Pennsylvania plans to end on Dec. 31 its longstanding contract with the nonprofit Real Alternatives, the first organization in the nation to secure significant state and federal subsidies to support anti-abortion counseling centers. Under the program, Real Alternatives distributed the state and federal funds to dozens of Pennsylvania centers, including Catholic Charities, anti-abortion counseling centers and maternity homes, which provide support and housing for pregnant women.
Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement his administration would not “continue that pattern” of subsidizing the organization, saying he was steadfast in defending abortion access.
Tens of millions of taxpayer dollars across the U.S. have been sent to such organizations, which are typically religiously affiliated. Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion last year, Republican-led states have sent more tax dollars to what are sometimes called “crisis pregnancy centers,” while Democratic-leaning states apply more scrutiny to them.
I’m not as offended at the mere existence of these places as many of you are. There are people whose religious beliefs are that life begins at conception. We keep complaining that these people don’t value people post-birth enough, yet here they are helping mothers who want to keep their babies. These people who are backing up those beliefs with their own money and effort. As long as they’re being honest in what they do and not deceptive, what’s wrong with that?
I don’t even have an issue with government money going to it, but it has been proven that some in Government can’t resist the urge to play favorites. Any arguments that apply to Planned Parenthood’s government funding also apply to these places. I’m my view, they are doing the same work, and should be dealt with the same way.
Supporting a woman’s right to choose should also include supporting her right to keep her pregnancy. Of course, Planned Parenthood supports that, too. But there’s no reason to dismiss these other organizations out of hand because they won’t help women who want to end their pregnancy, due to their religious beliefs – as long as those women still have accessible choices.
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The tiniest bit of research would have revealed to you that they are not some innocent lambs and it isn’t a case that they simply “won’t provide abortions”, they are actively anti choice disguising themselves as “crisis centres” where people who are actively looking for an abortion go only to end up pressured and manipulated in to changing their mind by any means necessary, including impersonating medical staff. I’ve read cases where these “crisis centres” will make appointments for an “abortion” which they will then keep postponing until it’s too late to do it.
There is absolutely nothing pro choice about this organisation, it’s just another way in which patriarchy religion and capitalism combine to keep women “producing”, and you could have easily found this out with a 2 second search before ignorantly jumping to their defence:
https://www.prochoiceamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/cpc-report-2015.pdf
https://www.salon.com/2017/03/21/deceptive-anti-abortion-group-under-investigation-for-skimming-state-funds-in-pennsylvania/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/crisis-pregancy-centers-supreme-court_us_5a09f40ae4b0bc648a0d13a2
That “religious belief” was created by the Republican Party in the 70s to distract from their terrible policies.