The pro-life and pregnancy help movements have been consistently under vicious attack since the Supreme Court draft majority opinion leak in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case. And the pro-abortion radicals behind the attacks have continued to turn up the heat.
Sometimes it’s verbal, as when Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren hurls cold and fictitious accusations at pregnancy centers.
Other times, it’s outright violence.
Extremists have been physically attacking pregnancy resource centers. Since the Dobbs decision, 70% of all abortion-related threats of violence in the nation have been against pro-life groups, according to the head of the FBI.
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This includes the firebombing of Buffalo’s CompassCare Pregnancy Services.
The FBI recently released photos and video of the attack. But those assets didn’t come easily.
CompassCare’s CEO Jim Harden had to file a lawsuit to obtain them. Harden’s suit involves asking a judge to order the local police department to provide CompassCare leaders with the footage.
CatholicVote and Catholic News Agency are among those tracking that and similar incidents.
And now a group of federal lawmakers is putting pressure on the Biden administration to unveil how they are responding to all the vandalism, violence, and threats.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) led 27 members of Congress in introducing the Protect Pregnancy Care Centers Act of 2022.
The bill would mandate the Inspector Generals of both the Justice Department and Homeland Security to investigate and reveal to Congress what the Biden administration has done in response to these attacks.
“We are grateful for the 30 co-sponsors of this bill and support from others who recognize the need to protect pregnancy help from Big Abortion allies,” said Jor-El Godsey, president of Heartbeat International, the world’s largest network of pregnancy help.
“Truly, though, helping moms not need abortion should be a bi-partisan issue, and protecting those who do should result in unanimous support," Godsey said.
This is what the bill would mandate in these reports to Congress:
● criteria for opening, managing, and closing investigations related to domestic violent extremism
● information sharing relating to domestic violent extremism within and between the federal government, state, local, tribal, territorial, and foreign governments, specified congressional committees, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector
● all incidents of domestic violent extremism against pregnancy centers from May 1, 2022, through the date of this bill's enactment
● a recommendation as to criteria to be utilized in establishing a potential program to make grants to pregnancy centers for purposes of enabling grantees to prevent, prepare for, protect against, and respond to domestic violent extremism, and a report on current federal programs and federal funding streams available to pregnancy centers for such purposes.
Members of Congress would be owed intelligence on groups that have claimed responsibility for the attacks and the number of prosecutions filed against those responsible.
But that’s not all.
The bill shares a lot of information about pregnancy centers. It states:
“Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Pregnancy centers are community-based, non-profit organizations that provide compassionate support and resources to women and couples facing unexpected pregnancy and offer life-affirming alternatives to abortion.
(2) In 2019 alone, 2,700 pregnancy centers across the United States provided almost 2,000,000 people free services and material items that were estimated to be worth approximately $270,000,000.
(3) The services, which are generally provided at no cost to the patient, included almost 732,000 pregnancy tests, more than 486,000 free ultrasounds, 160,200 STI/STD tests, offering more than 291,000 clients parenting and prenatal education programs, offering more than 21,000 clients after-abortion support, offering more than 881,000 students sexual risk avoidance education presentations, providing nearly 1.3 million packs of diapers, providing more than two million baby outfits, providing over 30,000 new car seats, and providing over 19,000 strollers.
(4) In 2019 alone, pregnancy centers were served by 68,832 workers and 80 percent of these workers (53,855) were volunteers. The pregnancy centers employed nearly 3,800 licensed medical staff, and over 6,400 licensed medical professionals volunteered their time and skills. In total, 10,215 licensed medical staff provided care through pregnancy centers across the Nation.
(5) From 2016 to 2020, an estimated 828,131 unborn babies’ lives have been saved through the work of pregnancy care centers.
As of press time, there have been no updates on the bill since its introduction earlier this past fall.
And how has the White House responded? Well, it’s been quiet.
A little too quiet.
Instead, they’ve been more vocal about catering to the pro-abortion side.
Biden’s Justice Department has charged more than a dozen people with violations of the FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act since the beginning of October.
One example of those charged people is Mark Houck, pro-life activist and father of 11, who was accused of pushing a pro-abortion volunteer during a prayer vigil outside an abortion clinic.
Houck has said the volunteer instigated the trouble by harassing his son.
The FACE Act applies to both abortion facilities and pregnancy help organizations.
The Department of Justice recently informed a United States Conference of Catholic Bishops committee that attacks on pro-life pregnancy resource centers can be prosecuted under that same law.
It’s one win in a bigger war.
"The pregnancy help movement is powered primarily by local, grassroots support allowing their services to be free of charge to the women, men, families, and babies who need it,” Godsey said.
“While Big Abortion has big money to spend on well-heeled lobbyists to ply the halls of Congress," he said, "the greatest strength of the pregnancy help movement is the stories of those who are served.”
