U.S. crisis pregnancy centers are receiving millions of dollars in taxpayer money to try to persuade women to maintain their pregnancies in mostly GOP-led states where spending on the programs has significantly increased from a decade ago, writes kkruesi.
Trying to pinpoint exactly how many pregnancy centers receive taxpayer dollars also is difficult because each state has a different system to distribute the money.
“What we have found is that they’re providing misleading information about the risks of abortion and not providing the actual prevalence of when that happens, because abortion is quite safe,” said Andrea Swartzendruber, a University of Georgia public health professor who has helped map the location of crisis pregnancy centers nationwide. “They’ll claim that abortion will lead to breast cancer, when it in fact does not. Or they’ll say abortion leads to abortion PTSD.
“We have seen women still steadily seeking out resources and services,” said Chelsey Youman, Texas state director and national legislative adviser for Human Coalition, a top contractor under the state’s alternatives-to-abortion program. “Women are saying, ‘All right, abortion isn’t available after my child has a heartbeat, so what is out here?’”
At a recent dedication of an ultrasound machine in Murfreesboro, about 30 miles south of Nashville, Republican Gov. Bill Lee and anti-abortion supporters said the state-funded purchase was critical in swaying patients who were considering the procedure.The first state to enact an official abortion-alternatives program was Pennsylvania in the mid-1990s. The funding grew out of a deal in the Legislature between abortion rights supporters and abortion opponents.
By 2001, Pennsylvania also became the first state to receive approval to use $1 million from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to help fund the pregnancy centers. In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed the state’s annual $700,000 budget for abortion alternatives in 2019 following a complaint from the Campaign for Accountability, which argued that Real Alternatives had provided services to only about 3,700 pregnant women instead of the 9,000 outlined in its contract. Michigan had funded the program since 2013.
Arizona does not have an official alternatives-to-abortion program, but in 2019 lawmakers set aside $2.5 million for three years to develop a phone help line designed to steer pregnant women away from abortions.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
US dollar is at the mercy of US Nonfarm Payrolls, 94.60's and 95.80's eyedThe dollar index (DXY) fell heavily on Thursday to an over two-week low as central banks play catch-up with the Federal Reserve while, at the same tim
Read more »
'Crazy' swings in U.S. job report tell us two thingsThe U.S. economy created 1.16 million new jobs at the end of last year — not a lackluster 498,000.
Read more »
US companies advertising at Winter Olympics 2022 are ‘sponsoring’ genocide in China, US official saysCorporate sponsors pour hundreds of millions of dollars to advertise during the Winter Olympics in Beijing, but vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has argued this equates to 'sponsoring' genocide.
Read more »
All Of Us Are Dead Is 2nd K-Drama After Squid Game To Top Netflix ChartsAllOfUsAreDead is topping the Netflix charts, becoming the second K-Drama to do so after Squid Game took the world by storm late last year.
Read more »
Shortages and '50 different' guidances: Inside the U.S. rollout of Pfizer's Covid pillsAmid shortages of the antiviral treatment, state health departments are distributing their share to local pharmacies, health systems and long-term care facilities as they see fit.
Read more »