Go to a search engine and enter the terms “abortion clinic” and the name of your city. You probably won’t be surprised to see ads offering “abortion consultation” that is “100 percent confidential” from “sensitive and caring staff.”

What may surprise you is that these ads often don’t take you to real health care clinics. Instead, many of them take you to facilities that misrepresent themselves as medical clinics or objective health care counselors when, in reality, they are fronts for activists whose sole purpose is to delay and obstruct women’s ability to exercise their constitutional right to abortion.

Misleading or lying to pregnant women who are seeking time-sensitive medical care can be extremely harmful. Last month, we introduced the Pregnancy Information Disclosure and Protection Ordinance in Oakland to call attention to this fraud and to send a clear message to those responsible: Our city will not stand for intentional deception of patients seeking health care.

On July 5, the Oakland City Council approved the ordinance, which is cosponsored by Councilman Abel Guillén and Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan. Ordinances require a second vote before becoming law, so please join us at City Hall on Tuesday to ensure that a woman’s right to make reproductive health care choices is not compromised by the false and deceptive tactics of anti-choice facilities.

When women responding to ads enter these facilities, commonly known as crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), they are hit with a barrage of medical misinformation.

Many CPCs tell women that abortion causes breast cancer, infertility and mental health problems — all claims that have been thoroughly debunked by the medical community.

They often exaggerate the likelihood of miscarriage to convince women that they may not even need to seek abortion services. And they use shame and manipulation to push women toward continuing their pregnancies, regardless of their circumstances or personal choices.

While many of us feel protected in a pro-choice state, there are nearly 200 of these CPCs in California alone, including at least one in Oakland, according to NARAL ProChoice California.

When NARAL conducted an undercover investigation of California CPCs, investigators found that 91 percent of centers they visited falsely linked abortion to health problems, so-called post abortion stress syndrome and even death.

Deceiving women to get them in the door is a core element of the CPC model.

They use deliberately vague and misleading advertising to target what they call “abortion-minded” women. They purchase pay-to-click ads for search terms like “abortion” and “abortion clinic,” and advertise “abortion information,” “consultation” or even “pre-abortion appointments.”

They often locate near legitimate reproductive health clinics and try to mimic their appearance and language.

The ordinance we are sponsoring in Oakland prohibits false, misleading and/or deceptive statements that confuse and jeopardize the health and well-being of women who are seeking critical health care services.

The law also grants the city attorney the power to sue violators and collect civil penalties and attorney’s fees, helping to put an end to these injustices against women.

We introduced this law because we want women to be aware that these phony clinics exist, and we want to send a clear message that false advertising and deceptive business practices will not be tolerated in Oakland.

Oakland respects the activists’ right to express their views and counsel against abortion. If their message is truly compelling, they should have no problem being honest about what they do and do not offer. If they refuse to be honest, Oakland is ready to hold them accountable.

Annie Campbell Washington is Oakland Vice Mayor. Barbara J. Parker is Oakland City Attorney.