Denying women a real choice

We were told the overturning of Roe would result in a “Summer of Rage.” With the summer season almost behind us, the rage did come. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, there have been 94 attacks on pro-life entities and counting. More than half of these attacks have targeted pregnancy centers. Consider the fact that in the aftermath of an injustice like Roe, injustice is compounded by targeting the very places meant to serve vulnerable women.

Some have been firebombed. Others have had windows broken or threatening graffiti scrawled onto their walls.

In most cases, local police have opened investigations into the vandalism—and so far, they’ve done so with little apparent success. The FBI announced before Roe was formally overturned that it intended to investigate the ongoing attacks on pregnancy centers as terrorism but has yet to publicly act on its promise.

And so the attacks continue, largely without public condemnation from pro-abortion leaders and with surprisingly little response from law enforcement. They are physical, political, rhetorical, economic, social—and, importantly, hypocritical.

The attacks also extend to people and businesses: Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s meal at Morton’s Steakhouse in Washington, D.C., was interrupted by angry protesters, and the steakhouse itself was flooded with bad reviews online for refusing to take a public stance in favor of abortion and against Justice Kavanaugh. Other businesses suffer the same public retribution for the “crime” of being owned by someone who is pro-life.

What’s more, this same leadership class continues to foment an attitude of anger and hostility towards pro-life entities. Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren has repeatedly characterized pregnancy centers as “misleading” and illegitimate sources of maternal care. Vice President Kamala Harris recently went so far as to compare abortion restrictions to chattel slavery.

This is radical language. It polarizes American politics and obfuscates the work of supporting vulnerable women and children. It shows that our political leaders are working at the behest of pro-abortion radicals, people who paint pro-life activists and organizations as racists and opposition to abortion as “white supremacy.”

These radicals don’t actually care about American women, and they’re out of step with American voters.

First, the pregnancy centers these activists are attacking and working to shut down serve millions of people per year, many of whom are minorities. Many of these centers offer access to pregnancy resources and social services that women in crisis would not otherwise receive: free obstetrical ultrasounds, STD/STI testing, parental classes, after-abortion recovery and support programs, just to name a few.

Secondly, Americans overwhelmingly support the public funding of pregnancy centers—and that includes a staggering 70 percent of Democrats. Once informed of the support these centers offer vulnerable women, that level of support increased.

HOPE Pregnancy Center in Philadelphia is just one example of the good done by these organizations nationwide. Each week, 20-30 women visit the center. They leave with counsel, prenatal vitamins, a bundle of information about their pregnancy and the firm knowledge that they have an ally as they navigate their new pregnancy—all free of cost.

And the center has been attacked twice. Looking at the center’s work, it seems obvious that shutting pregnancy centers down would serve to further oppress vulnerable women, not liberate them. These centers allow women a real choice: A choice to keep their baby.

Violent pro-abortion activism is about promoting abortion, not about protecting vulnerable women. Research shows that 76 percent of women seek abortions due to adverse circumstances, and not freely. Women do not want abortions. They want and need our help—the help that pregnancy centers already provide, every year.

The only people helped by rabid pro-abortion politics are those with an economic or ideological interest in promoting abortion. Preaching about helping women while both ignoring their real needs and actively doing them harm is egregious hypocrisy.

It’s time to call the aggression of pro-abortion radicals what it is: desperation. Such desperation cannot be explained rationally. It can only be explained by a deep-seated commitment to maintain abortion rights and continue to destroy life in the womb—a tactic that the seed of the serpent has been spreading since biblical times.