A free family planning center in Twin Falls, Idaho is asking visitors for sensitive, personal information, including non-medical questions about religion and financial status, according to documents obtained by NBC News.
Consumer advocates say that while Sage Women’s Center promises to protect its customers’ information, it is not bound by medical privacy laws and may mislead women struggling with unplanned pregnancies.
Crisis pregnancy centers like Sage offer counseling and other services to pregnant women as they try to persuade them not to have an abortion. The questionnaires, known as client intake forms, provide rare insight into how Sage and other crisis pregnancy centers use vague language to describe their practices and services.
The forms were provided to NBC News by the Campaign for Accountability, a progressive watchdog group, after it sent a letter to Idaho’s attorney general expressing concerns about the center, which advertises itself as a resource for pregnant women.
In April, the group asked five state attorneys general to investigate crisis pregnancy centers, including Sage Women’s Center. deceive customers with claims that their personal medical information is protected by health privacy laws.
In response to the request, Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador provided the group with acceptance forms from Sage. A spokesman for Labrador told NBC News that his office does not comment on investigations. This was reported by Labrador’s office Law360 in April The attorney general said he was “looking into the matter with our Department of Consumer Protection.”
“Sage’s client intake form offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at how unregulated pregnancy clinics question clients and should be a major red flag for anyone considering visiting one of these centers,” Michele Kuppersmith, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability, told NBC News. a. “We hope that Sage’s practices will be investigated to determine if they violated Idaho law.”
Surveys given to newcomers to Sage ask women to report their previous pregnancies and whether they were carried to term, miscarried or terminated. The forms also include questions about the patient’s religious beliefs, as well as instructions for the center’s volunteers to share Bible passages.
There are also questions about intentions for the pregnancy, whether the father knew, and “what decisions would the father like you to make about your pregnancy.”
The documents include a scoring system for center staff and volunteers to assess whether a client is “abortion sensitive.” Ask women, “If you decide to terminate your pregnancy, who will support your decision?” the question is also asked.
The forms ask staff for specific details about how the women behaved during the appointment, such as whether they laughed, cried, smiled or looked sad, or looked away during the ultrasound. If the client may choose to have an abortion, staff are encouraged to schedule repeat ultrasound appointments at the center.
Sage promises that “Protected Health Information will be kept strictly confidential” and “except when child abuse or other mandatory reporting laws apply, or when we believe or hear that you are in danger of harming yourself or others, all information is kept confidential. “
Some medical professionals say the questionnaires go beyond what a typical women’s clinic needs.
“It’s unlike any medical admissions form I’ve ever seen,” he said. “The records of the patient’s behavior are very strange.”
Prine pointed to the forms’ scoring system for “abortion vulnerability” and noted that asking about religion before a pregnancy test is highly unusual.
“Obviously, it’s all about trying to make sure she doesn’t have an abortion,” Prine said.
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Darney-Lundin employee Dr. Jayme Trevino said it’s not uncommon for hospitals and clinics to ask patients to voluntarily provide religious affiliation during the admissions process to identify beliefs or practices that may influence them. care.
“What is troubling about this form is the level of detail asked (giving the name of the church) and how the information is used to conduct a ‘Spiritual Discussion’ with patients,” Trevino wrote in an email. “There are many sections of this form that perpetuate misinformation and harmful abortion stigma and use biased, non-medical language about abortion, such aspost-abortion syndrome.’”
Sage Women’s Center says on their website complies with the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAAand that the information is protected and kept confidential.
But because the center offers its services for free, it’s not actually legally bound by federal health information privacy laws.
In fact, in the privacy policyThe Sage Women’s Center says that “any transactions covered by the HIPAA Privacy Act” and therefore its privacy practices are “voluntary.”
“Your exposure [private health information] may be made without your consent or authorization when required by law, required for public health reasons, necessary to prevent a threat of harm to you or a third party, or when other circumstances may require or reasonably warrant such disclosure.” it says in the privacy policy.
Given the anti-abortion stance of crisis pregnancy centers, it is unclear whether the Sage Women’s Center would view seeking an abortion as a harm to a “third party” or to whom or to what groups the center could disclose information.
The Sage Women’s Center did not respond to requests for an interview.
According to experts, delay tactics are typical
Idaho has some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country, banning the practice in almost all cases with very limited exceptions. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports access to abortion.
