Hi friends,

As many of you know I'm an OBGYN and the fall of Roe v. Wade impacts me and my patients directly. I'm already seeing patients coming from states where abortions are severely limited or banned to obtain abortion/reproductive health care here in Massachusetts.

Crisis pregnancy centers are purported reproductive health centers that masquerade as "comprehensive reproductive care" clinics. They often have logos that look like abortion clinics and set up shop close to a real abortion clinic to confuse patients. However, once a patient engages with them, they use deceptive practices to give them misinformation about abortion (like they cause breast cancer or infertility) and then, often, convince patients to seek alternatives to abortion because they don't actually provide medical care. They often have lay, untrained people performing ultrasounds and incorrectly calculate gestational ages, lying to patients about their eligibility for abortion services.

Our city councillor, Quinton Zondervan, is sponsoring a bill in our city council to prevent the city manager from issuing permits for these centers to operate in Cambridge. The bill follows a successful one that passed in the Somerville legislature. We currently don't have any crisis pregnancy centers in Cambridge, but want to prevent them from taking advantage when there is a need for expanding real reproductive health care for patients who will be coming to Massachusetts for services they can't access locally.

I would hate to see patients who are spending a lot of money to travel for reproductive services come to our city, with our reputation of academics and science, and find themselves in a center like this which may mislead them. This is not only unethical medically, but poses a huge financial hit to these patients. 

I am hoping that you will support Mr. Zondervan's efforts to keep our city's residents and visitors safe from these predatory practices.

Your friend and neighbor,

Padma Kandadai, MD, MPH, FACOG

Here is a link for a copy of the ordinance: https://cambridgema.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_LegiFile.aspx?Frame=&MeetingID=4072&MediaPosition=&ID=16572&CssClass= 

Here is a link from AG Healey's Warning: https://www.mass.gov/news/ag-healey-warns-patients-about-crisis-pregnancy-centers