The strategy of using abortion-related keywords to send a woman searching the web for abortion information to a nearby crisis pregnancy center is already a few years old. But the scheme only received real national attention a couple of months ago, when Siri, Apple’s new voice-activated search assistant, was caught sending women looking for abortion clinics to centers that specialize in talking women out of abortions.

Apple refuted accusations of an anti-abortion agenda, instead blaming the “glitch” on search engines like Google and user-generated guides like Yelp, from which Siri largely extracts its information.

Apple’s explanation matched claims made by anti-abortion rights groups, whose websites describe in detail how they use keywords and Google ads to direct abortion seekers to a central website called Option Line, whose primary function is to route people to one of the thousands of crisis pregnancy centers throughout the country.

The Siri scandal sent The American Independent on a search for evidence that anti-abortion activists are successfully thwarting abortion searches on the Web. We found that CPCs have a minor presence online, but what’s telling is not so much the quantity of CPC ads that appeared on each front-page Google search, but the subtle, universal messaging these sites use.

In many cases, the presence of an anti-abortion agenda is masked.

Searching ‘abortion’

Like most businesses trying to boost their visibility on Google, anti-abortion pregnancy centers buy ads through Google’s AdWords program. But at the heart of the strategy appears to be CPC websites that not only share a universal message, but also a universal Web design.

Using various Google search approaches – “abortion,” “abortion services” “how can I get an abortion,” “I need an abortion” – TAI discovered at least one ad or entry that was linked to Option Line or to Option Line-created software on each primary search page.

These pages often also included two or three entries for individual crisis pregnancy centers or anti-abortion websites. One search result turned up a list of “abortion services” in the D.C. area that included anti-abortion pregnancy centers.

A Google ad that popped up frequently during our searches is “Thinking of Abortion?” whose URL is listed as assistcpc.org. The ad links to the website for Assist Pregnancy Center, a CPC in Annandale, Va. At the very bottom of the website is a note: “Website created by Optionline e-Xtend.” This links to Option Line Extend, a website development program that provides pregnancy centers with “a professional Internet presence.”

Another Google ad titled “Abortion Stories” links to the website standupgirl.com, whose domain is owned by Oregon Right to Life. The site is mainly devoted to promoting pregnancy and hosts an Option Line chat service on its homepage.

Option Line is a 24/7 live-operator contact center headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, which fields inquiries from people seeking information about abortion and pregnancy. It has a Spanish-only version at estasembarazada.com, staffed by bilingual consultants.

Option Line was co-founded in 2003 by Care Net and Heartbeat International, two of the three largest CPC networks in the U.S. About half of the more than 4,000 centers across the country are affiliated with one of these two networks.

In 2007, Option Line created Option Line Extend to sell to centers affiliated with either Care Net or Heartbeat International. CPCs are charged $150 for “basic websites,” $300 for “premium websites” and $500 for “ministry websites.”

Care Net, which made about $7 million in revenue in 2010, reported spending $600,000 on Option Line. Heartbeat International, which reported making about $1.4 million in revenue (PDF) in 2010, reported spending about 46 percent of its budget on its Option Line program between October 2010 and September 2011.

The Option Line Extend model websites are designed with calm colors and messaging, a departure from anti-abortion websites like AbortionNO.org (whose domain is owned by the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform), which links directly to a graphic video of a fetus being aborted.

Aside from live-chats and directions to the closest CPC, Option Line offers answers to questions about abortion, birth control and emergency contraception.

In an answer to the question, “Should I take the morning-after pill?” Option Line replies:

Many times women panic after having unprotected sex and rush to take the morning-after pill (Plan B One Step® or Next Choice®). However, you can only become pregnant on certain days of the month — around the time that you ovulate. Taking the morning-after pill during a time when you cannot become pregnant needlessly exposes you to large doses of hormones.

If you are already pregnant from an earlier sexual encounter, taking the morning-after pill is of no value and may cause harm6^, 7. To find out if you are pregnant, contact us, and we’ll connect you with a caring, qualified pregnancy center near you.

Questions about abortion are answered in similarly sober tones. Potential risks from abortion — often overstated by anti-abortion activists and CPC counselors — are stated here as what they are, potential risks. For example, while activists often argue that abortion is a direct cause of breast cancer, here the link is presented as uncertain. Option Line is also careful about putting disclaimers at the bottom of some of its pages, stating that its centers do not offer certain services, but this message is does not always appear on individual center sites.

