A Lawsuit Questions Whether Crisis Pregnancy Centers Can Safely Detect Pregnancy Problems

A Massachusetts pregnancy center is being sued for allegedly missing a dangerous type of pregnancy, raising questions about what kinds of medical services these centers can safely provide.

Clearway Clinic in Worcester, Massachusetts was sued in 2023 after it failed to catch a patient's ectopic pregnancy — a pregnancy that develops outside the uterus — according to NBC News. The lawsuit is one of the first major cases testing whether crisis pregnancy centers have the training and equipment to safely diagnose dangerous conditions. Crisis pregnancy centers are facilities, often with religious missions, that offer pregnancy testing and ultrasounds but are not required to meet the same medical standards as traditional clinics.

What It Takes to Find an Ectopic Pregnancy

Detecting an ectopic pregnancy requires specific medical tools and training. Doctors use a special ultrasound — called transvaginal ultrasound — that lets them see exactly where a pregnancy is growing. This type of scan can find over 70 percent of ectopic pregnancies on the first try, according to the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust.

But ultrasound alone is not enough. Doctors also need blood tests to measure pregnancy hormones. According to NBC News, these hormone tests are necessary when ultrasound results are unclear. Most crisis pregnancy centers do not have labs to run these blood tests.

This is the gap that created the problem in the Clearway case. The center offered ultrasounds but could not do the follow-up blood tests that might have caught the ectopic pregnancy.

The Money Behind This Sector

Federal funding plays a big role in how crisis pregnancy centers have grown. A government report published in March 2026 found that federal money has gone to these centers. One federal program that funds sex education has also sent money to crisis pregnancy centers, including one in Pennsylvania in 2025, according to government records.

At the same time, the Trump administration has cut funding for traditional family planning clinics. In April 2025, the administration stopped 22 grants that were funding family planning services. Another freeze affected $27.5 million in grants for contraceptive services, according to KFF. The administration's budget proposal cuts health department funding by more than 26 percent, the Commonwealth Fund reported.

The result is that traditional clinics have lost funding while crisis pregnancy centers have kept theirs. This means some people looking for pregnancy care may find a crisis pregnancy center is their only option.

Why This Matters

An ectopic pregnancy is a medical emergency. It happens in about one out of every 50 pregnancies. If it goes undiagnosed and the pregnancy ruptures, a person can die within hours. Standard medical care calls for both ultrasound and blood tests precisely because neither one alone is always reliable.

Crisis pregnancy centers operate in a legal gray area. Some states regulate them lightly, requiring them to disclose what services they can and cannot provide. But they do not face the same strict rules that licensed medical clinics do. This lawsuit is one of the first times those rules are being tested in court.

For elected officials and health authorities tracking how federal money is spent, the Clearway case raises an important question: as these centers get more federal funding, do they have the training and equipment to do the medical work they are promising?