Responding to Senator Elizabeth Warren, who desires to shut down pro-life women’s care centers, Pulitzer Prize–winner Melinda Henneberger tells the truth:
Are we really so easily deceived that we can’t tell the difference between a clinic that performs abortions and one that does not? I believe women who say that’s what happened to them, but it’s not true that this is how all such places operate. And whatever your view of abortion rights, for someone without resources who wants to carry her baby to term but needs all the help she can get, the closure of these clinics would be a real loss. Because just as Planned Parenthood and other clinics that perform abortions offer services that crisis pregnancy centers do not, the reverse is also true. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, California has been held up as an abortion destination. But in Sacramento and across the state, poor women who’ve decided to continue their pregnancies still need the kind of help that clinics that do perform abortions don’t provide. . . .
A fully licensed and accredited medical clinic, it signs clients up for Medi-Cal and WIC and finds them doctors, including pediatricians, for ongoing care. It’s non-religious and does not proselytize, but does offer prenatal vitamins and care, parenting classes, fatherhood mentors for men, big-ticket items such as strollers, car seats, and cribs, and a monthly supply of diapers, baby food, and clothes for two years. All of this is free — paid for through private donations.
The Claris website spells out what it does not do: “To be clear, Claris does not perform abortions.” The Alternatives Pregnancy Center’s site does not say that, but lists “abortion pill reversal” and “abortion recovery classes” among its services, which seems like a pretty direct message.
Sacramento Life doesn’t mention abortion at all on its website, but says, “Making sure every pregnant woman has the resources and support she needs to give birth to and raise her child in a loving home is our unwavering focus.’’ Her clinic and others also help trans couples and see men for STD testing, she said. “We take everybody.”
Some people still call or come in thinking Sacramento Life does perform abortions, says Leatherby, who before taking this job a decade ago sold real estate. But “we’re very upfront. We don’t ‘dupe’ women to come in. I don’t agree with clinics that would ever do that.”
But then, she adds, not all places we might consider crisis pregnancy centers are the same: “There are good restaurants and bad restaurants.”
[Talitha] Phillips, of Claris Health, also made that point: “We’re very transparent when people call, but there are other organizations I’ve seen that could come across as more manipulative.”
The umbrella term “crisis pregnancy center” can refer to two grandmas handing out blankets and advice, or to a true medical clinic.
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