Creating diversions on the Internet

According to a recently released updated report (PDF) on crisis pregnancy centers produced by the Family Research Council, Option Line averages about 1 million visitors per year and makes about 20,000 contracts per month, with media partners such as Heroic Media and Online for Life.

Last September, The American Independent reported that Heroic Media, an anti-abortion media group headquartered in Austin, Texas, was employing what’s known in the industry as “landing pages” or “doorway pages,” which Google defines as “poor-quality pages where each page is optimized for a specific keyword or phrase … written to rank a particular phrase and then funnel users to a single destination.”

The single destination where Heroic Media was trying to funnel users was Option Line’s homepage. Heroic Media’s parent company, Majella Cares, registered the Web domain freepreghelpline.com, which, when clicked on, goes to optionline.org/get-help.

Heroic Media discussed this strategy on its website when the Independent first reported the story.

This was an excerpt that we recorded from this page:

Internet keyword advertising is targeted and measureable. We can reach scared, abortion-vulnerable women with life-affirming messages and monitor effectiveness by the number of views, clicks, and visits to our site. We recently launched a new landing page at www.freepreghelpline.com to optimize reporting on just how many women are connected with life-affirming resources.

Keyword advertising on Google is also extremely cost-effective because you only pay for clicks, which cost an average of less than three dollars. That’s three dollars to connect abortion-vulnerable women with life-affirming information and people who can help.

A recent screenshot of the same web page we excerpted back in September shows that Heroic Media deleted the paragraph about freepreghelpline.com (also, the alleged amount of monthly “abortion” searches has jumped from 2 million to 6 million):

Screenshot from HeroicMedia.org, click to enlarge.

When asked if the organization is still using landing pages, Heroic Media spokesperson Marissa Gabrysch said the organization never used them.

“That’s inaccurate, although I understand why it was confusing,” Gabrysch told TAI in an email when asked about the doorway pages. “I have made the clarification on our website. Heroic Media’s keyword ads for Option Line link directly to optionline.org.

“The freepreghelpline.com site has not been advertised through keyword ads,” she continued.

State Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey (Photo: Facebook)

Florida state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, has filed a bill for the upcoming session that would make January 2012 ”Pregnancy Resource Center Month.”

Pregnancy resource centers are also referred to as crisis pregnancy centers. Crisis pregnancy centers, or CPCs, are mostly religious centers aimed at dissuading women from having an abortion. Some Florida centers have been found to distribute inaccurate medical information about abortion to women seeking help.

Senate Resolution 1326 would commend “the compassionate work of the volunteers and staff at Florida’s pregnancy resource centers.” The bill would celebrate CPCs providing ”important support and resources for women who choose childbirth over abortion,” the bill says.

If passed, the measure would be another item in the list of ways the Legislature has shown its support for CPCs through the years. Last year, the state’s CPC network received $2 million in taxpayer funds — a fixed amount it has received each of the past six years. The state Legislature does not, however, set aside funding for groups that prevent unplanned pregnancies and help women facing crises such as Planned Parenthood. Those clinics instead receive some family planning dollars that are given to local governments. However, that amount was cut by almost $1 million last year. One Planned Parenthood affiliate lost thousands of dollars for teen sexual health programs servicing young people in Palm Beach County this year because of the cut.

While CPCs did not lose a dime last year, Florida health services saw deep cuts to state funding.

Groups such as Planned Parenthood and Healthy Start, which are not religiously based and yet provide similar services to CPCs, serve more patients and offer more services.

Fasano’s bill (.pdf) also states that “the Florida Senate disapproves of the actions of any national, state, or local groups attempting to prevent pregnancy resource centers from effectively serving women and men facing unplanned pregnancies.”

A screenshot of the "Ignite" brochure (Photo: flfamily.org)

The leader of a politically influential Florida group that frequently advocates against LGBT and abortion rights has issued a new fundraising pitch to help gin up support for the work of its “Ignite an Enduring Cultural Transformation” campaign during the Sunshine State’s upcoming legislative session.

In May, The American Independent’s Andy Birkey reported that the Florida Family Policy Council was one of a network of organizations dedicated to raising money through the “Ignite” program to “pass anti-gay marriage amendments, curtail abortion rights and, in at least one case, ban ‘transgender bathrooms.’”

According to a Policy Council campaign brochure (PDF) that has been circulating since the campaign was announced more than a year ago, “Ignite” will champion “Biblically-Based Beliefs” in the state capitol during the upcoming legislative session.

