Conservative states in our region are increasingly protecting crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs). These centers often provide free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and other resources for soon-to-be mothers, but they typically don’t offer abortions — and sometimes they dissuade women from ending their pregnancies.
Arizona and Utah already support some of them. Idaho lets drivers buy anti-abortion license plates, which fund the centers, and now lawmakers in Wyoming and Montana are considering protecting what supporters see as life-affirming care.
Denise Burke, with national Christian law group Alliance Defending Freedom, is pushing the new legislation in Wyoming (HB 273), which protects the centers from government regulation.
“It’s not, as some are trying to couch it, a blanket immunity for pregnancy centers,” Burke said during a Wyoming House Labor, Health and Social Service Committee meeting on Jan. 29. “It simply prevents them from being discriminated against because of their pro-life ethic.”
The Wyoming legislation makes it so state and local governments can’t require CPCs to provide abortions. Burke added that this is especially needed right now as CPCs see growing threats in the post-Roe v. Wade era.
Democratic states like Colorado are regulating CPCs, specifically preventing them from advertising that they provide abortions, when they do not, or offering “abortion pill reversals.”
Some CPCs say they can offer effective treatments to disrupt the abortion process, but Colorado’s law calls it “a dangerous and deceptive practice that is not supported by science or clinical standards.”
Some Wyoming residents, like Britt Boril, spoke out at the recent Wyoming meeting in opposition to CPCs.
“These centers push a religious agenda under the guise of providing health care,” Boril told lawmakers. “In my view, these centers are dangerous and should absolutely be held accountable for the misinformation they spread.”
According to an online map of CPCs from researchers at the University of Georgia, there’s almost 200 in our region — 11 of which are in Wyoming.
Rep. Rachel Rodriguez Williams (R-Cody), who’s sponsoring this bill and other anti-abortion legislation, used to lead one of the centers that has locations in Cody and Powell, according to her LinkedIn.
The bill protecting CPCs in Wyoming passed in the state House 46-14 and is now headed to the Senate.
A similar bill is also being considered by the Montana Legislature.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
