MASS DECEPTION: ACLJ Takes On Sinister State-Funded Smear Campaign Launched To Destroy Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers

We often use the term “abortion distortion” when we talk about the abortion industry’s playbook and powerful abortion giants like Planned Parenthood. This time, it’s being weaponized by a state government that is taking deceptive practices to a whole new level. We’re taking urgent legal action right now and preparing to launch a massive campaign to cut through the lies.

The abortion lobby manipulated its political allies in Massachusetts into initiating a state-sponsored smear campaign designed to paint pro-life pregnancy centers, also known as Pregnancy Resource Centers (PRCs), as dangerous and deceptive. They’ve labeled PRCs as “anti-abortion centers” and are warning unsuspecting pregnant women of supposed untrained staff, false information, and deceptive advertising that they claim all pose a threat to women’s health and well-being. In other words, everything abortion clinics are ACTUALLY GUILTY of.

And perhaps the most unsettling part of this campaign is that it’s being spearheaded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The state has partnered with a pro-abortion group called Reproductive Equity Now (REN) in a campaign to discredit and dismantle every pro-life pregnancy center in the state. There’s an entire section on the state’s official website dedicated to the so-called AVOID Anti-Abortion Centers initiative. Beyond the website, they’ve launched a full-scale media blitz, including billboards, posters, social media materials, transit, radio, and more.

According to the pro-abortion propaganda campaign website:

Anti-abortion centers, often called “crisis pregnancy centers”, look like medical facilities but don’t offer comprehensive care. Some may not offer any medical care. They may mislead you about your options if you’re pregnant and can put your health at risk.

Creatively crafted lies are still lies. They portray PRCs as shadowy scammers preying on vulnerable pregnant women. As for not offering comprehensive care, they should just say what they really mean – pro-life centers don’t kill babies.

At a special press conference, both the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts proudly touted their state’s new counterfeit “public education campaign”:

“In Massachusetts, we are committed to protecting and expanding access to safe and legal abortion,” said Governor Maura Healey. “That includes protecting patients from the deceptive and dangerous tactics that anti-abortion centers often use to stop people from accessing comprehensive reproductive services. This campaign is an important way to provide accurate information so residents can make informed decisions about reproductive care that are right for them.”

“The troubling practices of anti-abortion centers serve to undermine the trust that people should have in our health care system,” said Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll. “Education and accurate information can help counter the misinformation and unethical tactics these centers use to prey on people at a particularly vulnerable time.” 

The government-sponsored campaign uses fearmongering language like “avoid,” “warning,” “anti-abortion centers cause harm,” and “put your health at risk.”

Reproductive Equity Now (REN), Massachusetts’ abortion partner in the campaign, even takes a direct hit at the faith-based foundation of pro-life centers:

Anti-abortion centers often offer abstinence-only sex education, post-abortion support, spiritual support, or bible study. While some people need and want post-abortion counseling, and may seek it through their faith leaders, there is no scientific evidence that abortion results in adverse mental health outcomes.

As outrageous as this is, here are some of the actual things the campaign is “warning” women to “avoid”:

• Beware of "free" products or services
• The center name includes words like hope, options, or choice/choices
• They use terms like pregnancy resource center, pregnancy help center, pregnancy care center, or women’s resource center
• They advertise free pregnancy tests or services like abortion counseling, pre-abortion screenings, and abortion education, but don’t say that they provide abortion services or referrals
• The facility waiting room has pictures of babies and children

Yes, they are literally warning pregnant women that PRCs have “pictures of babies and children” hanging on the walls and attacking pro-life advocates for being motivated by faith.  As twisted and Orwellian as that is, the actual ads are even worse. Here are just a few examples of the deceptively worded ads seen on billboards, buses, and everywhere else around Massachusetts as part of the government’s million-dollar smear campaign:

I’m not sure which is worse: the shameless misinformation or the unabashed hypocrisy. PRCs are unashamedly life-affirming, offering an actual alternative to the abortion industry’s abortion-on-demand-for-everyone business model of death peddling. In Massachusetts, they are run by trained volunteers and staff; and if medical services are offered, they are performed by competent medical professionals. PRCs provide women REAL choices, not the abortion-only view of the abortion industry, and, in this case, the state government itself.

What’s also unsettling is that the state’s website points visitors to a REN site that lists all 30 pro-life pregnancy centers in Massachusetts – which they refer to as “anti-abortion centers. This includes lies, smears, and deceptions about our client. With the rising instances of vandalism and physical attacks on these PRCs, this seems like an invitation to any radical abortion supporters brazen enough to do something bad.

We told you about our clients, the two elderly pro-life counselors who were savagely beaten up by an unhinged abortion activist in Baltimore last year. When the government portrays pro-life advocates as dangerous, what can we expect? For all its talk about women’s safety and health care, the abortion lobby has shown little regard for the safety of pro-life workers, as well as their clients and their babies.

Massachusetts is only the beginning. Other states will follow. The radical Left is waging a coordinated assault to cancel pro-life pregnancy centers and make unlimited taxpayer-funded abortion the law of the land.

PRCs, which often offer services free of charge, represent one of the biggest threats to abortionists’ bottom lines. Abortionists like Planned Parenthood – which has given generous financial support to many Leftist political campaigns, including Biden-Harris in 2020 and in 2024 – consider PRCs to be the competition. They will do anything to shut them down, and liberal politicians in Massachusetts have been all too eager to help. We’ve already heard Vice President and newly crowned presidential candidate Kamala Harris vow to reinstate Roe. And now the Planned Parenthood Action Fund has formally endorsed Harris.

The ACLJ has been fighting to save innocent unborn babies and defend the rights of pro-life pregnancy centers, as well as pro-life healthcare workers and pro-life volunteers, to perform their crucial work.

Right now, our legal team is preparing to file a MASSIVE lawsuit against the state of Massachusetts and the abortion industry to shut down these unlawful smears, lies, and distortions about our PRC client. Along with taking legal action, we’ll be launching a multipronged media campaign to defend and support pro-life pregnancy centers and enable them to continue their lifesaving work without harassment and/or government interference.

We will update you as our case progresses and tell you how you can help cut through the abortion distortion and defend pro-life pregnancy centers across the country. It’s time to defeat the MASS DECEPTION.