GOP Bill Protects Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers From Being Forced to Promote Abortion

Republican lawmakers announced a bill Monday to prohibit federal and state governments from discriminating against pro-life pregnancy resource centers by requiring them to perform or encourage abortions. 

The Let Pregnancy Care Centers Serve Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and four of his Republican colleagues, would amend the Public Health Service Act to “prohibit discrimination against entities that do not participate in abortion and to strengthen implementation and enforcement of federal conscience laws.”  

Under the legislation, the federal government and entities receiving federal funds may not require pregnancy care centers to perform abortions, refer a person for abortion, or counsel in favor of abortion. The act also prohibits requiring a center to advertise abortion services available elsewhere.  

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Pregnancy care centers protected under the act are nonprofit, generally pro-life, organizations that provide free support and resources to pregnant women and young couples. Services these centers offer include pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, sexually transmitted disease and sexually transmitted infection tests, prenatal educational programs, after-abortion support, emotional support, and more. Pro-life pregnancy care centers do not offer abortions or refer patients for abortions. 

“There are more than 2,700 pregnancy care centers throughout the United States—each and every one of them an oasis of love, compassion, empathy, respect, and quality care for both mothers and their precious children,” Smith, co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, said Monday. “Yet state governments like my state of New Jersey and some lawmakers seek to discriminate against pregnancy care centers by violating fundamental conscience rights to compel complicity in abortion.”  

This comes after New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin faced a GOP-backed impeachment effort in February in part for allegedly using his office to target faith-based, pro-life pregnancy resource centers in the state by subpoenaing the names of their staffs and donors.  

Pregnancy resource centers have also suffered vandalism and faced hurdles to funding across the country. 

“Liberal states and the former Biden administration attempted to unconstitutionally restrict [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] funds from supporting pro-life pregnancy centers, hindering their ability to assist pregnant mothers and their unborn babies,” Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., said.

“The Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act ensures pregnancy resource centers and pro-life centers are not discriminated against and are able to carry out their services,” she said, “including providing emotional support, access to prenatal and pregnancy care, and supplies to expecting mothers. We must ensure women have access to the resources pregnancy centers provide, empowering them to choose life.” 

Pro-life groups and pregnancy resource centers in New Jersey and New York applauded the legislation. 

“Our pregnancy centers provide essential services at absolutely no cost to individuals throughout our community,” the New Jersey Association of Pregnancy Centers said in a statement. “Women who make the courageous choice to carry their pregnancy to term deserve support, compassionate care, and unwavering assistance throughout their journey.” 

According to a report from the Charlotte Lozier Institute, 808,737 clients received free goods and services worth at least $367 million at pregnancy care centers in the year 2022. Over five years, the lives of more than 828,139 unborn babies were saved through the work of the centers, according to another report from Lozier. 

“Liberal states, like New York, have a long history of harming needy families—specifically women facing unplanned pregnancy—by discriminating against pro-life pregnancy centers simply because we refuse to provide or refer for abortion,” said the Rev. Jim Harden, CEO of CompassCare, a New York network of pregnancy care centers. 

Abortion provider Planned Parenthood received $699.3 million in federal funding during the 2022-2023 fiscal year, according to its annual report. Most, if not all, pro-life pregnancy centers don’t receive federal funding.  

“Despite not having access to federal funding,” Harden said, “pregnancy centers heroically provide women with millions of dollars’ worth of free medical care and support every year. Women deserve better than abortion.”