Across the country, crisis pregnancy centers are telling women they can rule out life-threatening ectopic pregnancies with a single free ultrasound. They cannot do this. Doctors know it, the centers' own national membership organization knows it, and now a watchdog group has found 100 examples of them doing it anyway.
The Trump Administration Is Sending Women Directly to These Places
On Mother's Day, the Trump administration launched Moms.gov, a federal website designed to direct people with unexpected or difficult pregnancies toward crisis pregnancy centers. The site helpfully explains that many centers offer pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, and medical referrals, all for free. What it does not mention is that these centers are largely staffed by volunteers with no medical training, that some of those volunteers wear scrubs and white coats anyway, and that several of them are actively misleading women about a medical emergency that can kill you.
There are roughly 2,500 crisis pregnancy centers operating across the United States, according to a 2024 estimate from the Government Accountability Office. Most are Christian organizations. All of them are in the business of talking people out of abortions. That's their whole thing. The free ultrasounds, the baby clothes, the parenting classes: all of it exists in service of one goal. Which makes it particularly grim that the federal government is now using your tax dollars to funnel vulnerable pregnant people toward them.
What Ectopic Pregnancy Actually Is, and Why This Matters
An ectopic pregnancy occurs when an embryo implants outside the uterus, most commonly in a fallopian tube. If that tube ruptures, you can bleed internally and die. This is not a minor medical footnote. It is a time-sensitive emergency that requires proper diagnosis, multiple blood tests, multiple ultrasounds, and ongoing clinical monitoring.
A single ultrasound at a storefront crisis pregnancy center cannot rule out an ectopic pregnancy. This is not a matter of opinion or political framing. It is just a medical fact. Dr. Jonas Swartz, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke Health who has researched crisis pregnancy centers, told NPR as much. The diagnosis requires a level of follow-up care these centers are categorically not set up to provide.
And yet. The website for MyChoice Pregnancy Care Center in New York's Hudson Valley reads: "It's important to rule out an ectopic pregnancy or a natural miscarriage and find out how far along you are via limited ultrasound. Contact us for a free ultrasound." A free ultrasound that cannot actually do what they are advertising it can do.
A Hundred Examples in 49 States
Campaign for Accountability, a nonprofit watchdog organization, sent a letter this week to New York Attorney General Leticia James requesting an investigation into whether crisis pregnancy centers in New York are fraudulently advertising their ability to diagnose ectopic pregnancies. NPR obtained the letter exclusively. The organization found 100 examples across 49 states of pregnancy centers using language on their websites claiming they can "rule out" ectopic pregnancies.
The harm here is not theoretical. The letter cites real cases in Texas and Massachusetts where women went to crisis pregnancy centers that missed ectopic pregnancies. "They were told that their pregnancies were viable or told that everything was fine," Michelle Kuppersmith, executive director of Campaign for Accountability, told NPR. "And then later they found themselves in the hospital with an ectopic pregnancy that was not diagnosed by the crisis pregnancy center." Women showed up at emergency rooms after being waved out the door with a smile and a onesie.
Even the Centers' Own Lobby Group Says Stop Doing This
Here is where it gets especially damning. The National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, NIFLA, is the membership organization that represents crisis pregnancy centers. Last year, NIFLA's Vice President of Legal Affairs Anne O'Connor told centers directly, in a webinar for the ProLife Team Podcast: "Do not advertise, 'We can rule out an ectopic.' We really don't like to see that language because it is near impossible to rule out an ectopic."
O'Connor explained that proper diagnosis requires multiple blood tests and multiple ultrasounds over time, none of which crisis pregnancy centers can provide. She even offered softer suggested language for centers to use instead. So the industry's own trade association is aware this is happening, has told its members to knock it off, and centers are still doing it in 49 states. NIFLA did not respond to NPR's multiple requests for comment on this story. Shocking.
The Abortion Pill Angle They're Hoping You'll Miss
A lot of the ectopic pregnancy marketing is directly tied to medication abortion, which has grown significantly since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade four years ago. The MyChoice Pregnancy Care Center website specifically reads: "If you plan on taking abortion pills, book an ultrasound to rule out an ectopic pregnancy." The implication is clear: come see us before you do anything else.
The problem, beyond the central one of these centers not being able to diagnose anything, is that getting an ectopic pregnancy screening is not medically necessary before taking abortion medication. Dr. Swartz told NPR that telemedicine abortion with medication abortion has been shown to be safe even without an ultrasound. He also clarified that abortion medication won't resolve an ectopic pregnancy, but it won't make it worse either. So the centers are creating a false medical urgency to insert themselves between a patient and their healthcare decision, using the specter of a real danger they are not actually equipped to detect.
The Dingo Take
Let's be precise about what is happening here. The Trump administration built a federal website to direct pregnant people to organizations that are, in documented cases across 49 states, claiming medical capabilities they do not have. Women have ended up in hospitals because of it. And the industry group for these centers has privately acknowledged the practice is indefensible while doing nothing enforceable to stop it. This is not a regulatory gray area. This is dangerous false advertising wearing a white coat.
The genius of the crisis pregnancy center model, from an anti-abortion-movement standpoint, is that it mimics a medical environment just well enough to create confusion. The scrubs, the questionnaires, the clinical-sounding language about "ruling out" medical conditions: all of it is theater designed to make women feel like they've received medical care when they have not. And when you are scared, pregnant, and looking at a federal government website pointing you toward these places, that theater can be very convincing.
Kuppersmith told NPR that Campaign for Accountability may send similar letters to attorneys general in other states, hoping continued exposure pressures these centers to drop the ectopic pregnancy claims. That's a fine start. But the bigger question is why the federal government is in the business of promoting organizations that a watchdog just documented misleading women about life-threatening medical emergencies in literally every state in the union. Someone should ask Moms.gov about that.