These practices are typical of crisis pregnancy centers across the country American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Tactics used in crisis pregnancy centers often create delays where women are unable to access abortions, forcing them to continue with their pregnancies.
That’s what happened to Willow, a woman in her 20s who asked to be known only by her first name for security reasons. NBC News caught up with her recently in the waiting room of a Colorado abortion clinic where she terminated her second-trimester pregnancy.
At first, it took Willow a few weeks to discover she was pregnant.
“I didn’t realize I was pregnant because my periods were irregular,” she said.
Another reason she tried to have an abortion throughout her pregnancy, she says, was because her care was delayed by the crisis pregnancy center she went to for free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds.
“I didn’t really have a choice because if I went anywhere else it would cost money,” he said.
Although she knew she was receiving services from a Christian nonprofit, the time it took to get results from the center was something she didn’t expect.
“They made me wait a week to get my first pregnancy test to confirm I was pregnant so I could have an ultrasound,” she said. “Then I had to wait two weeks for an ultrasound.”
That ultrasound revealed Willow was so far along in the pregnancy that some clinics in Colorado were able to safely treat her (the state has no gestational age limit for abortion). He was removed from three clinics without meeting.
“I’m devastated and horrified,” she said. “I thought my life was going to get harder and there was nothing I could do about it.”
Willow says she knew she didn’t want to be a parent and couldn’t afford to care for a child — but the nonprofit tried to dissuade her from getting an abortion.
“One of the first things they ask me is, what do you plan to do from here? I also told them that I plan to terminate this pregnancy,” she said. “They just told me that they advised against this decision and showed me videos about abortion and how dangerous it is. They tried to dissuade me from this decision. “They forced me to stay by offering their services and free supplies to raise a child.”
Sage Women’s Center, like many other crisis pregnancy centers across the country, is affiliated with Heartbeat International, a large pregnancy center chain that describes itself as a religious ministry. In exchange for membership fees, pregnancy centers receive training, digital support and digital forms used to collect customer data from women who interact with their facilities.
Heartbeat International writes on its website: “We believe we are better together, and our central governance program reflects this by collecting data on critical dimensions of the pregnancy care movement to provide powerful, actionable insights at the local level.”
Andrea Trudden, vice president of communications at Heartbeat International, said in an email in response to NBC News’ list of questions about practices at pregnancy centers: “While Heartbeat International offers recommendations and sample forms, these centers ultimately decide what is best. they give their particular communities.”
“When it comes to abortion sensitivity, pregnancy centers are committed to providing non-judgmental care to women facing difficult decisions. Any tools used, such as assessment systems, help to better understand the client’s situation and the level of support they need.” “Centres are committed to the highest standards of confidentiality and care, and any disclosure is made only where required by law to ensure the safety and well-being of the client and those around them.”
Susannah Baruch, executive director of Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center for Health Legal Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics, said: “Many crisis pregnancy centers are part of networks, and they share information with networks, trying to reduce the number of people seeking abortions. We don’t know exactly what they will do with the information.”
In a response to the Idaho attorney general, Sage Women’s Center said it does not share “any personally identifiable information” with Heartbeat International.
Most crisis pregnancy centers in the United States are affiliated with either Heartbeat International or Care Net, another anti-abortion network.
Care Net’s “New Client/Patient Intake Conversation Guide” includes similar methodology for assessing women for abortion likelihood, as well as religious conversation guides. The manual can be purchased online.
“If you could, what would you change about your relationship with God?” Note on the question. says, “If the client seems open, that’s a good place to share the gospel.”
North Carolina state representative Julie von Haefen, a Democrat who represents a district near Raleigh, says she has spent much of her six years in office trying to understand how crisis pregnancy centers use state funds. Like Idaho, North Carolina has state funding for crisis pregnancy centers.
He said he visited a Care Net-affiliated center in Raleigh and asked to see its patient records. His request was denied.
“I asked them, can you give me everything you give to people who can come for service? And they said, ‘Well, I don’t know about that,'” von Haefen said. “I’m a sitting state legislator, and we give you state money, so I don’t know why you don’t give it to me. But they still didn’t.”
Instead, von Haefen says, he was given a brochure.
Care Net did not respond to a request for comment.
“They didn’t show me any documents other than giving me a couple of flyers,” he said. “There was a lot of misinformation about abortions on the back. The standard thing they insist on is that abortion causes cancer or can cause infertility.