvanians from out-of-state anti-abortion overreach,” Tara Murtha, Director of Impact & Engagement with the Women’s Law Project, said in a statement. 

“We urge the Shapiro Administration to clarify if Pennsylvania law allows activists targeting kids and pregnant people to collect, store, and potentially share personal health data under clearly misleading marketing claims.”

Crisis pregnancy centers are unregulated anti-abortion organizations that target low-income women and teenagers to dissuade them from accessing abortion or birth control, and they outnumber abortion clinics by a 156 to 17 margin in the commonwealth. 

The newly-filed complaint states that Options Women’s Center removed references about their patients’ personal health information being protected by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) from their website after the initial complaint was made in April. 

“One such apparently deceptive statement was that OWC’s clients had the option to seek legal recourse by filing a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) if they believed OWC has misused their data,” the newly filed complaint said. 

Options Women’s Center is connected to anti-abortion groups such as CareNet and Heartbeat International according to the complaint, and in May, an investigation by Abortion, Every Day found that an employee from Heartbeat International leaked the names and and personal information, including menstruation dates, of women who were clients. 

“Options Women’s Center should not be permitted to deceive consumers into sharing their personal health information by falsely suggesting the confidentiality of their data is protected by federal law. The attorney general should rein in this reprehensible practice.” CfA Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith said in a previous statement. 

“Tricking women into believing their sensitive health information will be kept confidential by claiming it is HIPAA covered when it is not, isn’t just despicable, it’s deceptive in a way that likely violates the law. Attorney General Michelle Henry should not hesitate to take on those who prey on women with disingenuous claims of confidentiality.”