As people with an unwanted pregnancy in Florida face ever greater barriers to abortion care, a new “clinic” for pregnant people that aims to persuade people not to seek abortion care has opened up in Kissimmee.
Choices Women’s Clinic, located at 213 E. Oak St. in Kissimmee, is the third location in a chain of facilities operated by Choices Women’s Clinic, a local nonprofit founded and operated by anti-abortion Christians.
These facilities lure in people with few resources by offering free pregnancy tests, free ultrasounds, and information about your options as a pregnant person. Critics call them “fake abortion clinics.”
While Choices Women’s Clinic explicitly mentions “abortion” on its main website, and claims to be “all about offering you choices,” a second website the nonprofit maintains specifically for donors reveals their overarching mission: to “CHANGE abortion in Orlando. Until there are ZERO.”
The new center just south of Orlando is located about a half-mile from the city’s only licensed abortion clinic, a Planned Parenthood health center. This isn’t a coincidence.
Locating anti-abortion facilities near actual abortion clinics is an intentional tactic that is commonly used by anti-abortion activists to confuse and misguide pregnant people who are searching for safe and legitimate abortion services.
Choices Women’s Clinic, in a recent email newsletter, admitted that they see patients who come to them believing their facilities are legitimate abortion clinics. This includes a person they identify only as “Amy.”
“‘Amy’ thought we were an abortion clinic and was not happy when she realized she could not get her abortion,” reads the newsletter, emailed out on May 28, 2024.
“She did not want an ultrasound to prove how far along she was and left angry and feeling the panic of needing to have an abortion before 6 weeks,” the newsletter continues. “Amy returned 45 minutes later and asked for an ultrasound because, after making calls, she realized she could not get into the abortion clinics.
“She is now undecided, and we are praying for a breakthrough.”
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Screenshot of a May 2024 email newsletter sent by Choices Women’s Clinic executive director Vicky Matthews.
As of May 1, 2024, abortion is banned in Florida after six weeks of pregnancy, with few and questionable exceptions. Previously, under a law approved in 2022, Florida had a 15-week abortion limit, with no exceptions for rape or incest.
After the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022, many states moved to either restrict or ban abortion procedures entirely. From Florida, the closest state to get an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy is now either North Carolina or Virginia.
Another person that visited Choices Women’s Clinic, whom they describe in their newsletter as “Emily,” came to the nonprofit for abortion pills, according to their newsletter. “She said she didn’t care if she experienced medical complications with abortion because her life is hard, and she needs to work to send funds to her family in another country,” the newsletter reads.
Abortion, even prior to the fall of Roe v. Wade, can be expensive without insurance coverage. Medicaid won’t cover the cost of getting an abortion, and abortions can easily exceed $500 if paying out of pocket. Birthing a child in Florida without health insurance, too, can set you back tens of thousands of dollars.
Emily refused to allow staff to perform an ultrasound on her, according to the newsletter, but allowed them to hug her. The newsletter notes that Emily “just melted in our arms.”
Choices Women’s Clinic, and its executive director Vicky Matthews, have declined to comment when reached by Orlando Weekly in the past.
According to the nonprofit’s website, Choices Women’s Clinic saw nearly 3,000 “patients” last year, and received 3,732 calls related to abortion. Just over 400 pregnant people in 2023, their website notes, “chose life.”
As Orlando Weekly reported last summer, this is the third pregnancy center location owned by Choices Women’s Clinic, which was first founded as “True Life Choice” in 1983. The chain, which reported $2.67 million in contributions and grants in its most recent tax filing, has two other locations, one located near downtown Orlando and another near the University of Central Florida.
“There’s a Planned Parenthood there [near the university], so that’s where we went,” shared Vicky Matthews, executive director of Choices Women’s Clinic, in an interview with an anti-abortion website in 2021.
Amy Weintraub, the reproductive rights program director for Progress Florida, told Orlando Weekly she believes it’s “very clear that they’re targeting college students,” based on where they decided to locate their facilities.
A webpage specifically set up for updates on the new Kissimmee center also explicitly mentions the city’s racial and ethnic makeup, noting a majority of the population is Hispanic and according to their calculations, Hispanic people are the second-largest demographic seeking abortion — demonstrating a racial targeting strategy.
