Another U.S. lawmaker attacks pro-life pregnancy centers, slandering them as “brainwashing cult clinics”

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It’s becoming increasingly clear that pro-abortion zealots will do anything to make sure that women facing unexpected pregnancies have just one choice.

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A New Jersey congressman is targeting pro-life pregnancy clinics by calling them “brainwashing cult clinics,” accusing them of spreading lies, and promising to shut down their “fake programming.”

“Women go to these healthcare hoax clinics thinking they will get real medical help, but instead they are greeted by people with no medical background whose goal is to brainwash women with their own ideological agenda.”

That was what Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., said while holding a press conference in front of Lighthouse Pregnancy Resource Center.
In a press release, he stated,

“We need to do everything we can to shut down these brainwashing cult clinics. We need to stop the fake programming they’re pushing. Today marks my first stop at one of the many healthcare hoax centers around the state – women need to know they exist, and we must shut them down. We will make our voices heard and call out crisis pregnancy centers across the state so no women in New Jersey ever suffer from their abusive tactics. It’s up to all of us to spread the word about these dangerous centers.”

Gottheimer is seeking to shut down crisis pregnancy centers through a few different methods. He will hold press conferences outside of pregnancy resource centers around the state where he will draw attention to them as “nefarious, fake clinics.” The New Jersey lawmaker has also penned letters to the governor and state legislature urging them to restrict the “deceptive marketing practices” of crisis pregnancy centers and to “outlaw this type of advertising that masquerades as health care.”

He is also “helping lead” the effort to pass the Stop Anti-abortion Disinformation Act, which claims that pro-life pregnancy centers engage in deceptive business practices. The bill would create a commission that would promulgate rules to prohibit a person from advertising with misleading statements related to the provision of abortion services.

The bill is similar to a law passed in Illinois that targets crisis pregnancy centers specifically because they do not provide abortions. Under the Illinois legislation, even if a crisis pregnancy center provides a robust assortment of medical services, it is targeted under the law while an abortion clinic could provide only abortion and be exempted.

Illinois’ law was blocked by U.S. District Judge Iain Johnston, who ruled,

“The bill is painfully and blatantly a violation of the First Amendment. There’s no doubt who the Attorney General wants to win or lose in the marketplace of ideas, but the government doesn’t get to decide that. The people do.”

Debbie Provencher, executive director of Lighthouse Pregnancy Resource Center, which has facilities in Hackensack, Paterson, Wayne, and Hawthorne, New Jersey,  said that it was clear that Gottheimer didn’t know anything about what the centers actually do. She explained,

“For four decades, Lighthouse has provided free, confidential services in Northern New Jersey to women and couples facing unexpected pregnancies, and essential support to underserved parents caring for newborns. As I observed the press conference held by U.S. Rep. Gottheimer, it was evident that he was supplied with inaccurate and misleading information. We are saddened that the beautiful generosity and sacrificial service of Lighthouse supporters — constituents of the congressman’s district who donate time and money to assist parents they will never meet – were so mischaracterized.”

Jor-El Godsey, president of Heartbeat International, the world’s largest network of pro-life pregnancy resource centers, says that it is abortion advocates who are spreading lies.

“They deny the truth about women who don’t really want an abortion; they deny the truth about pregnancy centers providing practical help as alternatives to abortion; and they deny the truth that every woman should be loved and supported during a pregnancy,” she told the Christian Post.

Andrea Trudden, vice president of communications at Heartbeat International, said in a statement,

“Baseless attacks against pregnancy centers are a waste of taxpayer money and a distraction from day-to-day issues families truly care about. Rather than try to shut down life-affirming pregnancy help organizations that provide free care and support to women — such as parenting classes and formula — perhaps these elected officials should try and work with them to solve families’ real-world problems.”

Gottheimer’s bill follows a spate of nearly 100 violent attacks on crisis pregnancy centers over the past 18 months, including firebombings, by pro-abortion terror groups like Jane’s Revenge. He also follows the lead of other pro-abortion politicians, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in attacking pro-life pregnancy resource centers.

Pro-abortion advocates like to use broad, confounding terms like “reproductive healthcare” to conceal the reality of what the words really mean. Most people, of course, would assume that “reproductive healthcare” would involve a wide variety of services intended for women looking to actually reproduce. It might be prenatal care, pregnancy tests, pregnancy monitoring, delivery, and post-natal care, as well as parenting help and emotional support — the type of care intended to ensure that both mother and child are healthy and thriving.

For pro-abortion zealots, though, reproductive healthcare only means one thing: abortion. As the Illinois unconstitutional law showed, if a business offers abortion, that’s all it needs to get the left’s seal of approval.

Let’s talk about lies, deception, and unfair business practices. In the Stop Anti-Abortion Disinformation Act, the authors do quite a bit of lying themselves.

For example, the legislation states that Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) “target under-resourced neighborhoods and communities of color, including Black, Latino, Indigenous, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and immigrant communities, by locating their facilities near social services centers and comprehensive reproductive health care providers. CPCs place advertisements in these neighborhoods that mislead and draw people away from nearby providers that offer evidence-based sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion care. This exacerbates existing health barriers and delays access to time-sensitive care.”

But is it actually crisis pregnancy centers that target under-resourced “communities of color”?

No, that would be abortion clinics like Planned Parenthood, founded by eugenicist Margaret Sanger, who intentionally placed her death facilities in these areas in order to eliminate “undesirables,” such as black people. Data in 2020 found that in the 25 counties with the most abortions, 86 percent of Planned Parenthood businesses were located in or near predominantly minority neighborhoods. Abortion affects black children at a significantly higher rate than white children. In 2020, 29 states and the District of Columbia reported racial data on abortions. In those locations, 39 percent of women who had an abortion were black, despite the fact that only about 14 percent of the U.S. population is black.

Furthermore, according to two studies, most women who had abortions didn’t really want one. One study found that 70 percent of women who had an abortion described their abortions as inconsistent with their values and preferences, while 25 percent described their abortions as unwanted or coerced.

The other study found that 61 percent of women who had an abortion said they experienced high levels of outside pressure to abort.

So who’s conducting deceptive business practices and advertising? The abortion industry that places their facilities in minority neighborhoods, tells women that the only way to have a happy life is to kill their child, and rakes in the profits — or the not-for-profit pregnancy centers that offer financial assistance and emotional support to mothers, their children, and their families?

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out, but abortion worshippers like Rep. Gottheimer don’t want there to be any other choice for women. New Jersey’s pregnancy resource centers must stand up to these false, malicious attacks, just like they did in Illinois, and get these efforts blocked.

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