Watch John Oliver Unveil His Own Insane Pregnancy Crisis Center
"Vanned Parenthood" plans to drive around offering terrible advice.
In an apparent effort to expose the manipulative tactics of crisis pregnancy centers — the religious-run organizations that work to convince women against getting abortions — John Oliver has decided to start one of his own.
On Last Week Tonight Sunday, Oliver introduced “Vanned Parenthood,” a mobile van complete with an ultrasound machine that would be operated by Oliver’s TV wife, Wanda Jo (comedy legend Rachel Dratch).
The van, which Last Week Tonight actually filed papers for on March 30 in order to drive it around New York, is a satirical jab at the real agendas of pregnancy crisis centers. CPC vans often park themselves outside of abortion clinics and coax in vulnerable women by posing as another health care option. In actual fact, CPCs only exist to convince women to finish their pregnancies, and they do so by offering frightening falsehoods about health risks around abortions, as well as other pseudoscience.
Oliver says his van will do the same but to a ludicrous extent. As Oliver revealed the van on stage, Dratch popped out in a lab coat and a giant wig. “Praise be and welcome to Vanned Parenthood,” she said. “I tell women if they get an abortion it’ll make a ghost baby that will haunt your hoo-haw forever.”
Oliver and his "wife," Wanda Jo, played by Rachel Dratch.
“Did you know that I’m not legally required to have any training at all to use this ultrasound machine?” Dratch said as she began performing an ultrasound on Oliver.
“You’re pregnant, it’s a miracle!”
There are over 2,700 pregnancy crisis centers across the U.S., compared to less than 1,700 abortion-providing clinics. Many of them claim religious freedom to be exempt from paying taxes and are actually funded by state governments. “Right now it is way too easy for a religious organization to disguise its true nature and establish a CPC and provide women with dangerously poor information about one of their most important health choices,” Oliver said earlier in the segment.
“If they are that prevalent, people should absolutely know what they are,” says Oliver.
It might be worth keeping an eye out in New York State for Vanned Parenthood making the rounds in order to educate anyone who’s still unclear on CPCs. Oliver has a history of taking his on-show stunts into the real world; next time you pass a Planned Parenthood location, you might find Dratch demonstrating how an abortion can turn a woman’s breastmilk into kombucha.