These “beliefs” include:

Moral, physical and spiritual absolutes exist and were given to mankind to govern all of life. The sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman is the essential element of the family and a strong family is the essential element of a strong society. Life is a gift from God and should be protected from the time of conception to the end of natural life. First Amendment religious liberties are critical to our freedom as a people and must be protected and defended.

“Achieving transformation requires a lasting and enduring movement working strategically in key, cultural-defining areas,” the brochure claims. “‘Ignite’ is a two-year plan designed to fan the embers of November 2010 into a lasting movement built to achieve enduring cultural transformation.”

Florida Family Policy Council President John Stemberger (Photo: Flickr/Gage Skidmore)

According to a new fundraising pitch from Policy Council President John Stemberger, the campaign is meant to defeat what he calls “radical organizations like MoveOn.org, Planned Parenthood, American Atheists, and the ACLU.” He claims those groups “are doing everything they can to force through their liberal agenda.”

“Our opponents are preparing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 12 months to advance their radical agenda in Florida and across the country,” he writes.

Among the goals listed on the campaign brochure are:

Education – Preparing Leaders:

• 1,000 worldview training attendees.
• 700 pastors equipped at briefings.
• 5,000 couples trained as marriage mentors
• 100 student leaders networked and engaged
• 65 legislators briefed and informed on issues

Legislation – Promoting Values:

• Continue Tallahassee Office and Staff
• Pass Ultrasound Option before Abortion
• Pass Marriage Strengthening Initiatives
• Defeat Radical Homosexual Agenda

Providing Accountability:

• Distribute 3 million voter guides.
• Reach 5 million values voters.
• Engage 3,000 pastors and churches

The group has already begun reaching out to religious voters. In November, Stemberger started “Project Active Citizen” to get as many religious voters to the polls as possible. In an email to supporters asking for donations to the project, he described it as “an effort … to help encourage thousands of pro-life and pro-family Floridians to register to vote.”

Stemberger has also already begun to distribute voter guides specifically geared towards pastors and how they can legally influence voters.

Project Active Citizen is just one of a handful campaigns or events that have come on the heels of Stemberger’s involvement in the Florida Renewal Project’s Pastors’ Policy Briefing. The “briefing” was held in order to involve churches and religious leaders in elections. Media outlets were barred from the event and a reporter was even escorted away from a meeting between presidential candidates Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich and pastors. Since the briefing, Stemberger helped lead a religious right get-out-the-vote event that took place in about 100 churches all over the country — including 34 in Florida.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. (Photo: Facebook)

As the Independent’s Birkey reported, Stemberger’s influential group has received big-name endorsements, including one from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who “loaned his name to the Florida Family Policy Council’s Ignite plan, which calls for spending $300,000 to mandate that women view an ultrasound before having an abortion and to ‘defeat the radical homosexual agenda.’”Rubio is quoted in the group’s campaign brochure touting its success. “FFPC’s successes in education, legislation and accountability have made them an indispensable asset in promoting and defending traditional values,” Rubio said, according to the Policy Council.

Birkey reported that the group has “averaged revenues of $384,000 over the last three years.”

Although no new specific legislative goals have been listed by the group, Stemberger writes in his fundraising pitch that the group “has an aggressive plan” for 2012.

“Attacks from those who work to undermine life, marriage, family and religious liberty are more sophisticated, more aggressive, and more frequent than ever,” the “Ignite” brochure says. ”‘We the people’ spoke loud and clear in November of 2010 but that one moment, by itself, will not achieve the cultural transformation we seek.”

Photo: A screenshot of the “Ignite” brochure (flfamily.org)

Planned Parenthood is a national chain of women’s health care clinics that is frequently under attack by anti-abortion groups because some of its clinics provide legal abortions. Johnson has toured the country denouncing the clinics and has even said publicly that the network of clinics is “working with the devil.”

Johnson became a star in anti-abortion advocacy circles after leaving her job as director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas. She claims to have decided to leave her job after viewing a sonogram of an abortion. However, many of the details in her personal story have been disputed. Texas Monthly combed through her story and found that their investigation contradicts some of Johnson’s claims.

According to a press release from Americans United for Life, Johnson will be “joining AUL’s premier government affairs team as Senior Policy Advisor.”

“Immediately after coming on board,” the statement says, “Johnson headed to Capitol Hill, meeting privately with office holders.”

