Dove Medical can be found on 487 E 11th Ave, Eugene, Oregon. This medical clinic is a pregnancy diagnosis clinic, and offers free services for those who are experiencing unplanned pregnancies.
On May 4, Eugene community members and members of the Democratic Socialists of America Eugene chapter organized and met in protest against the DOVE Medical clinic on East 11th Avenue. The “faith-based” organization is accused by protesters and some students of operating as a crisis pregnancy center.
CPCs, also known as pregnancy resource centers, are clinics that do not provide comprehensive healthcare but rather attempt to convince pregnant individuals to carry their child to full term. Those against CPCs believe the pressure they instill onto clients is predatory and places them in danger by delaying access to reproductive healthcare.
Katherine Price, a member of the DSA in Eugene, was at the protest on Saturday, May 4. As a member of the DSA, Price said it was “imperative” to fight back against DOVE Medical.
“CPCs often look like medical facilities, yet they do not practice medicine,” Price said. “Once inside, people are lied to and pressured about their reproductive healthcare decisions, often delaying and increasing the costs of their [abortion] procedure and pushing them past the deadline for legal abortion.”
Protestors deemed DOVE Medical a CPC after students from UO conducted personal investigations into the clinic and reported their experiences. According to Price, students feigned the need for reproductive healthcare to experience DOVE Medical’s approach to healthcare.
Co-Director of University of Oregon’s Students for Choice, Audrey Tirrill, was one of the students who conducted these investigations on DOVE Medical by calling and feigning pregnancy.
“I faked it,” Tirrill said. “They just wanted me to come in and talk to them and didn’t say why.”
Tirrill said DOVE Medical’s position as a CPC was confirmed through phone calls and conducting research on their clinic’s website and using a CPC map available online.
Tirrill said there have been other students with “horror stories,” about their experiences with DOVE Medical. These students, according to Tirrill, described clinicians praying over them and being told they could not get an abortion at their clinic.
“Oftentimes they are brought in with the promise of free pregnancy tests or free STD testing or [a] free ultrasound,” Price said. “But ultimately their experiences were that this place did try to give them medical misinformation.”
According to Price and Tirrill, CPCs often use practices such as search engine optimization to show up as a top result when searching for abortion clinics online. In addition to this, CPCs advertise in areas close to college campuses.
“People who search abortion clinics are much more likely to find a CPC than an abortion clinic,” Price said.
After the protest on the steps of DOVE Medical, protesters marched from 11th Avenue and Ferry Street to DSA’s downtown meeting space. Attendees then watched a virtual demonstration with OBGYN and author Dr. Jennifer Lincoln and founder of Reproductive Transparency Now, Lisa Battisfore.
DOVE Medical CEO, Jeanie Langley, was not aware of the allegations made against DOVE until later in the week when its practices came into question.
“Of course I disagree with them. That’s not what we do,” Langley said. “The issue is probably that we do not provide abortions in our clinic. But that doesn’t mean we don’t support and respect women for making that choice.”
Langley went on to say if there was any known deception or coercion at DOVE the employee would be “laid off immediately.”
Although Price alleges that CPCs do not provide any medical care, DOVE provides patients with services such as pregnancy diagnosis, STI testing and treatment among other services.
According to Langley, DOVE Medical is Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care accredited and the process to achieve that standard is “rigorous.”
“We don’t want anybody walking in our door thinking they are going to get something they are not. We are pretty honest with our patients with what we provide.” Langley said.
In addition to protesters, some UO students have been vocal regarding the allegations against DOVE Medical. One such student is Madison Cole, a sophomore at UO, who says CPC practices go against the United States’ separation of church and state.
“I feel like every woman should have the right to get an abortion,” Cole said. “I think of Oregon as super liberal. I’m kind of shocked that it’s so close to campus.”
