{"id":273896,"date":"2022-08-10T08:37:22","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T13:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=273896"},"modified":"2022-08-10T11:25:10","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T16:25:10","slug":"anti-life-ordinance-allentown-pregnancy-center-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/anti-life-ordinance-allentown-pregnancy-center-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"In face of anti-life ordinance, Allentown pregnancy center continues to offer help and hope"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The city of Allentown, Pennsylvania, is soon to consider an ordinance<\/a> that deprioritizes law enforcement from investigating abortion-related crimes, places anti-free speech buffer zones around abortion facilities, and labels pregnancy centers as purveyors of misinformation deserving of heavy scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Bright Hope Pregnancy Support Centers<\/a>\u00a0is an organization that currently operates two brick-and-mortar pregnancy resource centers (PRC) in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, along with a maternity home<\/a>. One of those PRCs is located in Allentown. This pregnancy resource center is the only one within a 45-minute to one hour radius, according to Jon Merwarth, CEO of BrightHope Pregnancy Support Centers, who spoke with Live Action News.<\/p>\n

“We’re their target”<\/strong><\/h4>\n

When the Allentown City Council held a meeting regarding the ordinance, Merwarth was reportedly the only person there representing a PRC, though several pro-life advocates also attended to speak against the buffer zone portion of the city\u2019s ordinance.\u00a0Seven members sit on the Allentown City Council, according to Merwarth, and five appeared to be in favor of the ordinance. There has been no violence perpetrated by sidewalk advocates outside abortion facilities in the area, said Merwarth. \u201cSo my question to the council is, what exactly are you trying to forbid?\u201d he said. \u201cAre you trying to prevent a pregnant woman from learning about resources she didn\u2019t know about?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Merwarth believes Council members’ “minds are already made up and they have the votes to get it done,” adding, \u201cThey\u2019re trying to define what we do. We\u2019re the only PRC in our area\u2026 so whatever the city council is doing with regard to pregnancy centers, we\u2019re their target.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>When Merwarth asked the council if they knew how many pregnancy centers were in the Allentown area (the correct answer being one<\/i>), council members reportedly had no idea.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Cities across the US pass resolutions to \u2018deprioritize\u2019 prosecuting illegal abortions<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Allentown ordinance refers to pregnancy centers as \u201climited services pregnancy centers,\u201d which Merwarth finds interesting. \u201cThe way they define this is a pregnancy center that does not offer abortion, or abortion referrals,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But when it comes to offering \u201climited services,\u201d the abortion industry fits this bill. Abortion facilities don’t offer the services that PRCs do, such as material goods, adoption assistance, and housing. They typically don’t refer to pregnancy centers either.<\/p>\n

“We definitely could call [abortion facilities] \u2018limited\u2019 as well,\u201d Merwarth told Live Action News. \u201cThe ordinance says any limited services PRC that gives deceptive information, you can file a complaint against them, and every complaint is going to be investigated. We don\u2019t do deceptive advertising, we don\u2019t give anything to our clients that is false \u2014 it is verified accurate information. It\u2019s not going to affect us the way they may think, but what will happen is we will get fake complaints. What\u2019s going happen is they\u2019ll come in with a recording device to get us to say something we wouldn\u2019t normally say\u2026. They\u2019re not going to find that we do these things they\u2019re saying, but people will come in, try their hardest, file a complaint and lie. And our city council says [every report is] going to be investigated.\u201d<\/p>\n

“We tell people the truth about abortion”<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Fake reviews about pregnancy centers have already flooded<\/a> Google Reviews and Yelp; sudden and unusually high volumes of activity on these sites signaled that the attempted reviews were motivated by pro-abortion activism, and were not from genuine visitors to the centers. Most pro-abortion activists have never visited a PRC but have instead taken as truth the word of activist groups like NARAL Pro-Choice America<\/a>, which wrongly claim the practices and information disseminated by pregnancy centers are deceptive \u2014 all while ignoring the documented<\/a> misinformation given to women<\/a> by abortion facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn our website, we actually list abortion \u2014 we say there\u2019s three options if you\u2019re pregnant. The reason we do that is because we educate on it,\u201d said Merwarth. \u201cWe tell people the truth about abortion, the medical possibilities, some of the negative outcome possibilities and the known fact that emotional issues can arise later\u2026 but we don\u2019t refer for abortions and we don\u2019t offer them.\u201d He added that the goal is to really inform women before they make a decision about their pregnancy. \u201cWhen someone is looking for abortion information, we want them to get as much education about it as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

And education is just one aspect of what women receive when they visit Bright Hope.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n