of president biden's plan to give loan relief to millions of students. six republican—controlled states have brought the case — arguing mr biden is exceeding his powers. now on bbc news, panorama. this is claire, she's pregnant and about to go undercover... are you ready? ..investigating crisis pregnancy advice centres. if you feel like it's getting too much, just leave. hi, it's lissa and ella. there are dozens of these centres in the uk claiming to provide support with unplanned pregnancies. we reveal evidence some centres are giving misleading advice.

accused of persuading women not to have abortions. crisis pregnancy centres are not upfront about who they are and what they're there to do. no—one else should be made to feel how i felt that day. so how many women like me has there been? i'm on my way to meet a woman who contacted me about her experience with a crisis pregnancy advice service. she was 25 when she became pregnant last year. it was absolutely unplanned, unexpected. and i think i was unprepared for having to deal with that. i googled pregnancy crisis line or pregnancy helpline, just to talk to somebody for impartial advice. and ifound pregnancy

crisis helpline. the pregnancy crisis helpline says it's supported more than 2,000 women in the last year. but melanie was unhappy with the advice she got. there were things that were with an aim to make me question why i wanted to have an abortion, whether i should. she definitely did some fear— mongering around the process of a medical abortion, "you can heavily bleed for months on end." she had said about the likelihood of me being infertile after having an abortion and she said, "you'll always be a mother," and whilst that is something that i disagree with, that does stay with you. i was appalled. i was angry. it made me not want to call anyone else for advice that wasn't someone i knew.

despite her experience, melanie went ahead with an abortion. the pregnancy crisis helpline says it supports women in a safe, pressure—free environment, it works hard to offer women the highest possible standard of support, and since it started, it's had two complaints and thousands of grateful clients. abortions have been available on the nhs in england, scotland and wales, for more than 50 years. today the nhs also funds abortions through providers like msi reproductive choices. medicine is all about informed choice. and abortion care is exactly the same as any other field of medicine like that. but you can only come to the right decision for what's best for you in your circumstances if you have good quality, unbiased information.

crisis pregnancy centres operate outside the nhs. we found 57 advertising online. most say they don't refer women for abortions. they say they offer support and information. i think the common thread that runs through them is that they intercept and grab women who are struggling with the decision as to whether they want to move forward with an abortion or not. we wanted to find out more. we contacted all 57 centres, posing as women wanting information about our options, including abortion. hello. hi, there. i recently found out that i'm pregnant and it's come as a massive shock and ijust... 3a of the centres offered impartial support and directed us to the nhs.

two wouldn't speak to us without a positive pregnancy test. 21, more than a third, gave worrying advice. there's new evidence that abortion may increase the susceptibility to breast cancer. the majority of women will get post abortion syndrome in some way. you'll take the two tablets and that will kill the baby in the womb, and you will bleed out. to investigate further, i decide to go undercover and make appointments at three of the 21 centres. first, crossroads crisis pregnancy centre. it says its trained counsellors provide free and accurate information. it opened in 2005 and is based in a baptist church. i'm going to say i'm three weeks pregnant. hiya, i'm here to see

someone called glossyna. yeah, that's me. i'm taken into a room by glossyna who says she's a counsellor.

we showed our secretly filmed footage to drjonathan lord, who also speaks for the royal college of obstetricians and gynaecologists, and jo holmes from the british association for counselling and psychotherapy. because you've got to kill the baby... it's not about an unplanned pregnancy. it's about a baby. you know, it's not a baby when you've got a choice. it's a pregnancy.

it's an unplanned pregnancy or unintended pregnancy, or an unwanted pregnancy. it was just immediately diving in with that laden language. l to get rid of it... glossyna says she's not here to tell me what to do. then describes what she says are the risks of having an abortion. the medication, i mean, are there any kind of side effects from that?

a lot of what was in there was just simply false. - there is no increased risk of infertility, - the risk of haemorrhage is minimal. _ from, you know, a professional standards point of view, as a counsellor, they're not there to advise, they are not there to guide, and they are so not there to give their opinion. neither crossroads crisis pregnancy centre nor glossyna responded to our request for comment. of the 57 centres we looked into, 32 made their religious affiliations clear. and 20 of them provided impartial advice. next, tyneside pregnancy advice centre. it says it has a christian ethos and is committed

to providing a caring, compassionate, and professional service. we have a mandate, don't we? from god to do something... dr chris richards is an nhs paediatrician and the director of the centre. ..and deliver those who are drawn towards death and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. we know what's going on... here he explains how the use of ultrasound scans in crisis pregnancy centres in america has helped convince women there not to have abortions. the power of ultrasound amongst the population, particularly in the states, has had a profound effect. the heartbeat appears at three weeks and five or six days. it's the size of a poppy seed but it doesn't look like that on the scan because you see this quite big image going at about sort of 100, 120 beats per minute. crisis pregnancy centres in the uk are very much modelled on crisis pregnancy

centres in the us. they employ the same tactics to try to deter women from accessing services. katherine 0'brien is an associate director at the british pregnancy advisory service, one of the uk's main abortion providers. they will share similar literature and messaging to women and crucially they employ tactics around the use of ultrasounds and will try to force women to, say, listen to the heartbeat or see an ultrasound image in order to prevent her from undergoing an abortion. i decide to visit the tyneside pregnancy advice centre, undercover. is the equipment working? yeah, this is now recording.

i'm going to say i'm married with two children and i'm pregnant again. i meet audrey, who i'm told is an advisor. shall we pop next door? audrey gives me a leaflet about what the centre says are the risks of having an abortion.

