{"id":256119,"date":"2021-11-02T08:43:08","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T13:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=256119"},"modified":"2022-03-14T14:40:35","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T19:40:35","slug":"report-decrease-abortion-pregnancy-center-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/report-decrease-abortion-pregnancy-center-grows\/","title":{"rendered":"Report laments decrease in abortion centers while pregnancy center ‘competition’ grows"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pro-life pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) outnumber abortion facilities by a ratio of three to one, according to The Alliance, a group of pro-abortion state advocates. The information was published in a report attacking “Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs).”<\/p>\n

In the report<\/a>, Designed to Deceive: A Study of the Crisis Pregnancy Industry in Nine States – Gender Justice,\u00a0<\/em>The Alliance claimed that last year (2020) the number of pro-life PRC’s in the United States had climbed to 2,527, three times the number of abortion facilities still open that same year.<\/p>\n

The report also indicates that while the pro-life community was striving to offer life-affirming options to pregnant women, abortion facilities have been closing. According to the report, in the past 42 years, abortion facilities have declined over 72% (from 2,749 in 1978 to 780 recorded in 2020).<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, crisis pregnancy centers outnumber abortion clinics nationwide by an average of 3 to 1.10. The disparities are higher in states that fund CPCs: In Pennsylvania, the ratio of CPCs to abortion clinics is 9 to 1; in Minnesota, it is 11 to 1.11,” the report<\/a>\u00a0claims.<\/p>\n

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Pregnancy Resource Centers (PRCs) outnumber abortion facilities (Image: The Alliance State Advocates for Women\u2019s Rights and Gender Equality website)<\/p><\/div>\n

Report motive: Smear pro-life resource centers and eliminate the ‘competition’<\/strong><\/p>\n

A recent\u00a0research paper<\/a>\u00a0has found<\/a> that pregnant women who are considering abortion and who visit a CPC are about 20% less likely to choose abortion than pregnant women who don\u2019t visit one<\/em>. Given the declining number of abortion facilities and growing number of PRCs, it is no wonder The Alliance, NARAL, Planned Parenthood and other abortion extremists continue to attack pro-life options for women.<\/p>\n

The report attempts to smear PRCs, especially targeting those that receive public funds. The motive appears to be due to the extraordinary success the pro-life movement has had in changing hearts and minds on abortion, passing legislation, and opening resource centers for pregnant women.<\/p>\n

“We live in the most hostile era for reproductive freedom in decades. The anti-abortion movement\u2019s two primary strategies \u2014 passing abortion bans and contraception restrictions and expanding crisis pregnancy center networks with taxpayer money \u2014 are simultaneously reaching peak, unprecedented levels,” the report’s executive summary<\/a> claimed.<\/p>\n

“State-funded CPCs promoted abortion pill reversal at significantly higher rates and offered prenatal care and referral less often than CPCs without state funding,” the group’s summary claims.\u00a0As a result, The Alliance is calling on state lawmakers to “stop funding CPCs and to dramatically increase investment in equitable access to evidence-based reproductive health care, especially in underresourced communities.”<\/p>\n

The partiality and bias of The Alliance, the report’s author<\/strong><\/p>\n

On their website The Alliance is described<\/a> as\u00a0“a collaborative of state and regional law and policy members working to leverage our states as laboratories for change. We enact comprehensive strategies around key progressive issues \u2013 working to achieve clear wins in the courts, advance proactive policies, and build grassroots power and action.”<\/p>\n

The organization claims<\/a> to support “human rights” and allegedly holds to the principle where, “We envision a future where every individual has a right to live their life with dignity, autonomy, and access to the resources they need to thrive.”<\/p>\n

However, a look at the organization’s list of “priorities” reveals<\/a> that “Advancing Reproductive Rights, Health, and Justice” \u2014 code for abortion on demand\u00a0\u2014 is priority number one.<\/p>\n

“We value the dignity and autonomy of all persons, and fight for their rights to determine whether, when, and with whom to engage in intimate relationships; to become pregnant; to support or terminate a pregnancy; to parent without stigma; to give birth how they choose; and to be supported in all decisions about their bodies and selves, from birth to death,” the organization wrote.<\/p>\n

The group currently partners<\/a> with\u00a0Gender Justice<\/a>, headed by a former<\/a> Deputy Director for the\u00a0National Network of Abortion Funds<\/a>\u00a0(NNAF),\u00a0Legal Voice<\/a>\u00a0which was originally\u00a0founded in 1978 as the Northwest Women’s Law Center,\u00a0\u00a0Southwest Women\u2019s Law Center<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Women\u2019s Law Project<\/a>\u00a0which calls itself<\/a> the “de facto legal arm of the reproductive rights movement in Pennsylvania.”<\/p>\n

Authors and reviewers of the report\u00a0include an abortionist\u00a0responsible for a woman’s death<\/strong><\/p>\n

The report was authored by\u00a0Jenifer McKenna, a long-time\u00a0Planned Parenthood supporter<\/a> who recently donated<\/a> to the Abortion Care Network (according to her Facebook page), as well as Tara Murtha<\/a>, a\u00a0director<\/a> of strategic communications at Women\u2019s Law Project.<\/p>\n

Murtha is a journalist who has covered abortion at the Philadelphia Weekly<\/a> and other outlets including the pro-abortion\u00a0Rewire News<\/a>\u00a0Group. While Murtha’s report advocates the regulation<\/em> of pro-life pregnancy centers, she seemed to bemoan<\/a> oversight requirements of abortion facilities. Ironically, she once referred to the infamous Kermit Gosnell case as the “result of politicizing abortion.”<\/p>\n

Yet, on her LinkedIn account, Murtha shared the PRC hit piece, writing<\/a>, “Did you know your tax dollars are funding experimental ‘treatments’ on low-income pregnant people?”<\/p>\n

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Tara Murtha at The Alliance Image: linkedin<\/p><\/div>\n

The research advisor on the project was Laura E. Dodge, who works at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Beth Israel Medical Center and is a former intern<\/a> at Ibis Reproductive Health, which as recently as 2020 was\u00a0directly<\/em>\u00a0funded<\/a>\u00a0by the abortion pill\u2019s manufacturer,\u00a0Danco Laboratories<\/a>, and is\u00a0currently funded<\/a>\u00a0by the Packard Foundation, a large investor in Danco.<\/p>\n

Dodge\u00a0recently wrote<\/a>, “it\u2019s important that we improve the quality of search results and ads” on abortion and claimed that she was “partnering with computer engineers to expand our searches to more cities and ultimately help search engines, providers, and allies optimize their algorithms to help people find the care they want.”<\/p>\n

“CPC Report Reviewers” included Dr. Lisa Perriera, an abortionist who\u00a0in 2014\u00a0committed a late abortion<\/a>\u00a0on a pregnant woman in Cleveland, Ohio \u2014 and that woman died as a result.\u00a0Live Action News previously<\/a> reported that\u00a0the abortion facility where Perriera worked (Preterm) had dated Lakisha Wilson’s pregnancy at 19 weeks and 4 days but it was\u00a0later revealed<\/a>\u00a0Wilson was closer to 23 weeks.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0public 911 records<\/a>\u00a0obtained through open records requests and\u00a0medical records<\/a>\u00a0leaked to Operation Rescue<\/a>, the abortion facility waited 30 minutes after Wilson suffered respiratory arrest to call an ambulance. In the video below of the call, you can hear a Preterm employee tell a 911 dispatcher that Wilson was \u201cnot breathing.\u201d<\/p>\n