Pro-life Members of Congress welcomed pregnancy help personnel as they introduced a bill to protect pregnancy centers from discrimination at the hands of government at a press conference on Capitol Hill Monday.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), along with Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Michelle Fischbach (R-MN) unveiled the Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act of 2025, H.R. 2226, which will ban federal, state, and local governments from discriminating against pregnancy centers because of their life-affirming mission.
The federal lawmakers were joined by representatives of New Jersey pregnancy help and pro-life organizations, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), and Heartbeat International, all who offered perspective from the pregnancy help movement.
“There are more than 2,700 pregnancy resource centers throughout the United States, each and every one of them is an oasis of love, compassion, empathy, respect, honesty, and care for both mothers and their precious children,” Smith told the March 24 Capitol Hill press conference.
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Tenney referenced the many attacks on pregnancy centers through violence and vandalism following the 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs decision, for which she had reintroduced the Pregnancy Resource Center Defense Act earlier this year.
She explained that the Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act would address scenarios such as when the attorney general in her state of New York, Letitia James, had tried to shut down pregnancy centers from being listed on a Google search, terming this as “evil.”
Tenney also discussed being a co-sponsor with Fishbach on the Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act which sought to prohibit the Biden administration from limiting the ability of states to spend Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds on pregnancy centers.
“This is an issue that deserves the attention it's getting,” Tenney said of the varied attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers.
Pregnancy help centers offer women options and support, Fishbach told the press conference.
“Pregnancy centers provide treatment, counseling, ultrasounds, parenting and prenatal education, diapers, clothing, referrals for housing and transportation and so much more,” she said. “They provide support to new moms and their babies.”
“Conservatives are here for unborn babies, children, and their mothers, and we want to ensure that these mothers and their babies are supported,” Fishbach said. “This bill helps to make sure that women have that opportunity.”
The introduction of the Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act of 2025 comes amid ongoing attempts by pro-abortion elected officials in different constituencies to constrain pregnancy help centers through regulatory or legal means, often employing misinformation about the centers.
Smith is especially motivated to protect pregnancy help as his state has one of the worst climates for serving women with life-affirming options.
An anti-pregnancy center bill was introduced in the New Jersey legislature just as Smith and his colleagues had introduced the Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act of 2025 at the federal level.
New Jersey has also established a "Reproductive Rights Task Force" which coordinated with the state’s Division of Consumer Affairs to release a consumer alert against pregnancy centers.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin subpoenaed a group of New Jersey pregnancy centers in late 2023 seeking a decade’s worth of donor records, internal documents, and communications, claiming purported violations of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. Republicans in the New Jersey Assembly filed articles of impeachment against Platkin late last month owing in part to his allegedly targeting pregnancy centers.
Despite the government persecution, Smith said, “the American people recognize the crucial services provided by pregnancy centers.”
Tweet This: The American people recognize the crucial services provided by pregnancy centers.
He noted for the press conference the findings of the 2025 Knights of Columbus-Marist Poll released in January in which Americans were asked whether they strongly support or oppose pregnancy centers.
“The Marist Poll found that 83% of Americans, including 79% of Democrats, support, and I say again, support pregnancy resource centers,” Smith said. “Yet some state governments like my own state of New Jersey and some lawmakers seek to discriminate against pregnancy care centers by violating fundamental conscious rights to compel complicity in abortion.”
Despite the significant life-affirming work performed by pregnancy help centers and medical clinics - including millions of client sessions, their donating goods and services worth hundreds of millions of dollars to hundreds of thousands of clients, all while receiving a 97.4 percent client satisfaction rate - many of these organizations have endured censorship, intimidation, and legislative or legal punishment because they offer alternatives to abortion. The most glaring example is the Supreme Court NIFLA v. Becerra case where a California law compelled pregnancy centers to promote and refer for abortion. SCOTUS struck the law down in 2018.
The Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act of 2025 would amend the Public Health Service Act to prohibit any individual or entity receiving federal funding (including a state or local government) from discriminating against an entity that offers life-affirming alternatives to abortion, and provides for a private right of action for any of those entities that have suffered discrimination.