Americans United has scored some victories in Congress this year. This past October, Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, announced he was launching a congressional investigation into the finances and policies of Planned Parenthood. The investigation was launched at the request of Americans United.

Stearns mentioned back in July that such an investigation was possible, after Americans United released a report arguing that lawmakers should defund Planned Parenthood. As The American Independent reported, Planned Parenthood has called the report false and “ideologically driven.” Stearns nevertheless decided to move forward with Americans United’s request.

Americans United president Charmaine Yoest has publicly stated that her organization is using the ongoing economic crisis to press for defunding Planned Parenthood. An attorney for Americans United told me at a crisis pregnancy center conference back in October that the group sees defunding Planned Parenthood as a way to end abortion around the country

Since anti-abortion rights groups were unable to get Congress to defund Planned Parenthood during the last budget negotiations, the group is hoping to continue its work forcing clinics to lose their public funding.

Johnson, Americans United says, “will be an integral part of our work to expose and de-fund the abortion industry.”

The organization writes:

A well-known spokeswoman and media commentator for life today, Abby Johnson spent eight years working with Planned Parenthood before a gruesome ultra-sound guided abortion in 2009 drove home the point to her that abortion ends a life. She described her change of heart, and subsequent complete change of career, in her nationally best-selling book, Unplanned, that chronicles her experiences within Planned Parenthood as well as her dramatic exit.

“Americans United for Life’s impeccable reputation for legal and public policy achievement makes joining their efforts the logical next step,” said Ms. Johnson. “I know first-hand how abortion is pushed and funded in the abortion industry. And I believe that the sound policy that AUL advances creates pro-life victories.”

Ms. Johnson’s knowledge of the inside workings of Planned Parenthood have made her an ideal choice as a witness before various legislative bodies about the kinds of policies, both funding and operational, that drive the abortion industry. AUL’s Vice President of Government Affairs Dan McConchie said he has witnessed how Ms. Johnson’s presence “has changed the national debate.”

Women’s health advocates and members of Congress have been condemning the investigation into Planned Parenthood since it was announced. Democratic National Committee chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz accused Republican colleagues “of launching a ‘burdensome and politically motivated, big-government investigation’ of Planned Parenthood.”

(Photo of Abby Johnson: thatsabortion.com)

Planned Parenthood has included Florida in its list of “states at risk” for the upcoming election. Only four other states (Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Ohio and Texas) are included on the list.

A pro-Planned Parenthood rally in New York City (Pic by WeNews, via Flickr)

The list is part of Planned Parenthood’s new “Women are Watching” campaign, which was created by the political arm of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. As Sofia Resnick of The American Independent has reported, the campaign is “a social-media project intended to educate and engage Planned Parenthood supporters throughout the country.”

The site explains that Florida is particularly risky for women because “the state legislature and Governor Rick Scott have mounted a full-scale, nonstop attack on women’s health in Florida.”

“During the 2011 session,” the site explains, “politicians filed 18 anti-choice bills limiting women’s access to the full range of reproductive health services, spent more than two months of the legislative session debating abortion restrictions, and passed four bills into law.”

The website highlights a couple incidents this past year that were unpopular with women’s health advocates.

Included in Planned Parenthood’s summary is:

• “Lawmakers wasting 59 days debating abortion restrictions” during the legislative session.
• Lawmakers “censoring officials from using the term ‘uterus’ on the legislature floor.” Last session, state Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, suggested that his wife “incorporate her uterus” in the hopes that it may receive the same kind of privacy and protection as Florida businesses receive. Some of Randolph’s colleagues were upset with Randolph’s use of the word “uterus.” The reaction from GOP memebers of the Legislature prompted an Internet response from women’s health advocates and the ACLU of Florida. Randolph’s incident even caught the eye of The Rachel Maddow Show.
• Gov. Rick Scott hosting “a party at the governor’s mansion when he signed four abortion restrictions, calling it a way for anti-choice activists to ‘celebrate the accomplishments.’” State Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston, called Scott’s signing ceremony for four bills aimed at curbing abortion rights in the state an effort to “ingratiate himself with zealots.” Scott invited representatives of anti-abortion groups, as well as some of the more socially conservative members of the Legislature, to the event.
• Lawmakers “filing bill after bill in preparation for the session starting in January 2012, including proposed regulations that would make it nearly impossible to open and operate health centers that provide comprehensive reproductive health care such as lifesaving cancer screenings, birth control, STI testing and treatment, and abortion care.” A bill that women’s health advocates are calling an “omnibus anti-choice bill” was recently introduced.

