Protesters Target Clinic They Say Misleads Women Seeking Abortions

More than 70 protesters demonstrated Saturday in front of a Reseda office that they charged advertises as an abortion clinic but is actually a front for anti-abortionists.

The peaceful two-hour protest at a building partially occupied by the Pregnancy Counseling Center at 18700 Sherman Way was part of a statewide action by Operation Fraudbusters, a coalition of groups targeting “bogus” abortion clinics, organizers said.

One of the leaders of the demonstration, Joyce Schorr of the National Council of Jewish Women/L.A. accused the Reseda center of placing false advertising in the Pacific Bell Yellow Pages directory to lure customers with promises of free pregnancy tests and impartial counseling. But once women visit the clinic, Schorr said, center personnel inundate them with anti-abortion counseling and literature.

“This is a pure case of consumer fraud,” Schorr said. “We want to expose their deceitful tactics.”

The Reseda center was closed Saturday. But officials for the Right to Life League, which runs the center and 19 similar facilities around Southern California, denounced the protests, calling them libelous and inflammatory.

“Our ads don’t say that abortions are performed at our center,” league spokeswoman Susan Carpenter-McMillan said. “You would have to be a real idiot to think you’re going to get an abortion there. It’s very obvious when you walk in that it’s not abortion-oriented.

“For them to come after us is pure harassment because we have been successful in talking many women into not killing their unborn children,” she said.

Also attending the rally was Janice Sinclaire, special assistant to State Controller Gray Davis, who said Davis was negotiating with Yellow Pages publishers to adopt guidelines regulating how such clinics advertise.

“The problem is not that these centers don’t have a right to exist,” Sinclaire said. “Their kind of counseling may be valid. The problem is that their advertising is misleading.” She said about 30 similar centers around the state appeared to use the same method of advertising.

A House of Representatives subcommittee on small business recently held hearings on deceptive advertising of abortion alternative services in the Yellow Pages. The National Yellow Pages Publishers Assn. three months ago recommended policies for publishers to consider in order to avoid confusion between abortion services and abortion alternative counseling.

The Pregnancy Counseling Center is listed under the “Abortion Services” heading in the Pacific Bell Yellow Pages. According to the guidelines established by the national Yellow Pages Publishers Assn., advertisers listed under the heading perform abortion services or refer clients to businesses that perform those services.

The center listing also refers to an advertisement that reads “Pregnant? Scared? We Can Help! Free Pregnancy Testing, Confidential Counseling, Post-Abortion Counseling, Referrals.”

Carpenter-McMillan said the listing was mistakenly placed by the book’s publisher under “Abortion Services.”

“We wanted the listing under the Abortion Alternatives Organizations heading. It’s the phone company’s fault.”

Pacific Bell officials could not be reached for comment. But Sinclaire said she doubted that the phone company erred.

“They can say that this is a mistake, but they have to fill out a form specifically requesting what heading they’re under,” she said.