Pro-lifers in New York are speaking out against an assembly bill intended to target pro-life pregnancy resource centers. Assembly Bill A08212 would direct the commissioner of health to “conduct a study and issue a report examining the unmet health and resource needs facing pregnant women in New York and the impact of limited service pregnancy centers on the ability of women to obtain accurate, non-coercive health care information and timely access to a comprehensive range and reproductive and sexual health care services.” The bill authors reveal a bias against pro-life pregnancy centers by labeling them as “limited service.” Even before the bill has been signed into law, it has already identified what the results of the study ought to be—that pro-life pregnancy centers, because they offer “limited services” by not performing abortions, are leading to unmet needs and offering inaccurate and coercive information.
Abortion is not healthcare, and the fact that pro-life pregnancy centers do not perform abortions does not mean that they are not meeting health and resource needs. It is completely unreasonable to imply that pregnancy resource centers should be obligated to provide abortion, or that they are the cause of “healthcare” shortages because they don’t.
If New York lawmakers are truly concerned about women being coerced with inaccurate information, they should be investigating abortion facilities which browbeat women into believing that abortion is their only option, oppose Women’s Right to Know legislation, and offer little to no assistance to pregnant women who do not want an abortion. Pregnancy resource centers, on the other hand, play a vital role in serving women during and after pregnancy.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, New York had 252 abortion facilities in 2017. Last year, New York City became the first city in the U.S. to fund abortions, setting aside $250,000 in the city budget to pay for abortions. New York does not need more abortion providers or more funding for abortion. New York needs more people offering genuine help and hope to women who are pregnant.