Planned Parenthood also highlights a measure set to appear on the 2012 ballot and another possible ballot initiative. According to the group, the “Florida Legislature bypassed Floridians by voting to put an anti-women’s health bill on the ballot in the 2012 election.”

“Currently,” the group explains, “the Florida Constitution contains stronger privacy rights than the United States Constitution. But Florida’s 2012 ballot initiative would amend the state constitution to deny women fundamental privacy rights, denying them the privacy rights they currently have and should continue to have.” The amendment was introduced by state Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, who also introduced the current “omnibus anti-choice bill.”

“If that weren’t enough,” the group says, “Florida is also likely to face a so-called ‘personhood‘ amendment in 2012.”

The Independent’s Virginia Chamlee has reported that Bryan Longworth, the head of Personhood Florida, said he is undeterred from his goal of placing a “fetal personhood” amendment on Florida ballots, despite the sound rejection of a similar initiative in Mississippi last week. Personhood amendments seek to “elevate the legal status of a fertilized egg to that of a living person, and effectively ban abortion, common birth control methods, and in vitro fertilization,” Planned Parenthood explains. According to Longworth, his group is actually now attempting to place its amendment on Florida’s 2014 ballot.

Planned Parentood says that Florida “got here” because of the 2010 midterm elections, which they claim “worsened the political environment for women by creating a Republican supermajority in the Florida Legislature.”

The page also highlighted that $2 million in state tax money is “directed to crisis pregnancy centers that provide no health services to women.” Crisis pregnancy centers, or CPCs, are mostly religious centers created to dissuade women from having abortions. Some Florida centers were even found to distribute inaccurate information about abortion to women seeking help. The state’s funding of a network of crisis pregnancy centers has remained constant at $2 million since 2005, even as women’s health services suffer budget cuts.

Five-year-old Stanton Healthcare recently relocated to the 3000 block of North Harbor Lane, next door to Planned Parenthood’s Boise Health Center, which is one of the few places in the state where women can obtain surgical abortions (another Planned Parenthood clinic in Twin Falls, Idaho, and a few private providers across the state also offer surgical abortions).

Though Stanton Healthcare founder and Executive Director Brandi Swindell recently told local TV station KTVB that her center has no agenda or intention of competing directly with Planned Parenthood, Swindell told The American Independent that the move was strategic. She said the same thing on a video, which was uploaded to YouTube last month. Wanting to expand and provide more medical services, Stanton Healthcare was already looking to move, Swindell said. But the fact that one of the facility’s large windows looks directly into Planned Parenthood’s backyard is no accident.

“The reason we chose [this location] is that it’s significant, knowing that [we would be] right next to Planned Parenthood,” Swindell said. “[The location] will give girls immediate access. Women are already used to going to this area. Now we are there for them.”

Stanton’s goal, Swindell told TAI, is eventually to offer the same non-abortion, non-contraceptive services offered by Planned Parenthood, but for free — in other words, free pregnancy tests, free testing for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), free cancer screening, free well-woman exams, free counseling, etc.

Swindell refers to her clinic as a medical center, but the only medical services Stanton currently offers are first-trimester ultrasound screenings and pregnancy tests. The center also offers “pre-natal care,” which Swindell explained means vitamins, emotional support and parenting classes. All of Stanton’s services are free. Next door, Boise Health Center offers — in addition to pregnancy tests and ultrasounds –  well-woman exams, birth control, abortions, emergency birth control, cancer screenings and STD testing.

Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest spokesperson Kristen Glundberg-Prossor told TAI that at the Boise Health Center, only condoms are free, but there are discounted rates on various services, based on income level.

In terms of the facility and licensed medical professionals, Swindell said her clinic is prepared to offer more medical services, but they don’t have enough money yet. The first step in this endeavor is to offer free STD testing by 2012, she said. Currently, Stanton Healthcare is funded entirely by donations, but Swindell said her center might consider applying for state or federal grants in the future.

Swindell said that in 2010, Stanton served a little more than 300 clients, but she believes — due to their new location — that number will grow to as many as 3,000 clients in the next two or three years. Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest — which operates about 30 clinics in Alaska, Idaho and Washington, including the Boise clinic — saw more than 90,000 first-time patients in 2010, according to its 2010 Report to the Community (PDF).

