I Volunteered at a CPC and Didn’t Even Know It
As a part of #CPCMonth, Senior Director of Digital Organizing and Engagement Emily Harrison shared her story about unknowingly volunteering at an anti-abortion Crisis Pregnancy Center on a high school mission trip.
Read her full reflection below, then head to our newest resource to learn more about the deceptive practices of CPCs, their religious roots, and how to fight back: The Danger of Anti-Abortion Crisis Pregnancy Centers
I was 17 and headed to Denver on my first (and only) mission trip. I was a “good” Catholic who followed the church’s teachings on most things, but especially on abortion.
Of all the volunteer opportunities presented to my group of 34 Catholic high schoolers, folding baby clothes sounded too adorable to pass up. I didn’t expect that my love of little socks and onesies would spiral into a week of handing out deceptive pamphlets and celebrating women coerced into giving birth.
The mission trip bus dropped me off in front of a small, quaint building advertising free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds for pregnant people, as well as free diapers and baby clothes for new parents. Inspired by what seemed like a simple and wholesome effort, I couldn’t wait to return home and find a similar organization to volunteer with.
At the time, I had never heard of an anti-abortion Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC) or their manipulative tactics.
Throughout that week in Denver, I worked my way up from folding baby clothes in the basement with older church ladies to greeting everyone who walked through the door. I handed out pamphlets describing the “dangers of abortion,” full of false claims and fake scientific studies. Generic videos looped on the screen of mothers rocking their newborns while children played right outside the waiting room windows on a small, rusty playground. I ended each day in prayer with the other volunteers as we named each person who came in that day.
I didn’t understand why so many young women entered the clinic looking fearful and left in tears. The rosaries and crucifixes on the wall didn’t surprise me — I was there on a Catholic mission trip — but I did notice the confused faces of those who thought they were entering a medical clinic.
It seemed simple to me at the time — why would you be upset about having a baby when you know a place like this is here to help?
Years later, when I learned about CPCs and their deceptive tactics, it finally clicked.
CPCs like the one I spent a week with are often funded and run by churches or religious organizations — especially Catholic ones — and focus on manipulating pregnant people out of choosing abortion.
It’s common for CPCs to focus on the free resources they provide, from pregnancy tests to diapers. It’s even more common that those CPCs stop providing resources to the baby they so desperately wanted to be born once they grow up. After all, their focus is on coercing people into giving birth, not ensuring that those babies are being raised in safe and healthy environments.
When I reflect on my time volunteering at the CPC, I feel deceived.
Even if I was anti-abortion at the time, I didn’t support lying to pregnant people about their gestational age or faking ultrasounds. But the deception I faced as a volunteer is nothing compared to the harm forced on thousands of pregnant people every day due to CPCs.
No one should be forced into giving birth, yet Catholic dioceses and million-dollar organizations fund CPCs across the country, allowing untrained and unqualified people to perform ultrasounds, administer health advice, and lie about reproductive healthcare. They recruit volunteers from parishes while fundraising for fake clinics through second collections at Mass.
I think back to the church basement women who folded baby clothes beside me, rosaries at the ready for the end-of-day prayer. They told me their favorite part of volunteering was holding a newborn while their parents picked up clothes and diapers. I know it would be my favorite part, too.
I don’t judge those women for volunteering there. I completely understand how one can look at what they were doing on the surface and be moved by their effort — at the time, it felt life-changing for me. Surely God guided me to this place for a reason.
Everyone loves someone whose had an abortion. Did the people they know and love ever cross their minds while volunteering at this place? Did they think of them while handing out pamphlets focused on shame and false medical claims?
I’ve now been an abortion doula for six years. I’ve far surpassed the hours spent at the CPC in Denver with hours spent holding hands and saying prayers with folks before, during, and after their abortions.
Occasionally, I’d hear from a patient about their CPC experience. They would describe how they were lied to, told they were sinners, and harassed for weeks later by volunteers questioning them about their pregnancy.
And I think back to 17-year-old Emily, how she just wanted to fold baby clothes on her mission trip. I remember the old church basement ladies. I take out my rosary and pray for them.