0k, from a clinical perspective, yes, infection is always a risk with anything you do, including not doing anything or carrying on with the pregnancy, so it's always a balance. but leaving it in the way she did about "how will "you tell your daughters? " it's extraordinary. it's going straight. for the guilt button. yeah. this is about this woman'sl unique experience that she owns, not the counsellor.

it's the woman's experience and i think she's just tryingl to manipulate the conversation to her end really. _ audrey says if i'm considering an abortion i should consult the nhs website. but she also encourages me to have an ultrasound scan and shows me the room where they're carried out. how long have you had the scan machine for? i leave, saying i'll think about having a scan. take care, bye—bye. scans are a tool, they can be very useful in some circumstances, but they can actually be quite intrusive in others. but we're doing it for a reason. a medical reason. we're doing it because we want to measure something. but in the context here,

it's designed to cause guilt. you know, that's why they're doing it, they're trying to manipulate the emotions. it's the last thing you'd want to see or hear. i dr chris richards says the tyneside pregnancy advice centre "has a 1a—year track record of compliance with all its regulatory obligations" and that "over 1,200 women have benefitted from the work of its staff and volu nteers". he says anyone reading its website can see where it's coming from and it's "not a campaigning organisation". audrey didn't respond to our request for comment. chanting the supreme court hasjust overturned five decades of the constitutional right to an abortion for women across the country. now millions of women will have lost that right. last summer, abortion laws in the us were radically changed. it's no longer a legal right to have an abortion in every state.

three more states have now officially banned abortion services. there are no exceptions under this new law for. rape or incest. the only exceptions - are for medical emergencies. in the us, one of the most influential anti—abortion groups is stanton international. it's set up five crisis pregnancy centres there. life—affirming medical clinics such as stanton health care are revolutionising women's medical care and providing a true choice for women. stanton international opened a centre in belfast called stanton health care in 2015, four years before abortion was legalised in nothern ireland. its website says it's a safe place where women are empowered to make their best choice. when mother—of—five ashleigh found out she was pregnant in 2021, she called stanton health care believing they could help her

with an abortion. it was made quite clear to them that that's what i wanted and they didn't ask me did i want anything else. they told me that they would sort it out for me and that there would be support, there would be counselling for, for afterwards. but when she turned up for an appointment, she was told she needed an ultrasound scan. it revealed she was pregnant with twins. and they were doing the scan and i had my head the other way, and they kept telling me to look and look and look and look at the scan, and i wouldn't look at it. and she said, "these are your babies," and i was like, "oh, god." so obviously i looked. and i'd seen the two wee babies on the screen. and i told her, you, know what's going on, "i'm here because i want an abortion."

i wiped me own jelly off and left the room. that was enough for me. ashleigh went ahead with the abortion and says it was the right decision for her. but the experience at stanton health care had a lasting impact. mentally after that, i don't think i've ever been the same. i shouldn't have to be in so much pain. i want to go undercover. but stanton health care says it'll only see women who provide a positive pregnancy test on site. so, claire, who's ten weeks into a planned pregnancy, agrees to help us. if she really wanted an abortion, she'd only have two weeks to get one, because in northern ireland, abortion�*s only legal up to 12 weeks, unless there's a medical emergency.

hi, claire, i'm divya. honestly, we can't thank you enough for helping us, because this is not an easy task. really that's what intrigued me, the fact that you were focusing on a key issue that women face, that they would not want to speak about openly. look, there's stanton right there on the right. look the windows are completely blacked out. you can't see anything. it looks like it's open, though. how are you feeling? yeah, i'm slightly nervous. you do not have to stay in there and you can pull out at any point. are you 0k? yeah. ready? yeah. good luck.

claire's calling herself lissa and goes in with one of our producers. hi, it's lissa and ella. just a few wee forms for you to fill out, i we are going to do a pregnancy test. i in the waiting room, claire is introduced to anne, who says she's an advisor. i want to come in with lissa. we have policies. and they're rigorously adhered to. _ don't make an issue. i would love you not. to make an issue of it. do you want me to give you ten minutes? - i'll give you ten minutes and a cup of tea. - yeah, let's just chat. and a cup of tea. are you happy with that? they won't see claire with me. what's in here? the camera. when you go in, what you need to do is put this on your lap. claire returns to secretly film on her own.

