As options for abortion care shrink, pregnant people may encounter so-called "crisis pregnancy centers," or CPCs: anti-abortion organizations that have proliferated in recent years.

These organizations pose as health care centers, offering ultrasounds and pregnancy tests, but many have no medical professionals on staff. Often backed by religious groups, they aim to dissuade people from getting abortions, peddle potentially dangerous misinformation about abortion and contraception, and even hound patients after visits with anti-abortion messages, according to Dr. Anna Lowell, a family physician in Florida and a member of the Reproductive Health Access Project, which works with primary care clinicians to ensure equitable access to sexual and reproductive health care.

"What concerns me is a lot of patients that seek abortion services, the ones that are going to be impacted the most after this Dobbs decision, are folks with low income, folks who have been already marginalized due to health care in general," Lowell said. "They might be lured into these centers because they offer a lot of free services. If they are already in a position of financial hardship, they might end up at one of these centers before getting to a clinic that can actually respect them, their decisions, their autonomy, and help them get the comprehensive care that they deserve."

There are at least 2,555 CPCs in the United States, where they outnumber abortion clinics by 3 to 1. The Southeast is home to 902 CPCs, or 35% of the national total, according to a database created by Andrea Swartzendruber and Danielle Lambert, associate professors of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Georgia College of Public Health. Texas has the region's most at 198, followed by Florida with 151, and Georgia and North Carolina, which each have 89.

The four Southern states with the most CPCs all fund them with taxpayer dollars. Arkansas and Louisiana are the other Southern states that fund CPCs; their legislatures each recently approved $1 million for them in the 2022-23 fiscal year. In all, 16 states nationwide allocate tax money to CPCs through programs that aim to provide abortion alternatives.

Exactly how much money goes to CPCs in each state is unclear, and some legislatures purposefully shroud the funding. An AP investigation published early this year found that $89 million went to CPCs in a dozen states during fiscal year 2021-22 alone. The AP also found that state governments in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Texas have collectively given CPCs $282.3 million since 2010.

Pennsylvania was the first state to fund CPCs through its abortion alternatives program, and to date has given over $100 million to them, according to a report from the National Committee for Responsive Philantrophy. About 75% of U.S. CPCs are connected to four national anti-abortion organizations: Birthright International, an organization founded in 1968 by a Canadian housewife; Care Net, an evangelical Christian network of CPCs based in Virginia; Heartbeat International, an international anti-abortion association that supports the world's largest network of CPCs; and the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, a legal organization founded in 1993 that represents CPCs. ...