“They do that because they know that racialized groups tend to be the most uninsured, lower-income groups, and they know that people are looking for resources when they are pregnant,” Aurelie Colon Larrauri, a reproductive justice activist and policy advisor for the Southern Poverty Law Center, told Orlando Weekly last year.
These anti-abortion pregnancy centers, also known as crisis pregnancy centers, are largely unregulated, with little oversight. State records show Choices Women’s Clinic locations are not state-licensed medical facilities, and therefore cannot legally be held to privacy provisions under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Unlike some other anti-abortion CPCs, where there are no licensed medical professionals on staff, Choices Women’s Clinic does have a medical director on staff (who tried to run for state office in 2020), as well as two registered nurses, three sonographers, and other nursing staff, according to their website.
However, Orlando Weekly could not verify the license of at least one named RN on staff, which is searchable through the Florida Department of Health’s online portal. All sonographers listed on the site were verifiable through the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography.
Many of these facilities, often operated by religious nonprofits, are taxpayer-funded through an “alternatives to abortion” program set up by former Gov. Jeb Bush.
Florida Gov. DeSantis signed into law a bill last year that increased the amount of taxpayer funds that will go to such facilities more than fivefold, from $4.45 million in 2022 to $25 million in 2023. A review of the state budget approved by DeSantis this week shows this program, dubbed the “Florida Pregnancy Support Services Program,” will receive $29.5 million over the next year.
According to Weintraub, those funds will be restricted to certain activities, including marketing materials and a new website the state will be building, in part to promote these anti-abortion facilities, under a new law approved by the Republican-dominated state Legislature earlier this year.
“It’s clear that this is state-funded misinformation,” said Weintraub.
Choices Women’s Clinic does not receive funding through this state program, according to tax filings reviewed by Orlando Weekly. Their most recent 990 tax form, filed last August, reports no government grants or contributions.
These anti-abortion pregnancy centers, also known as crisis pregnancy centers, are largely unregulated, with little oversight.
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Democratic State Rep. Kelly Skidmore filed legislation (HB 343) during the 2024 legislative session that would have required greater oversight of the crisis pregnancy centers that do receive state funds. Democratic Sen. Lauren Book filed identical legislation (SB 256) in the state Senate.
Neither bill was given even a single hearing. Florida’s state Legislature has a Republican supermajority, with most committees chaired by Republicans who have decision-making authority on which bills are heard or voted on and which are not.
Choices Women’s Clinic is just one of over 160 anti-abortion pregnancy centers in the Central Florida region, and comes highly recommended by the motley crew of anti-abortion activists who regularly protest outside the Center of Orlando for Women, an actual abortion clinic south of downtown Orlando.
They don’t call themselves “protesters,” and several have bristled at the term in conversations with Orlando Weekly. The Instagram page for Choices Women’s Clinic recently mourned the passing of one of these anti-abortion activists, John Barros, who previously told Orlando Weekly he had spent nearly every weekday “counseling” people outside of the Orlando abortion clinic for 20 years.
“John’s compassionate spirit led thousands of women and men to our clinic, offering them hope and support in their times of crisis,” an Instagram post reads. “His legacy as a faithful servant will forever live in the hearts of those he has impacted.”
photo courtesy Stand With Abortion Now (SWAN)
A volunteer clinic escort (left) mocks the daily “yell” of anti-abortion “sidewalk counselor” John Barros (right) outside an Orlando abortion clinic.
Expose Fake Clinics, affiliated with Abortion Access Front, has identified at least 168 crisis pregnancy centers in Florida, and over a dozen in the Central Florida region alone.
According to Expose Fake Clinics, there are at least three pregnancy centers already operating in Kissimmee: Beyond Pregnancy Care Center, Osceola Pregnancy Center, and JMJ Pregnancy Center. There are others in Orlando and surrounding areas.
Abortion resources for Floridians
For legal questions, or questions regarding Florida’s abortion laws, visit reprolegalhelpline.org.
You can find information on PlanCPills.org for how to access abortion medication.
You can find a state portal with real, licensed abortion clinics in Florida here.
For financial assistance and logistical help, organizations like the National Network of Abortion Funds, the Florida Access Network and Tampa Bay Abortion Fund have resources to help people with few resources pay for abortion services and travel out of state, as needed, to safely and legally terminate their pregnancy.
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McKenna Schueler
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