Wendy Norris, a Denver-based freelance reporter, is a regular contributing writer working on special assignment to RH Reality Check.

The Family Research Council's report Wednesday commemorating 40 years of crisis pregnancy centers inadvertently confirms a dirty little secret of public health: $200 million per year is being spent on reproductive health care provided by amateurs.

Between the soothing tones of lavender pages and key words punctuated in a lovely stylized script, the FRC and four partner anti-choice groups claim that among the 2,300 nationwide anti-choice centers affiliated with its tight-knit conservative religious network, the average clinic sees 300-350 women annually— or less than one woman per day.

Crisis pregnancy centers were founded in the pre-Roe v Wade 1960s to dissuade women from seeking abortions by giving them blatantly false information and relying on scare tactics about cancer risks and infertility. In recent years, the centers expanded their services as the Bush Administration's faith-based federal grant program grew and restrictions decreased on Medicaid provider reimbursement rules.

Factoring in the centers' latest lucrative cottage industry, federally-supported abstinence-only education programs, the FRC notes its networked "pregnancy resource centers reach some 1.9 million people each year."

And it's here where a little back-of-the-napkin math tells the real story: the document cites a conservative estimate of $200 million in annual taxpayer and philanthropic funding for the crisis centers aligned with FRC, Life International, Heartbeat International, CareNet and the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates. That equals a misplaced public health investment of $105.26 per client to push wildly inaccurate, non-scientific and biased information on pregnancy and contraception in schools and at facilities staffed almost exclusively by volunteers.

The FRC cheerfully explains that it further minimizes the public cost burden of unplanned pregnancies because "29 out of every 30 people engaged in pregnancy center work are volunteers."

In other words, people with a clear theo-political agenda are operating ultrasound equipment and providing intimate information to women and teenaged girls about sexuality, prenatal development and medical issues outside the scope of public regulation or expert supervision.

This logic is especially troubling when one considers that no other health care service is delivered under the guise of lay people without medical training.

The report also unwittingly reveals another curiosity of the faith-based crisis pregnancy center movement — it's lack of public credibility as a fair broker of evidence-based health information and comprehensive care.

In an apparent tactic to portray a sense of legitimacy, the 60-odd page report contains 41 individual references to the accuracy, honesty, trustworthiness or similarly-termed descriptions of its services. Yet, that flowery language stands in stark contrast to decades of peer-reviewed research, public health analysis and investigative reporting that debunk the clinics' deceptive claims about abortion and contraception.