Earlier this month, CREW received 3343 pages of documents from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in response to our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request relating to federally funding Pregnancy Resource Centers. 

CREW had to file a sue HHS in October of 2006 to fulfill this request.

The documents can be viewed here.  We'll be poring over them -- if you have some time, take a look.

The history of this FOIA request is important. We sued HHS over its failure to provide documents related to the details of its policy of using federal funds to support pregnancy resource centers, some of which have been found to provide false and misleading information to pregnant teenagers seeking their services.

In July 2006, Representative Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) released a report based on his request that the U.S. House of Representatives’ Special Investigations Division conduct an investigation into whether the information provided to pregnant women and teens by federally funded pregnancy resource centers is scientifically accurate. According to the report, pregnancy resource centers were created in 2002, and are a component of the Bush Administration’s faith-based initiative program. For the purposes of this report, female investigators focused on the 25 pregnancy resource centers that have received grants from the Compassion Capital Fund. Posing as pregnant 17-year-olds trying to have an abortion, the investigators successfully telephoned 23 of the 25 centers and requested information and advice regarding unintended pregnancy. Out of the 23 pregnancy resource centers that were successfully contacted, 20 provided false or misleading information about the health effects of abortion. Some of them also misrepresented the medical risks of abortion by informing callers that abortion could increase the risks of breast cancer, sterility and suicide.