Mothers Who Relied on Pregnancy Centers Confront Dem ‘Fake-Clinic’ Smears: ‘It Doesn’t Help Women’

Since the Dobbs decision was leaked, Democratic lawmakers and abortion activists have ramped up their attacks on pregnancy centers that don’t offer abortions, casting the organizations and their employees as coercive zealots intent on imposing their will on vulnerable women.

In September, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada co-sponsored a bill with fellow Senate Democrats that would direct the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to penalize pregnancy centers found to be guilty of deceptive advertising practices surrounding abortion.

“Anti-abortion crisis care centers routinely mislead vulnerable women about the services they provide, delaying care and jeopardizing women’s health,” Cortez Masto said at the time. “As women continue to seek abortion services in Nevada, it’s crucial that these fake clinics are held accountable.”

Mothers and children who were helped by one such “fake clinic” showed up Thursday at the office of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) to confront the lawmaker over her past criticisms of pro-life pregnancy centers, but found her door locked.

The group of women were in Washington, D.C., to attend the 50th Annual March for Life on Friday.

Jessica Armstrong, a mother who said her child was saved by the Stanton Healthcare pregnancy center in Idaho, recounted how her abusive ex-boyfriend threatened to kill her and himself if she went through with the pregnancy.

“He put a gun to his head,” and said he’d pull the trigger unless she agreed to get an abortion, the mother told National Review.

That baby girl, now a 14-year-old, stood by her mother on Thursday, defiantly telling Ocasio-Cortez and other Democratic lawmakers: “I am very real.”

On Wednesday, the same group of mothers visited the office of Senator Elizabeth Warren’s (D., Mass.), where they shared their stories about the quality care they received.

Warren has led her own campaign against pregnancy centers. In September, the senator issued a letter to Heartbeat International, a nation-wide pro-life network of pregnancy centers, accusing them of “luring pregnant people, many in desperate situations, by using a variety of false and misleading tactics.” Warren also suggested that the organization was illegally collecting patients’ personal health data. The Stop Anti-Abortion Disinformation that Masto co-sponsored was initially introduced by Warren.

Pro-abortion organizations often argue that pregnancy centers withhold or push biased information onto women about their options. But when Armstrong walked through the doors of Planned Parenthood for an ultrasound, she said she was given inaccurate information about the fetal development of her unborn baby.

“They told me that little dot on the screen was a fetus but there was no heartbeat to listen to at that time,” she said. Her sister then referred her to Stanton, which booked her an appointment for the next day. Stanton showed her the heartbeat on the ultrasound, she said.

“I knew deep inside I wanted to keep my baby, not kill her. I was being manipulated by my boyfriend to kill my baby because he didn’t want to deal with it,” she said.

Speaking through tears, Armstrong testified to the maternal support Stanton offered, such as parenting classes during her pregnancy. “Even though my pregnancy was unplanned, Stanton gave me the tools,” she said. Those resources and advice kept coming long after her daughter was born, Armstrong added.

“Stanton Healthcare is not a fake clinic,” she said.

Another woman said the center helped her when she was pregnant and in distress, and that it’s an insult to her and other struggling women for critics to lie about the services Stanton provides. “My child is very real, the support is very real, the community outreach is very real, the impact they’ve had on my life is very real,” she said.

“Calling it fake doesn’t help women. It scares them even more. Unplanned pregnancy is terrifying. Without this healthcare, fear can win,” she added.

The first march after the overturning of Roe v. Wade drew a smaller-than-usual but still-significant crowd. While the mandate of previous marches was to reverse that sweeping landmark decision, the 2023 marchers were preparing themselves for new fronts in the fight for life, such as the expansion of pharmacies providing abortion pills, litigation of state abortion restrictions, and attacks on pregnancy centers.

A wave of violence and vandalism perpetrated against pro-life pregnancy centers ensued after the Dobbs decision was leaked. Last week, the vast majority of House Democrats voted down a resolution condemning the assaults, in addition to a bill that would require medical care for infants who survive failed abortions.

“That’s not America,” GOP Representative Steve Scalise told the crowd, noting that 70 percent of Democratic voters believe denying abortion survivors treatment is wrong. “That’s how extreme they are,” he said of his Democratic colleagues in Congress.

Jeanne Mancini, the president of the March for Life, told National Review that the project’s goals have changed considerably since Dobbs. There’s now a state march initiative, which the organization plans to expand to ten states in 2023, Mancini said. Her plan is to hire more staff for this purpose.

“We need to be very active at the federal level, too, to stop the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would codify Roe, enact tax-payer funded abortion, and overturn some state laws,” she said. 

Mississippi attorney general Lynn Fitch, one of the actors behind the pro-life law that sparked the Dobbs case, told National Review that her state “immediately pivoted from the decision to ask the hard questions.” Mississippi’s trigger law, which bans most abortions except in cases where a woman’s life is in danger or a pregnancy is caused by a rape reported to law enforcement, went into effect upon Roe’s reversal.

On the table in Mississippi now are legislative packages on affordable accessible childcare, work-flexibility options, child-support enforcement, and reforming the adoption and foster-care system, Fitch said.

She also said pro-life states are banding together like never before. “It’s a tremendous multi-state collaboration. We’re filing amicus briefs together, we’re writing comment letters together, determining best practices in each of our states,” Fitch said.