Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Director Erin Hawley pushed back against pro-abortion activists’ criticisms of crisis pregnancy centers at a House Oversight Committee hearing Wednesday.
The hearing brought in leaders representing the pro-life and pro-abortion movements to discuss the impact of the recent Supreme Court decision in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and handed states the right to regulate abortion.
Pro-abortion and left-wing leaders have claimed crisis pregnancy centers are “fake clinics” that intentionally misinform women on abortion. Hawley defended the pro-life movement as “pro-woman,” citing the centers’ assistance in providing for pregnant women.
“Babies can be female as well, so it’s definitely pro-woman in that sense,” she said. “As well, the pro-life movement and ADF believes in the inherent dignity and value of every single person. We believe that every person has the right to life and that the pro-life community has, and will continue to come alongside and empower women.”
“If we talk about pregnancy care centers, they are not fake centers,” she continued. “In 2019, they served 1.85 million families, provided $266 million worth of goods — of car seats, baby formula, diapers, the things that women really need. They also provide emotional counseling, they provide fatherhood training, housing, educational training, things that enable women to survive and thrive.”
Republican North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx said the pro-abortion language, including “reproductive freedom” and “women’s health,” are used by the movement to justify abortion. The representative called on the pro-life movement to combat their rhetoric in order to “ensure that life always wins.”
Crisis pregnancy centers have been subject to attack by pro-abortion activists and left-wing leaders across the country. In a statement Tuesday, Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren called for the centers to be “shut down” across the nation, claiming they “fool” women attempting to access abortion. (RELATED: Crisis Pregnancy Center Says It Had To Hire Security After Man Showed Up With A Machete)
“We need to shut them down here in Massachusetts and we need to shut them down all around the country,” she told NBC 10 Boston. “You should not be able to torture a pregnant person like that.”
Pro-abortion activists have vandalized and committed arson against centers around the country. Police arrested 10 pro-abortion protesters for allegedly throwing smoke bombs at an Oregon pregnancy center on June 27 after promising a “Night of Rage” over the Supreme Court ruling.
In Washington, D.C., An unknown pro-abortion group splattered the Capitol Hill Crisis Pregnancy Center with red paint and marked the words “Jane Says Revenge” in graffiti. “Jane Says Revenge,” a radicalized pro-abortion group, allegedly firebombed a crisis pregnancy center in Amherst, New York, overnight June 7. The Wisconsin Family Action center was attacked by arsonists in Madison.
The centers offer free or low-cost pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, testing and treatment for STDs, education on adoption services, prenatal and parenting lessons, after abortion recovery counseling and sexual risk avoidance education, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
NBC News published an article in late June claiming that centers located in Texas misinformed women that abortion can lead to infertility, mental illness and cancer. While there is no direct correlation, abortion can largely contribute to mental health problems, as women who undergo the procedure are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and other clinical conditions, according to the National Library of Medicine.
Pro-lifers argue that organizations spread disinformation about the centers in order to restrict them.
“Here’s the reality that the New York Times chooses to ignore. On average, 99% of pregnancy help center clients report having had a positive experience at their local pregnancy center,” Moira Gaul, a crisis center associate, told TheDCNF. “The truth is that life-affirming pregnancy centers provide women facing unexpected pregnancies holistic and professional care, focused on addressing the needs of individual women instead of the one-size-fits-all, life-ending, profit-driven solution of the abortion industry.”