California pregnancy help leaders called on a Democrat state lawmaker to apologize for calling them “fake health care centers” earlier this past spring.
In her presentation before the California Assembly Health Committee on Assembly Bill 710, NTD.com reports, Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo claimed of pregnancy help centers, “These clinics use deceptive practices targeted at vulnerable populations to draw them in by claiming they provide abortion services when they have no equipment or capacity to provide abortions.”
“To be clear, they’re not licensed medical clinics,” Schiavo stated.
According to the California Alliance of Pregnancy Care there are 162 pregnancy help centers in the state, 87 of which are state-licensed medical clinics and 11 are AAAHC (Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care Accredited) clinics.
The Santa Clarita Valley Pregnancy Center in Santa Clarita, Calif., is one of the 87 pregnancy help medical clinics, and held a press conference in response to Schiavo’s remarks, the NTD report said.
“Assemblymember Schiavo was wrong,” said Angela Bennett, president and CEO of the Santa Clarita pregnancy medical clinic. “We are not a fake clinic. Our medical professionals are not fakes.”
“We’re proud to serve our community,” Bennett said. “We’re proud to be a licensed medical clinic within our community and to meet the pregnancy diagnostic needs of women in our community who are either uninsured, have no place to go, or they just need an answer.”
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Schiavo made her comments while presenting on Assembly Bill 710, which she sponsored, and which would generate a public information campaign on pregnancy care and abortion services via the California Department of Public Health.
She told the Assembly Health Committee that pregnancy centers deliberately misinform women and lie to them to “block them from accessing abortion care.” A video of the hearing is available HERE.
The proposed legislation was one among a number of proposed bills in abortion states that seek to restrict or impugn pregnancy help centers.
While the bill eventually stalled in committee, Bennett and others had called for an apology.
The California Family Council said in a statement that Schiavo authored the bill to create a public awareness campaign that “seeks to expose fake crisis pregnancy centers.”
“It is wholly unacceptable for elected officials to use their office to slander private citizens and organizations,” said California Family Council President Jonathan Keller. “Assemblymember Schiavo should publicly apologize for the lies and defamation directed towards Pregnancy Resource Centers across California, specifically the two licensed clinics in District 40 serving thousands of her constituents.”
The California Family Council pointed out in a statement that, “Ironically, the only two pregnancy care centers in Schiavo’s legislative district both have medical clinic licenses from the State of California and state on every page of their websites that they don’t provide abortions.”
“CFC acknowledges that not all pregnancy care centers in California are licensed medical clinics, but Schiavo does not make that distinction in her remarks,” the organization’s statement said. “Her claim that pregnancy care centers are ‘fake’ health clinics is a broad-brush mischaracterization that is obviously false.”
“This issue goes beyond just the issue of whether you are pro-life or pro-choice,” Keller said at the press conference. “This is an issue of care for women. It’s, sadly, an issue of what happens when this care for women gets politicized to the point that life-saving care is called misinformation, or it is called fake care.”
Patty, a client of Santa Clarita Valley Pregnancy Center, also spoke at the press conference while holding her son, Liam. Patty went to the pregnancy center after she found out she was pregnant in January 2022 and her son’s father had left her her because she did not want to get an abortion.
“Through the center, I was given the guidance and tools to get my insurance set up,” Patty said. “I was able to openly talk about my feelings and concerns about being a single mom. And throughout the whole process, I felt genuinely cared for, and they listened to what I had to say.”
Tweet This: Throughout the whole process, I felt genuinely cared for, & they listened to what I had to say-Santa Clarita Valley Pregnancy Center client
The pregnancy medical clinic has provided free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, counseling, and material aid to women for four generations, according to Bennett.
Bennett had invited Schiavo to tour the clinic.
“Once you see who we are and how we care for women, I hope you will apologize for the accusations of being a ‘fake clinic’ that were leveraged … against all the centers in our state,” she said.
Schiavo doubled down later in a statement, saying, “Licensed or not, these crisis pregnancy centers are bringing women in by using misleading language about providing care when really, they only offer ultrasounds to ‘confirm a pregnancy,’ which then leads to misleading conversations about abortions and the woman’s choices, regardless of what’s best for her and her family.”
Schiavo’s bill was part of a bundle of 17 “abortion rights and reproductive justice legislation” considered by the California legislature this year, the NTD report said.