From the bill:
… the Federal Government, and any individual or entity that receives Federal financial assistance, including any State or local government, may not discriminate against, penalize, or retaliate against an entity because the entity offers life-affirming support and resources to women facing un10 expected pregnancy, offers life-affirming alternatives to abortion, or refrains from actions that counsel in favor of, suggest, recommend, assist, provide, promote, or in any way participate in the performance of abortions.
Eileen Den Bleyker, legal counsel for the New Jersey Association of Pregnancy Centers, expressed gratitude for the proposed measure as a protection against misinformation propagated by public officials about pregnancy centers.
“Thank you for a bill that would help protect us against such unfounded attacks,” Den Bleyker said. “The New Jersey Association of Pregnancy Centers applauds you and applauds your efforts to stop the misinformation and actions taken by state government representatives who refuse to hear our voice.”
“These attacks are targeted pregnancy centers solely because we decline to perform a refer for abortion,” she added, “discriminating against us based on our viewpoint of viewpoint that's founded on a deep-rooted moral belief in biblical principles that all life is sacred, including the life of an unborn child …”
“The state laws intend to silence and intimidate pregnancy centers because our viewpoint is different from government’s,” Den Bleyker said. “It's the mission of New Jersey pregnancy centers to bring compassion and hope to women facing an unplanned pregnancy.”
Citing the New Jersey Association of Pregnancy Centers’ 14 centers with over 50 locations which have been providing essential services for over 30 years, Den Bleyker said, “The women who make the courageous choice to carry their pregnancy to term deserve comprehensive support, compassionate care, and unwavering assistance throughout their journey.”
Jo Ann Gerling, of Life Choices Resource Center in Metuchen, N.J., detailed the many services her center has offered during its 40 years of operation.
“We do the whole range of being a pregnancy care center as well as a resource center,” she said. “And a lot of people don't realize that.”
“They think that a pregnancy center, we're just trying to get women in to have a sonogram and convince them to have their baby,” said Gerling. “Well, yes, we want them to choose life, but we have amazing follow up. Being a resource center. We follow our clients, and we have relationships with them.”
“It's no secret that pro-life pregnancy centers are under siege in New Jersey,” said Marie Tasy, president of New Jersey Right to Life. “It should be noted it's not because of any misconduct by the centers, but because they are saving lives and helping to spare women and men from the pain and grief of abortion.”
Anne O’Connor, vice president of Legal Affairs for NIFLA, said, “This bill, the Let Pregnancy Serve Act, is absolutely essential at this time in the history. We must halt the targeted harassment and abuse by governmental agencies against life affirming pregnancy centers.”
“I think it's interesting that the attacks on pregnancy centers have continued and ramped up so much recently,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Director of Federal Affairs Jamie Dangers said. “And I can only think that it's because they're a threat to the abortion industry, because why would they spend their time attacking pregnancy centers if they weren't effective, if they weren't actually helping women and babies? And to me, that is a huge testament of the effectiveness of letting these pregnancy centers serve.”
Heartbeat International analysis of the bill found that it would help pregnancy help organizations by providing legal protections, augmenting operational stability and fostering client trust, enhancing operational security and financial stability, and thus furthering access to care for women.
Pregnancy Help News Managing Editor Lisa Bourne represented Heartbeat, the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. and globally, telling the press conference that the Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act of 2025 holds meaningful benefits for pregnancy help organizations and the women they serve.
“By ensuring these organizations are protected from coercive mandates and legal threats, the bill empowers pregnancy help organizations to continue offering compassionate care to women and families in need,” she said.
The Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act of 2025 goes before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce next.
As of press time the list of co-sponsors had grown to include Reps. Robert Aderholt (R-AL), Russ Fulcher (R-ID), Mary Miller (R-IL), Sheri Biggs (R-SC), Daniel Webster (R-FL), and Michael Guest (R-MS).
The full text of the Act is available HERE.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News. Heartbeat is currently the subject of lawsuits brought by two state attorneys general concerning sharing information about Abortion Pill Reversal.
