Despite What Planned Parenthood Says, Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers Have More to Offer Women Than Abortion Clinics
Pregnancy centers exist to provide women with free resources they need to feel confident about choosing life for their child.
That’s why Planned Parenthood relies on deception to prevent women from ever stepping through the doors of a pregnancy center. The corporation understands the positive impact these centers have on communities, so smear tactics are the organization’s only defense against life-affirming alternatives.
Communities Need Pregnancy Centers, Not Abortion Clinics
The national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List and its research arm, the Charlotte Lozier Institute, released its 2020 Pregnancy Center Report video on Friday highlighting how pregnancy centers have so much more to offer their clients than Planned Parenthood does.
“For as long as they have been in existence, pregnancy centers have been attacked by forces favoring abortion,” the report said. “A new study from the Charlotte Lozier Institute shows the opposition has been no match for the momentum of love.”
CLI’s 2020 report, “Pregnancy Centers Stand the Test of Time” found that 2,700 pregnancy centers nationwide provided almost two million people with free resources at an estimated value of nearly $270 million in 2019.
When clients felt overwhelmed by their circumstances, pregnancy centers were there to ensure they had access to the medical and supportive services they needed.
Further, pregnancy centers are not only beneficial to women facing unexpected pregnancies, but also to the community as a whole.
Another report from CLI in 2017 pointed out that taxpayers benefit from pregnancy centers. That year, the free resources they offered saved communities nearly $161 million annually. Heartbeats International reported that ninety percent of the funding pregnancy centers receive also comes from voluntary donations, a testament to the trust that communities have in the work they do.
By contrast, Planned Parenthood’s 2018-2019 annual report revealed that the abortion provider collected over $600 million in taxpayer dollars. Unlike the open relationships pregnancy centers share with their neighborhoods, Planned Parenthood often constructs facilities in secret to avoid community opposition to its presence.
The Abortion Industry’s Attack on Pregnancy Centers
The only line of defense left for Planned Parenthood is to drive women away from pregnancy centers by spreading falsehoods.
Planned Parenthood has accused pregnancy centers of operating unlicensed medical facilities that are “staged” to look like health centers to lure in “unsuspecting visitors.” The abortion provider has also alleged that pregnancy centers lie to women about fetal development and abortion safety to dissuade them from terminating their pregnancies.
Heartbeat International, one of the largest networks of pregnancy centers worldwide, easily debunked these claims in their “Pregnancy Center Truth” report.
According to the nonprofit’s information, there are two types of pregnancy centers, medical and non-medical. Pregnancy medical centers are accountable to all medical board requirements and state laws, and licensed medical professionals administer services at no cost to the client.
A non-medical pregnancy center, however, provides women with material resources and parenting education classes. These facilities are not required to hold a medical license since they are not providing medical services.
Pregnancy centers take the time to counsel women, ensuring they receive reliable information about their options and fetal development before deciding how to move forward.
Planned Parenthood Is Guilty of What They Accuse Pregnancy Centers of Doing
While Planned Parenthood says that pregnancy centers are deceptive, perhaps the organization should pause to self-reflect. Ironically, many of the accusations Planned Parenthood has levied against pregnancy centers are things the abortion provider has been caught doing.
Planned Parenthood has opposed bills that would subject abortion facilities to medical licensing requirements and yearly inspections. The organization has also fought informed consent and fetal ultrasound laws that require providers to notify women of relevant information about their health before having an abortion.
Despite its efforts to portray pregnancy centers as harmful to women on countless occasions, Planned Parenthood has both killed and severely injured women at their facilities.
According to Live Action, women like Lakisha Wilson, Cree-Irwin-Sheppard, and Tonya Reaves have died from legal abortions at Planned Parenthood. The pro-life news outlet pointed out that no such incidents have ever occurred at a pregnancy center.
Planned Parenthood has subjected women and children to inexcusable standards of care, whereas pregnancy centers uplift clients through emotionally supportive services.
The abortion provider’s dishonest rhetoric about these centers conceals the many ways it has failed women and local communities.
As the old saying goes, people who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
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