Last Thursday at RhRealtyCheck.org, Wendy Norris took aim at the Family Research Council’s recently released report on crisis-pregnancy centers. I have honestly felt that the shrill hostility that abortion-rights activists have for pregnancy-resource centers really shows how out of touch these abortion-rights activists are with most Americans. I would imagine that your average supporter of legal abortion does not have a serious problem with organizations that assist pregnant women who are choosing not to have an abortion. As such, the hostility of Norris and others provides evidence of the success that pregnancy-resource centers have had in presenting life-affirming alternatives to women facing crisis pregnancies.

Norris’s article contains a number of misleading statements. She claims that PRCs provide unregulated medical care. However, many PRCs have a medical director or adviser. Additionally, people operating ultrasound equipment at pregnancy-resource centers are trained professionals. She also claims that pregnancy-resource centers provide biased or misleading information to women. However, there do exist peer-reviewed studies which provide evidence that abortion has negative psychological effects for women, as well as plenty of good evidence about the health risks involved with a promiscuous lifestyle.

Norris is also clearly bothered by the $200 million that pregnancy-resource centers raise annually. While this is certainly a lot of money, some perspective is needed here. First, most pregnancy-resource centers do not have large budgets. Many are Mom and Pop operations that are staffed by volunteers. Second, nearly all of the $200 million comes not from the government, but from private donations. This is in marked contrast to Planned Parenthood, which receives hundreds of millions from the government every year. Finally, this $200 million is a small fraction of the billions of dollars of revenue that Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers receive in revenue every year.

Furthermore, Norris claims that, despite their funding, pregnancy-resource centers only see a relatively small number of women. However, in 2005 (the most recent year for which data on both births and abortions are available) there were 4.1 million births and 1.2 million abortions. According to the FRC report, pregnancy-resource centers had 1.9 million clients last year. Now, not all of those clients are pregnant women. However, these numbers make it clear that pregnancy-resource centers are reaching out to a sizeable percentage of women with an potential interest in their services.

Abortion-rights supporters almost always try to couch their rhetoric in terms of choice and presenting options to women. However, in the past 40 years, pregnancy-resource centers have succeeded where the abortion industry has failed. PRCs have offered real alternatives to literally millions of women facing crisis pregnancies. Countless women regret their abortions. However, the testimonials in FRC’s latest report are evidence of the positive impact of the life-affirming options offered by many pregnancy-resource centers. As such, it is not surprising that activists for abortion rights feel threatened.

Note: In the spirit of full disclosure, I assisted with some of the statistical work and the calculations that were used in FRC’s report.