A Texas blueprint for converting the "abortion-minded": Lattes and a view

Now that abortion is banned across much of the South and Midwest, including Texas, many crisis pregnancy centers in these regions are preparing to assume a larger role, stepping into a void left by shuttered abortion clinics as the go-to place for ultrasound exams and pregnancy resources, despite the fact that they are not licensed medical facilities. The goal is to intercept women before they can access abortion some other way — through an online pharmacy or across state lines — and convince them that they’ll have support.

With its new building in Corpus Christi, the Pregnancy Center of the Coastal Bend would become home to one of the largest such facilities in the country. The center’s plans, detailed in blueprints, artist renderings and other documents reviewed by The Washington Post, offer a rare glimpse inside the post-Roe strategy of a crisis pregnancy center in transition…

Pinson’s first mission as executive director was to do more to target “AMs,” what she calls “abortion-minded” women. The organization had purchased an ultrasound machine — widely regarded within the pregnancy center movement as the best way to reach people considering abortion — but they were still mainly seeing “LTCs,” or “likely to carrys.”

And so Pinson took to Google, she said, paying thousands of dollars to bid on key search terms. Now, whenever someone in Corpus Christi searches for phrases like “need an abortion” or “abortion cost Texas,” the Pregnancy Center of the Coastal Bend is regularly the first item on the list.