How Crisis Pregnancy Centers Reproduce Sexual Violence, According to a CPC Victim

In 2013, Maleeha Aziz was 20 years old when she immigrated to the U.S. from Pakistan and soon found herself with an unplanned pregnancy. She sought help from a loved one who was in medical school to find an abortion clinic, but they inadvertently directed her to an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center. Aziz recounts her story in the new documentary, Preconceived, which premiered at South by Southwest this week. In the film, Aziz details the lies and predatory behaviors that a Texas-based CPC wielded to try and convince her not to get the abortion she knew she wanted.  Aziz recalls a particularly chilling moment when a CPC worker told her she needed a transvaginal ultrasound. Like most CPC workers, this person wasn’t a medically licensed health care worker. (Of course, Aziz didn't know that at the time.) When Aziz explained she was uncomfortable with this due to past trauma as a sexual assault survivor, she says the CPC worker told her that, as a pregnant woman,  she "[needed] to learn to deal with pain." Aziz did eventually get her abortion—the first of two, before choosing to have her daughter five years ago—but only after the CPC lied that it was too late for her to get one in Texas (it wasn’t), forcing her to “spend money I didn’t have” and travel to Colorado for the procedure while suffering from severe morning sickness. Speaking to Jezebel this week, Aziz says she sees her identities—as a survivor, an immigrant, and, at the time, a financially insecure young woman—as key factors in why and how a CPC targeted her. “They definitely prey on vulnerable people specifically,” Aziz explained. “Had I known that was a fake clinic all those years ago, would I let them touch me? Absolutely not. I wouldn't have even gone in there. I was deceived and violated.” Aziz says she felt she had to allow the CPC workers to perform the invasive ultrasound on her because she thought they were medical professionals. “But they weren’t, so it’s not OK that they did that. That’s violent in and of itself—that they touched me under false pretenses, did all of these things to further traumatize me—that's absolutely violence.” Today, as the deputy director of the Texas Equal Access (TEA) abortion fund, Aziz sees her advocacy for reproductive justice and identity as a survivor as “interconnected.” She didn’t become pregnant and seek abortion due to sexual assault but she told Jezebel she sought to end her pregnancy to leave an emotionally abusive relationship. “As a survivor, as someone who’s had abortions, those identities live on with you,” she said. Both of these experiences have shaped her urgent activism for bodily autonomy—and her understanding of CPCs and anti-abortion state governments as conjoined perpetrators of gender-based violence. Several states have introduced or passed bills—like Kentucky’s required transvaginal ultrasound law—which requires abortion seekers to receive ultrasounds before they can have the procedure. [caption id="attachment_568225" align="aligncenter" width="676"] Photo by: Julie HotzCourtesy of: All Roads Productions LLC[/caption] Preconceived shines light on a range of deceptive and manipulative strategies deployed by CPCs, such as: lying about how far along someone's pregnancy is; distracting and delaying them until it’s too late to get an abortion; setting up next to real abortion clinics; playing fake heartbeat sounds for visitors; pushing the unhinged, unproven concept of abortion pill reversal; and lying that they’ll help you after the pregnancy. But there’s something particularly grim about posing as a health care worker to exploit the fear and desperation of someone with an unplanned pregnancy. According to Guttmacher Institute, most of the people who visit…