Sensing the competition, Glundberg-Prossor told TAI that Planned Parenthood might have to consider offering free STD testing or solicit private donations for that very purpose as a way to “even the playing field.”

Misconceptions and assumptions

The clinics have only been neighbors for less than a month, but based on accounts from both sides, already there has been some tension. Swindell told TAI that Planned Parenthood called the police after they spotted a Stanton staff member photographing Planned Parenthood’s sign to obtain measurements for their own sign. Swindell said she thought the action was “silly,” but brushed it off.

“[We do not want] to compete with them or get into debate with them or fight with them,” she said.

Glunberg-Prossor told TAI that police were called before they realized it was a Stanton staffer taking the photos.

“We are very security minded,” she explained.

In general, Glunberg-Prossor said there have not been any problems between the two centers; she did note that one woman looking for Stanton Healthcare accidentally came into Boise Health Center, but she was quickly redirected.

Hannah Brass, legislative director of Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest, the Northwest affiliate’s political arm, told TAI that based on national reports on crisis pregnancy centers, she worries that women might be getting biased, inaccurate information about abortion at Stanton. She also worries that Stanton Healthcare might not be abiding by privacy laws — she said she is aware of CPCs that refuse to give patients their records or who call teens’ parents without their consent. Because all of Stanton’s services are free and they do not deal with medical insurance, they are not bound by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), as Planned Parenthood is.

Swindell says because her center employs volunteer doctors and nurses, they do follow HIPAA rules and do not release patients’ information.

“I am happy to hear that Stanton says they voluntarily comply [with HIPAA regulations],” Brass said, “But they can voluntary not comply, so it is an issue.”

Brass repeatedly told TAI that Planned Parenthood provides “compassionate, confidential medical care,” while Swindell said Stanton Healthcare offers women “life-affirming, compassionate, professional care.”

Watch Stanton Healthcare’s YouTube video:

The Associated Press reports:

Some doctors, crisis pregnancy centers and women who say they’ve had abortions want to help defend a new North Carolina law that would set more ultrasound requirements before an abortion.

The potential defendants filed a motion Tuesday in Greensboro federal court with the help of legal groups opposed to abortion. They want to intervene in the case to present evidence on why the law should be enforced in its entirety.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles put implementation of the law on hold “until she can hear more arguments.” The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation, Planned Parenthood Health Systems, Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina and the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit against the state in October alleging that “the new law violates the rights of health care providers and women seeking abortions.”

This week, anti-abortion groups Jubilee Campaign’s Law of Life Project and the Alliance Defense Fund have filed a motion to intervene in the ruling to defend the law.

Crisis pregnancy centers have been created to attract women facing an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy in order to convince them to keep the pregnancy. NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina recently released an undercover investigation into crisis pregnancy centers. The report said the centers were “a threat to public health.“

On Election Day 2011, when Mississippians voted down the “personhood” amendment that would have criminalized abortion and, potentially, common forms of birth control, the political arm of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) launched the Women Are Watching (WAW) campaign, a social-media project intended to educate and engage Planned Parenthood supporters throughout the country.

According to a press release, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPAF) will run online banner ads highlighting “Champs” and “Chumps” of reproductive rights.

Current “Chumps” featured include GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, as well as U.S. Reps. Steve King (R-Iowa), Allen West (R-Fla.), Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) and Todd Akin (R-Mo.). “Champs” include President Obama, U.S. Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.); and U.S. Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.); and former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack, who is running for Congress as a Democrat.

In an editorial for the Huffington Post published Tuesday, PPFA President Cecil Richards wrote:

Over the past year, we have witnessed the most aggressive legislative attacks on women’s health and rights in a generation. The 2010 elections dramatically changed the U.S. Congress and state legislatures nationwide, leading to a wave of efforts to restrict access to vital women’s health care, including lifesaving cancer screenings and birth control. … [M]ore than 1,000 reproductive health bills have been introduced in legislatures across the country, the majority of which seek to undermine women’s health.

These attacks on women’s health are unacceptable and we’re putting anti-women’s health candidates from both parties on notice. Women Are Watchingwill work to ensure that politicians who play politics with our health are defeated and to support candidates who fight for the care women need to stay healthy.

Planned Parenthood saw victory Tuesday night with Mississippi’s “personhood” rejection and with Democratic victories in Kentucky (Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear was re-elected), Iowa (Democrats retained control of the state Senate) and New Jersey (Democratic control expanded in the state Senate).

