Language
English (en)
Date of Award
4-2026
Author's Department
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Restricted/Unrestricted
Unrestricted = Publicly available
Abstract
Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) are religious organizations with the purpose to dissuade people from obtaining abortions. They often present themselves as authentic reproductive healthcare clinics through medicalized language, services such as ultrasounds and pregnancy tests, promises of information on all pregnancy options, staff dressed as medical professionals, and placement near family planning clinics. In reality, CPCs are medically unlicensed and often spread medical misinformation.
No study has yet focused on CPCs in Missouri, despite providing a critical case study. The state has minimal access to abortion and other components of comprehensive reproductive healthcare and one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the country. At the same time, Missouri has at least 89 of the roughly 2,500 CPCs in the country that outnumber abortion clinics by a factor of 3.4. Missouri thus has the 12th highest number of CPCs in the United States. It funds many of these centers with federal and state dollars. I use qualitative content and discourse analysis to examine the resources these centers provide, alongside the strategies, language, and treatment they employ to attract visitors and influence their reproductive health decisions.
While existing scholarship emphasizes choice-based language as a method to obscure CPCs’ anti-abortion goals, I contend that this language reveals greater limitations of the choice-based framework itself. Using a reproductive justice framework, I argue that both CPCs and reproductive rights organizations use an individualized notion of choice that overlooks the material and systematic barriers that limit these decisions. I further argue that while material aid is crucial to eliminating some of these barriers, CPCs’ provision of aid is rooted in a neoliberal project of welfare started by the New Right, which promotes a white Christian vision of the family. Ultimately, this project demonstrates how CPCs are one agent of power contributing to a broader landscape of reproductive injustice in Missouri, where there is limited access to true reproductive choice, especially for people from low-income communities and communities of color.
Mentor
Rachel Brown
Additional Advisors
Amy Eisen Cislo, Jami Ake
Recommended Citation
Richards, Sylvie, "Choice, Power, & Care: Crisis Pregnancy Centers and Reproductive Justice in Missouri" (2026). Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Honors Papers. 9.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/wgss_honors/9