Editor's note: This piece has been updated to include a statement from Pregnancy Care Alliance of Massachusetts.
This week, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, launched a public education campaign against pro-life pregnancy resource centers.
As Townhall has covered, these kinds of centers provide pregnant women and with resources they need to carry their babies to term. In some cases, these organizations provide housing, along with other things, to the women once their children are born.
In a press release on Healey’s website, she describes crisis pregnancy centers as “harmful” (via Mass.gov)
Anti-abortion centers, often called “crisis pregnancy centers,” are facilities or mobile vans that:
Look like medical facilities but don’t offer comprehensive care
Do not provide information and counseling about all your options if you are pregnant
Do not provide abortion care or referrals
May attempt to delay your care and potentially put your health at risk
There are more than 30 anti-abortion centers in Massachusetts. Even if you’re not looking for an abortion, these centers are not a safe or trusted place to go for reproductive health care.
The webpage claims that these centers cause harm by “deceptive advertising,” “misleading practices,” hiring “untrained staff and volunteers” and spreading “medical misinformation.”
Not to mention, it instructs pregnant women to avoid women’s health centers with the word “hope” in the name, because those are often associated with pro-life centers. For women who arrive in person, Healey’s website claims that if the waiting room has “pictures of babies and children,” it likely doesn’t provide abortions.
Healey’s webpage encourages women to file civil rights complaints about these centers. Users can file complaints about specific staff members, as well.
In a statement to Boston.com, Democratic Sen. Ed Markey said that “pregnant people” need access to abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.
“In the wake of the Dobbs decision that stripped Americans of their constitutional right to abortion, it is more important than ever that pregnant people are aware of the dangers of anti-abortion centers that mislead and misinform patients, collect and share their most sensitive health data, and dissuade them from making the medical decisions that are right for them,” Markey said in a statement.
“I am proud that Massachusetts is leading the nation in ensuring pregnant people and their families have access to medically accurate information and comprehensive reproductive health care,” he added.
Pregnancy Care Alliance of Massachusetts pushed back on this.
"Massachusetts’ network of pregnancy care centers provides millions of dollars in no-cost support and care for thousands of women annually who face planned and unplanned pregnancies, with services ranging from pregnancy confirmation services, parenting education, and community referrals to material goods like diapers and formula. The women served by pregnancy resource centers overwhelmingly report a positive experience, yet the Healey Administration and other politicians in the state are furthering their extreme abortion agenda by using a taxpayer-funded campaign to discredit our centers. This politically motivated campaign will negatively impact women the most, specifically the many women who want to parent and rely on the free assistance we provide," the organization told Townhall in a statement.
Since 2022, in the wake of Dobbs, pro-abortion lawmakers began circulating baseless, dishonest rhetoric surrounding crisis pregnancy centers. Groups like Jane’s Revenge promised a “summer of rage” on pro-life pregnancy centers and other types of life-affirming pregnancy care. And, according to Catholic Vote, at least 90 pro-life pregnancy resource centers and offices have endured attacks.
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