Pro-life pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) have served as a counterweight to abortion mills across the country since well before Roe v. Wade. Now outnumbering abortion clinics by a ratio of 3 to 1, PRCs are an effective means of saving babies and their mothers from abortion. The centers provide a range of services to patients, including free pregnancy tests, counseling, diapers, and – perhaps most notably – ultrasounds.
Many women who visit PRCs are uncertain about whether to continue an unplanned pregnancy. Ultrasounds have proven effective at helping mothers decide to choose life for their children. According to a 2020 report, “75 percent of women at-risk for abortion who viewed their ultrasound at a PHC [Pregnancy Help Center] made a decision for life for their child.” In 2019, pregnancy centers provided nearly half a million ultrasound scans – at an estimated value of over $139 million.
More than 2,500 of these centers are active throughout the country and a majority of them (79%) offer ultrasound services. PRCs have had an enormous impact on the pro-life movement and have the potential to save even more lives, especially in pro-abortion states. The pregnancy center network CareNet reported that from 2008 to 2022 its affiliate centers have saved over one million babies!
This life-saving potential has not gone unnoticed.
Recognizing the centers as a threat to their baby-killing scheme, the abortion industry and its allies are conducting a nationwide attack on PRCs and the women and families they benefit. Just last week, the pro-abort group “Gender Justice” sent letters asking five attorneys general to investigate PRCs in their states for their handling of patients’ medical information. Referring to the centers as “fake clinics” that “play a central role in the surveillance of pregnant people,” the group alleges that free ultrasounds are a means to lure women and “coerce their pregnancy decision-making.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has joined this attack, serving burdensome investigative subpoenas on at least nine pregnancy centers in the state. Last year a law was passed intended to limit the ability of some pro-life centers to perform ultrasounds in California, and now Bonta is demanding information from the PRCs regarding their compliance with the law.
These investigations are part of a coordinated effort to shut down PRCs across the country.
Life Legal will not stand for the government-media-abortionist assault on PRCs. We have dedicated the efforts of one high-powered California attorney to the defense of PRCs. We are representing a number of centers across the nation, including some of those targeted by Bonta.
In the face of these attacks, we will do everything in our power to support and protect PRCs and the life-saving services they provide. Please stand with us to ensure that pregnancy centers can continue to offer hope to mothers and save precious babies.