However, Virginia is now completely controlled by the Republican Party, which won seats in the already GOP-majority House of Delegates and appears to have tipped the balance of power in the state Senate from Democrat to Republican, with the election of Republican Bryce Reeves over incumbent Sen. R. Edward Houck of District 17. The national anti-abortion-rights group the Susan B. Anthony List claims to have spent $25,000 in radio, TV and mailer ads against Houck’s reelection.

Planned Parenthood is also watching various states in 2012, including:

• Pennsylvania: Bills have been introduced to enforce new regulations on abortion clinics and to require women to receive state-mandated information about abortion.

• Florida: In 2012, Floridians will vote on a ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to prohibit public funding of abortions, which is already illegal, but more significantly the bill would “prohibit the State Constitution from being interpreted to create broader rights to an abortion than those contained in the United States Constitution” — thus rolling back a constitutional privacy right in the state constitution that currently provides more protection for women than the U.S. Constitution does. A “personhood” amendment just like Mississippi’s will also be on the ballot.

• Planned Parenthood is also “watching” New Hampshire, which severed a decades-long family-planning contract with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England this year; Ohio, which introduced the controversial “heartbeat bill;” and Texas, which slashed the state’s family-planning budget from $111 million to $38 million and passed a mandatory ultrasound bill (many of the provisions of this law were struck down by a federal judge).

Last month, U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles put implementation of the law on hold “until she can hear more arguments.” The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation, Planned Parenthood Health Systems, Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina and the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit against the state in October alleging that “the new law violates the rights of health care providers and women seeking abortions.”

In a press release today, the anti-abortion groups said:

As their stories are described in LOLP’s Motion to Intervene filed today, LOLP’s clients, taken together, are uniquely and expertly poised to present the more than reasonable medical, humanitarian and legal reasons why the Act is constitutional and should be permitted to go into full effect.

LOLP represents medical professionals, pregnancy medical centers who exist to freely assist women and men facing an unplanned pregnancy, as well as women harmed by abortions to which they never would have consented had they been given the information required by the Act. These voices are vital and their important perspective should be fully represented in court. “Giving women the information they need before such a weighty decision is clearly more important than an abortionist’s bottom line,” said ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden. “Those attacking this law are obviously more concerned about financial gain from abortion than the best interests of women and their preborn children.”

Reproductive rights advocates and other opponents of North Carolina’s law argue that ultrasound mandates subject women to emotional pain and “violate the medical ethics of doctors who feel the government is forcing them to carry out the Republican-controlled Legislature’s ideology,” the Associated Press previously reported.

“If the ultrasound requirements were put into effect, this law would place doctors in a murky legal situation and inflict unnecessary harm on women,” said Katy Parker, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation “The state should not be using women’s bodies as political pawns, as this law clearly seeks to do.”

The state of Florida also passed a law this year requiring women to undergo an ultrasound before an abortion, whether it is medically necessary or not. However, Florida has avoided a legal challenge because the law includes an opt-out provision. In Florida, women can bypass a description or viewing of the ultrasound by signing a form.

The measure would have conferred personhood on fertilized eggs, and would have outlawed abortion in all cases. The measure was widely seen as winning right up until the end.

Planned Parenthood spokesperson Tail Sye release this statement:

“The defeat of the so-called ‘personhood’ amendment in Mississippi is a major victory for women’s health.

“Mississippi voters rejected the so-called ‘personhood’ amendment because they understood it is government gone too far, and would have allowed government to have control over personal decisions that should be left up to a woman, her family, her doctor and her faith, including keeping a woman with a life-threatening pregnancy from getting the care she needs, and criminalizing everything from abortion to common forms of birth control such as the pill and the IUD.

“We congratulate the Mississippians for Healthy Families Coalition, which ran an amazing campaign to educate voters about the dangerous impact of the amendment.

“Mississippians from all walks of life, medical professionals, clergy, parents, and young women and men, spoke out in opposition to the amendment.

“The more voters learned about the many dangerous and extreme consequences of the initiative, the more they opposed it. Polling showed that in the final days leading up to the vote, when voters were given information about the so-called “personhood” amendment, support for it dropped below 50 percent.

“In what Gallup ranks as the most conservative state in the nation, voters of all political persuasions rejected the measure.

“Mississippi is now the second state to reject ‘personhood.’ Colorado defeated the so-called ‘personhood’ amendment by wide margins in 2008 and 2010.”