Will Ohio’s Anti-Choice Attorney General Ignore Complaints Against Fake Clinics?
By: Auditi Guha, Rewire, June 5, 2018
A nonprofit watchdog group has filed a consumer complaint with Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, asking him to look into the “deceptive business practices” of two networks of fake clinics, or crisis pregnancy centers, that deceptively market themselves to unsuspecting pregnant people in order to deter them from seeking abortion services.
The June 5 complaint accuses Elizabeth’s New Life Center (ENLC), in Dayton, and Heartbeat of Toledo of violating the state’s Consumer Sales Protection Act, said Daniel Stevens, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability.
ENLC operates seven fake clinics in the Dayton area, which it calls Women’s Centers of Ohio; Heartbeat of Toledo operates two fake clinics under the name Your First Look Women’s Center. Both are affiliates of the anti-choice umbrella group Heartbeat International.
People looking for abortion information online are often led to the websites of these fake clinics, which don’t support or provide abortion care but hide that information deep in the site or in fine print, according to the complaint.