What’s Old is New Again: How State Attorneys General Can Reinvigorate UDAP Enforcement to Combat Crisis Pregnancy Center Deception

Abstract

For decades, abortion opponents have set up thousands of crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) that are designed to look like abortion clinics but that exist to dissuade women from terminating their pregnancies. Women who mistakenly visit CPCs can be delayed in obtaining abortion services—some for so long that they forfeit the right to abortion altogether. Over the last ten years, cities and states attempting to end this confusion have enacted laws requiring CPCs to disclose the true nature of their services. But in 2018, the Supreme Court declared such CPC disclosure laws unconstitutional, leaving advocates in search of an alternate solution. This Note sketches a roadmap for state governments wishing to respond to CPC fraud in the wake of this constitutional constraint. It retraces a largely forgotten strategy lead by state attorneys general who used Unfair, Abusive, and Deceptive Practices Acts (UDAP laws) to investigate and enjoin CPCs’ harmful practices. It also explores the opportunities and challenges of adapting UDAP laws to the modern CPC problem. Seizing on the rising importance of state attorneys general as national policymakers, this Note lays out a pragmatic path forward for curbing CPC deception that interferes with women’s reproductive decisionmaking autonomy.