Sex

Crisis Pregnancy Center Ad in College Paper: ‘Did Your Night [Drinking] Make You Two Weeks Late? Come to Us.’

Amid an ongoing public debate about alcohol and rape, especially with regard to teenagers and young adults, an ad for Hope Pregnancy Center in Thursday's Texas A&M newspaper asks students if a night out at the local bars "[made] them" pregnant.

The Hope Pregnancy Center ad in Thursday's Texas A&M newspaper. Teddy Wilson

Thursday’s print edition of the Texas A&M University newspaper, the Battalion, printed an advertisement for Hope Pregnancy Center, a local crisis pregnancy center (CPC), asking college students if a night out at the local bars “[made] them” pregnant. If so, “come to us,” the ad says.

The ad comes during an ongoing public debate about alcohol and rape, especially with regard to teenagers and young adults. The case of a teenage girl and her family who were brutally harassed after, as she told police, she was raped while intoxicated has sparked calls for justice. And a recent column by Emily Yoffe for Slate has sparked intense criticism for its implication that women college students could avoid being raped by not getting drunk. (As Rewire has previously reported, sexual assault on campus is persistent and often mishandled by college administrations.)

Hope is one of a handful of CPCs in College Station, Texas, whose advertising targets college-age women. According to the center’s website, it exists to “serve women and men facing unplanned pregnancies” and will “communicate important medical information to you about your pregnancy.”

CPCs often say they are reproductive health-care facilities, but provide little if any actual medical care. They also routinely provide patients with misleading information about abortion. Hope offers a free pregnancy test, a limited obstetric ultrasound, and different types of counseling. The center does not provide well-woman exams, sexually transmitted infection screenings, or any other type of sexual health care.

CPC