what are the laws? what's the support? what's the advice? if you wanted a termination? yeah. i would go through a syndrome, it's not talked about much, it's called a post—abortive syndrome. and everyone... post? post—abortive syndrome. between maybe six months and six years, there is an anxiety that erodes your mental health and it's severe. addiction is a big thing that hits women who are post—abortive, and self—harm. is it medically actually proven? oh, god, yes. post—abortion syndrome, is that a thing? no. it is completely made up. there is no evidence for it whatsoever. you take your first tablet and it's a whopping dose of female hormone. there's no other way

to say this. within 48 hours, your baby will die of hunger and thirst. it'll be starved to death. and the second pill, and your baby passes. 0h, at home? pass it in the toilet. almost none of that whatsoever was rooted in reality, that it's a powerful female hormone. that's nonsense. and then she sort of carries on about passing it. well, it is true that the process of having a medical abortion is worse than, you know, having a heavy period, for example. you will carry a pain in your heart which you will try to suppress.

it's stalling, it'sjust tick—tock, tick—tock, time is going on. you know, that woman is almost going to be coerced sort of into keeping the pregnancy. anne says the centre can provide financial help and after—care to women who go ahead with their pregnancies. claire leaves agreeing to come back for a scan. 0n the way out she's given several leaflets. what really struck me with these leaflets are that if i did decide to get an abortion, they said that i could get breast cancer, which is scary. but this one is quite traumatising. i literally do not want to look at it. it's got babies that are basically aborted and the pictures are very graphic. i can't even look at it.

the images are too graphic to show, but drjonathan lord and jo holmes agree to look at them. it's pretty horrific, isn't it? they made this look like this is what happens in every abortion and they've zoomed right up on it. and to just manifestly and deliberately increase the distress they're going to get by showing them. this is cruelty, and it's just so cruel. what's your take on the risks? things like breast cancer? this old chestnut about breast cancer. there is no evidence for this. it is entirely conjecture and designed to frighten people. two weeks later claire returns for the ultrasound. hi, how are you? they say they didn't think she'd turn up, so there's no—one

available to do the scan. while claire's there, a woman introduces herself as iris. she says she normally works on the helpline. i later discover that her name is bernadette smyth, founder of precious life, one the largest anti—abortion campaign groups in northern ireland. we vow in our efforts to make abortion unthinkable and illegal again in ireland, north and south, and indeed through the world. bernadette smyth told us her middle name is iris and she's always used it at stanton health care. she says it's on her nametag and there's nothing misleading about it. anne from the centre didn't respond. stanton international�*s chief operating officer agreed to speak to me about the findings of our investigation.

what is post—abortive syndrome? i am not going to answer questions about post—abortive syndrome. within our clinics, women are advised that having an abortion could lead to lifelong grief, sorrow, regret, and it can impact them negatively. i interviewed a woman who booked an appointment with stanton health care belfast and she told us that when she went to the centre, she was given an ultrasound scan. she was pressurised to look at the images of the pregnancy. the truth should not be hidden from women. and so to provide a medical scan, an obstetric scan, when she is pregnant is absolutely acceptable and called for and necessary for a woman to make an informed choice. i want to share a leaflet. it shows graphic images of aborted foetuses. i don't believe that it's inappropriate to show a woman what the actual outcome of an abortion is. women have the ability to make

a decision if they are given the facts. and at stanton health care we're committed to providing women with the truth and with the resources that they need to make the best possible decisions for them and their baby. stanton health care says it's helped many women. it's expanding in the uk and last year opened a new centre in scotland. we would welcome more support for women experiencing unplanned or unwanted pregnancies. and the most vulnerable women in our society absolutely need greater support. but crisis pregnancy centres are not the support that these women need. the three crisis pregnancy centres we investigated undercover are all registered charities. the charity commission in northern ireland says it's already looking into stanton health care. the charity commission in england says it's assessing

the information provided by this programme. the department of health and social care says it's important women facing unplanned pregnancies get impartial, accurate information. but right now, if you visit a crisis pregnancy centre, there's little or no regulation of the quality of advice and counselling you might receive. i think they're flying under the radar. you know, they really should be regulated. i think they're falling between a gap in the regulations. it's not something that has left me or will ever leave me. no—one else should experience what i experienced. no—one else should be made to feel how i felt that day.

this is bbc news our top stories: at least 29 people are killed and dozens more are injured after two trains collide in greece. the governing party candidate wins the most votes in nigeria's disputed presidential election but his victory hasn't been confirmed. all chant: hey, hey, ho, ho! student debt has to go! president biden�*s plan to cancel the student debts of millions of americans faces a challenge in the supreme court. it is a form of economic enslavement that does not need to be in a country that say they are about democracy and free people. is time running out for tiktok? china condemns the us government's decision to order