Every once in a while, we get a call from a confused woman who has been intentionally lied to about her body and options.

Today I got a call from a woman with a very hopeless tone in her voice. One of the first things that we ask women when they first call is when her last period was, or, if she’s had an ultrasound.

“20 weeks,” is what she told me. I asked her if she’d had an ultrasound to confirm this, and she said that she’d had two. The place she just came from was a pro-choice women’s clinic, but the first one she named was a Crisis Pregnancy Center.

Then she said, “They told me I was only 2 weeks at the first place, just 2 weeks ago – but then this other clinic I just went to told me I was 20.”

So let’s do some math… 2 weeks + 2 weeks = …20 weeks? Well that doesn’t sound right.

“2 Weeks” in some women’s minds means that they still have time to raise the money they need without resorting to asking family members or friends, or to wait for their next paycheck. And yet 2 weeks later, she finds out she’s not 4, but 20 weeks.

State funded Crisis Pregnancy Centers are of course notorious for lying to women, but I really do wonder if they understand the impact of the lies that they tell.

Because of this particular lie, this woman’s surgery costs about $2,000 dollars more than she initially thought that it would. This woman has to drive more than 400 miles to the nearest clinic that will be able to legally do her procedure. She will pay ~$140 more dollars for gas, and ~$100 more for a hotel – and let’s just hope she has a friend that’s willing to take her. She and her escort will miss 2 days of work, at the least. This is just the surface of the new list of things she now has to take care of before she’s able to have a procedure.

Lying to women about their gestation, their health and their legal options for the sole purpose of keeping a woman from getting an abortion that she wants or needs is unacceptable – and we’re all paying for this dis-service in the state of Texas.

I hope they know that we’re doing everything we can to get this patients life back on track, and to re-instill her trust in women’s healthcare. Her Father, and national and local funds by way of donors and volunteers are making it possible, and together, we’re correcting the injustice that this patient was served by a state-funded Crisis Pregnancy Center.