Faith-Based Pregnancy Centers Must Now Post This is Not a Health Care Facility Sign
So many people showed up at the King County Board of Health meeting Thursday that they couldn’t fit inside the council chambers—not even close. They lined the walls and spilled into the hallway, pacing and murmuring, clutching their comment-card numbers, and waiting in a long, messy line to squeeze in. Among them: half a dozen nuns in royal-blue habits, at least two priests, a handful of women wearing pink Planned Parenthood and purple NARAL Pro-Choice Washington T-shirts, and dozens of people sporting green buttons with the words, “I Support Pregnancy Centers.” Inside the chambers, there were several balloons that read, “Love Them Both. Choose Life.”
This was the third public meeting the Board of Health held in the past few months on a new rule to require limited service pregnancy centers (LSPCs) to post a notice onsite—in large font and in ten languages—that reads, “This facility is not a health care facility.” It also mandates that the centers include the same language in their advertising. Centers that don’t comply can be subject to a fine of up to $100 a day.
There are approximately eight such facilities currently operating in King County and 60 across the state. Also known as “crisis pregnancy centers,” or, if you ask NARAL, “fake clinics,” they offer advice, counseling, pregnancy tests, and referrals to pregnant women free of charge, but do not offer other medical care (except sometimes ultrasounds). They are usually run by pro-life, faith-based groups that discourage abortion and contraception, and, according to the County, are unregulated, “often staffed by volunteers and employees who lack medical training or licensure.”
Supporters of these facilities claim they were given almost no warning and no chance to weigh in on a rule that affects them. “Our first formal notification was on July 14th, which is a Friday, and the following Monday, all written testimony had to be in,” says Kim Triller, executive director of Care Net of Puget Sound, the local branch of a Christian nonprofit organization that supports these pregnancy centers.
The rule passed Thursday nearly unanimously. The bulk of the board members’ discussion involved quibbling over the required font size.
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