Violence and other attacks against pregnancy help centers have continued since the May 2 leak of the Supreme Court draft majority opinion in the Dobbs v. Women’s Jackson Health Organization case. And while pregnancy help centers and medical clinics have not missed a beat in providing services to women and families since, abortion supporters have ramped up their smearing of these organizations while also attempting to scare women away from their life-affirming services with fallacious claims about abortion regulations prohibiting healthcare for women.
Nearly two months after the Dobbs leak on July 12 the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled, "A Post-Roe America: The Legal Consequences of the Dobbs Decision.”
The purpose of the committee hearing was to pose critical questions to experts in their fields regarding abortion and how the overturn of Roe v. Wade may affect people. Both abortion supporters and pro-life supporters were present. The hearing revealed the illogical behavior of abortion enthusiasts along with their ongoing animus toward pregnancy centers and the people who depend on those centers for their care.
It also demonstrated the contrast between abortion providers and pregnancy help organizations in their approach to care for women.
Women choosing life means less money for an abortion industry that is clearly hungry for more, so if a woman facing unplanned pregnancy approaches an abortion facility for help but declines to choose abortion, she represents lost income.
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Abortion zealots have long tried to discredit pregnancy help centers with the “fake clinic” label, but this has ramped up since Dobbs. Other unfounded accusations on their part include that pro-life pregnancy centers intentionally mislead women to direct more people in their doors, something also brought up during the Senate committee hearing.
This claim baffles anyone who has familiarity with pregnancy help because pregnancy centers make absolutely no profit off anyone walking through their doors.
One witness at the committee hearing was the director of Alternatives Pregnancy Center in Sacramento Calif., Heidi Matzke.
Matzke testified that she must raise 1.5 million dollars of non-governmental money by herself annually to operate the center.
But additionally, in Sacramento if a woman walks into Planned Parenthood and does not choose abortion Planned Parenthood refers the woman to the Alternatives Pregnancy Center to receive the care, medical and material help she needs.
The abortion provider chooses not to help those women from whom they do not stand to make a profit – this, while overall it receives half-a-billion dollars of U.S. taxpayer money each year.
The fact Planned Parenthood recognizes the support that Alternatives Pregnancy Center gives women amid the abortion provider’s own unwillingness to support women on their journey to choose life is crucial for people to understand.
If these pregnancy help centers are in fact “fake clinics” as the pro-abortion slur goes, why would Planned Parenthood refer people to them? If they were in fact fake centers, Planned Parenthood would be guilty of mishandling the people who come to them for help.
Planned Parenthood’s referral of women to Alternatives Pregnancy Center underscores the credibility of the Alternatives Pregnancy Center.
Another matter of note from the hearing was that while Planned Parenthood receives multi-millions of dollars annually in government subsidies, it is somehow not equipped to offer a holistic approach for women to make their own choices regarding their own lives and their babies.
This strongly suggests that the so-called right to choose is a priority for abortion providers as long as the woman in need chooses what makes them more money.
Alternatives Pregnancy Center, however, supports women, whether they choose abortion or choose life, for years after the woman gives birth or has an abortion. Their staff are licensed medical professionals and OB-GYN’s, many of whom have personally experienced the trauma of abortion.
Yet Planned Parenthood and all their billions cannot be bothered to support any women who will not make them any money.
Matzke spoke about the harsh reality faced by pregnancy centers post-Dobbs because of the hostility directed their way by abortion proponents.
She explained that in the wake ruling they have had to hire 24 hour, on-site security, reinforce their doors, bullet-proof their walls, paint their building with anti-graffiti coating, add cameras, arm staff with pepper spray, and cease operating the mobile clinic that helped the homeless and immigrants because of threats of violence, ultimately spending $150,000 to protect themselves and the women they serve.
That $150,000 spent on self-defense could have gone to help people in need. Instead, they were forced to spend it on basic protective measures in order to continue serving women they have been serving for decades.
Still, in the face of very real danger Alternatives Pregnancy Center continues to keep its doors open. Despite all the acts of violent hate, they continue to serve as many women as they can while not making a profit from those clients.
The irony of Planned Parenthood referring women who choose life to a pregnancy help center the abortion lobby tries to paint as “fake,” and Planned Parenthood declining to be bothered with assisting women choosing something other than abortion were not the only truths laid bare by the Senate committee hearing.
Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, testified at the hearing as well, offering the absurd description of abortion as “an act of love” in her opening statement.
McNicholas claimed in her testimony that doctors are paralyzed with fear, afraid to “treat” women accordingly for fear of legal repercussions since Dobbs. She claimed doctors are forced to watch women bleed out “unable to treat them due to fear of legal repercussions,” though none were not cited specifically. Doctors, pharmacists and emergency room personnel choose not to act due to fear of being accused of providing an abortion, she said, again, failing to cite any specific legislation which expressly prohibits them from treating the women who come to them for treatment.
McNicholas’s unsubstantiated claims about healthcare for women post-Dobbs aside, her claims that her organization’s product equates to an act of love for women is ludicrous on its face. Ending the life of a woman’s child in the womb in no way shows love to her or the child.
Interestingly, the Alternatives Pregnancy Center has had no conflict over whether and how to serve women since Dobbs.
No matter if they choose abortion, adoption, or to parent their child, the center helps every woman who comes through their doors.
The misinformation about pregnancy centers and abuse of women with fear tactics on the part of abortion supporters is a disgrace, as are the violence and vandalism visited upon pro-life organizations.
Without pregnancy help centers every woman’s freewill is put in jeopardy. And the violence against pregnancy centers is an assault on that freewill - an assault on their choice.
Meanwhile, in at least one part of California, the nation’s largest abortion provider, flush with cash, is turning the women who do not choose abortion away, referring them to non-profit pregnancy help centers it dismisses as fake providers.
