New York Government-Mandated “Study” Targeting Pro-Life Pregnancy Resource Centers Fizzles

Late in 2022, New York passed a law (A5499) intended to target pro-life Pregnancy Resource Centers (“PRCs”) for a government “study” and “report” concerning the “unmet health and resource needs facing pregnant women in New York.” While the idea of a study to see if the needs of pregnant mothers are being met in the state seems like a good idea, this was a deceptively named “study” intended primarily to target pro-life centers and ensure that the only information pregnant mothers in need received was from the abortion industry. The time has come – and gone – for that report to have been issued. Where is it? To date, we have not seen it. And that’s a good thing!

Shortly after the law was passed, a coalition was formed to ensure that every pro-life center in New York had legal support if or when the study was conducted. The ACLJ represented four PRC directors, none of whose centers received a request from the Commissioner of Health for any information. The proactive measure of obtaining legal counsel prior to the implementation of the law was critical to ensuring that the PRCs in New York would not be targeted and harassed by the law.

While the study and report, which was to be conducted and produced by the New York Commissioner of Health, would supposedly have shown how “limited service pregnancy centers” affect the “ability of women to obtain accurate, non-coercive health care information and timely access to a comprehensive range of reproduction and sexual health care services,” what the law ultimately achieved was to further illustrate how desperate radical abortionists are to achieve abortion on demand – with no alternatives.

Do Pregnancy Resource Centers help lower the number of abortions that would otherwise take place in New York? I think every PRC in New York would proudly answer that question with a resounding “Yes!” This is something every state should desire.

But radical abortion states like New York are bent on taking choices and options away from women by limiting or restricting the very organizations that provide them those options and support for their choices.

As we stated in a letter we recently sent to the Attorney General of Pennsylvania:

Pregnancy Resource Centers provide free or nominal cost assistance to millions of women annually, including hundreds of thousands of free ultrasounds each year (over 486,000 in 2019) along with medical services, education, and referrals. In 2019, over 10,000 licensed medical professional[s] served as paid or volunteer workers in 2,700 Pregnancy Resource Centers across the United States. Thousands more people serve voluntarily at Pregnancy Resource Centers on an annual basis. Pregnancy Resource Centers save taxpayers countless millions of dollars each year, again because many of the services that they provide for free—through the work of volunteers and the support of donors—would otherwise have to be provided by government agencies through publicly funded programs.

Pregnancy Resource Centers provide invaluable information and resources that help ensure that a woman is fully aware of all the facts and options truly available to her – to help inform her decision and truly [give] her choices. Including the fact that abortion is an act that is intended to permanently end the life of a preborn child[,] the act is extremely grave, gruesome, and irreversible. Thus, a woman’s decision should be fully informed, and should be made only after careful consideration of all the facts. If you only have one option, it is not a real choice, and Pregnancy Resource Centers play a vital role in providing alternatives to the one option pushed by abortion clinics.

Moreover, Pregnancy Resource Centers provide material assistance and support beyond [mere] consultation or medical services. As such, we respectfully request that information about the services and resources that Pregnancy Resource Centers provide for women be included in the information that the Department of Health and Human Services is dedicated to providing the American public in the weeks and months ahead.

This is exactly why we stood behind the PRCs in New York – ready to defend them from political targeting and why we will continue to champion them and any other PRCs across the states facing similar challenges. Life must win!

If you are a Pregnancy Resource Center and you need our help, contact us at ACLJ.org/HELP. We are standing by to assist.