Here & Now

Abortion and the Mission of Pregnancy Resource Centers

Frederica Freyberg:

Last week, we heard from three women who have had abortions. Tonight, continuing our series on abortion in Wisconsin, we bring you a story about what are called pregnancy resource centers. With dozens of these nonprofits across the state encouraging women to keep their pregnancies advocating against abortion. Republicans want to provide them with state funding, but critics warn of their non-accreditation and sometimes false information. Steven Potter has this story.

Gabriella Boldon:

At first, I wanted an abortion because I never wanted kids, but after I heard his heartbeat, it made it difficult for me to get an abortion, I guess.

Steven Potter:

Abortion became illegal in Wisconsin more than a year ago when the Supreme Court ruled that states would individually decide on abortion access. That left standing a Wisconsin law passed in 1849 that effectively banned abortion, and because of that, some organizations say they’ve become much busier.

Rita Flores:

We are seeing a lot more women coming in that, you know, are seeking options because the abortion isn’t readily available here.

Steven Potter:

That’s Rita Flores, manager for the two locations of a nonprofit organization in Waukesha County called Life’s Connection.

Rita Flores:

Life’s Connection is a medical, educational and resource center.

Steven Potter:

The organization offers pregnancy and STD testing, prenatal counseling and adoption support, among other services.

Rita Flores:

We can see anyone from a teen all the way through married couples that come in and just would like our labor and delivery classes or to prepare for pregnancy or newborn care. This is our ultrasound suite. Here is where we’re able to really connect mom with baby. Again, see that true development. We call it the window to the womb.

Steven Potter:

But one thing they won’t do at Life’s Connection is refer anyone who is pregnant for an abortion.

Rita Flores:

We don’t offer refer for abortion, but we do educate. We help them to understand what abortion would look like for them and for the baby now and in the future and how physically and emotionally they could be impacted.

Steven Potter:

According to Choose Life Wisconsin, there are more than 70 pregnancy resource centers like Life’s Connection around the state. And because of their prenatal support and the fact that these organizations don’t refer pregnant people for abortions and do actively discourage abortions, some Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin think they should receive state taxpayer funding.

Romaine Robert Quinn:

If you walk into a pregnancy resource center, they’re not going to refer you to an abortion, right? That’s not why they exist.

Steven Potter:

State Senator Romaine Robert Quinn has introduced legislation to fund these centers, which are sometimes called crisis pregnancy centers, with state money. He’s proposing giving the centers $1 million per year. That money would be funneled to the centers through grants administered by Choose Life Wisconsin. The senator says the state should provide the money because these centers do necessary work.

Romaine Robert Quinn:

They just give an enormous amount of support and service and a place for families to go that they’re questioning am I ready for this pregnancy or maybe it’s unexpected or maybe I’m fleeing an abusive relationship and found out I’m pregnant, so there’s so much good they do.

Steven Potter:

Gabriella Boldon says she wasn’t planning to get pregnant a year ago.

Gabriella Boldon:

I took a pregnancy test and it was positive and I started crying. It was not something that I wanted, I guess. I was going to Planned Parenthood first and it’s actually right next to the Life’s Connections in Waukesha, so I saw, like, ultrasounds and stuff right on the side so I was, like, we’re going to go here and see what, like, they offer.

Steven Potter:

During her visit with the nurse at Life’s Connection, she says they discussed abortion and she was given an ultrasound. She felt encouraged by staff at Life’s Connection to have the child and become a mother.

Gabriella Boldon:

I was asking her, like, what is — like how do abortions work and she was just trying to, like, weigh our options and to see which one was better and just to give us, like, well, give me, like, hope that I could do it. It was after we’ve seen him and we heard the heartbeat is where I said, no, I don’t want to get an abortion anymore and I just wanted to keep him.

Steven Potter:

Flores says that a foundational belief of pregnancy resource centers like hers is that abortions are harmful to women.

Rita Flores:

A woman that goes through an abortion is going to be impacted emotionally and physically, and so at no point would it ever be something that would be good for her in any way.

Steven Potter:

The National Institutes of Health, however, says that having an abortion does not increase a woman’s risk of the health dangers often cited by pregnancy resource centers. Nor does it increase the risk for mental health challenges. Sara Finger leads the Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health. She says the pregnancy resource centers are spreading misinformation.

Sara Finger:

The kind of information that they’re giving is often actually full of lies. They have studies that are showing how these websites and the centers themselves are talking about falsely claiming that abortion will increase your mental health challenges. They’re falsely indicating that you can — abortions will lead to breast cancer or infertility, and these are all lies.

Steven Potter:

Finger says that physicians’ groups have raised red flags about pregnancy resource centers.

Sara Finger:

And the American Medical Association, who is a predominant leader in terms of healthcare in this country and the providers and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists both have briefs warning people about the dangers and the unethical behavior of these fake clinics.

Steven Potter:

Flores of Life’s Connection rejects claims that pregnancy resource centers provide misleading information to their clients.

Rita Flores:

We tell them exactly what it looks like to parent. What it looks like to adopt — to consider adoption as an option and also what abortion would look like for them, so I feel that we’re, you know, as truthful as we absolutely can be. We don’t hide anything. And then we guide them to whatever services that they might need with the exception of referring for abortion.

Steven Potter:

She adds that organizations like hers could certainly benefit from the state funding being proposed in Senator Quinn’s legislation.

Rita Flores:

We are a 501(c)(3), so that means everything that we do as a nonprofit is done by donations either by individual or by, you know, a church, and any other kind of a group that would like to donate to us.

Steven Potter:

But for Sara Finger from the Women’s Health Alliance, that connection between pregnancy resource centers and faith-based organizations is another reason that the centers shouldn’t get state funding.

Sara Finger:

I’m sorry, but if there’s even one dollar of taxpayer-funded money going towards to support these fake clinics, who are not licensed, who are not — they’re not regulated. They’re not accredited, and they don’t have to follow HIPAA regulations. They don’t have to protect your privacy and your confidentiality. Why are we even considering putting a single dollar towards these fake clinics in our state or anywhere in this country?

Steven Potter:

Senator Quinn says he’s unbothered by any faith-based connection that the pregnancy resource centers have and says the centers deserve funding.

Romaine Robert Quinn:

I don’t care who does the work, right? I mean they’re doing great work, so if it’s faith-based or not faith-based, it’s not a criteria that’s a must. So it shouldn’t be the other way that you can’t be that. I get frustrated sometimes when people call them fake clinics or things like that and it’s like, you know, not every baby is going to be aborted, and so for those families that wanted to raise a child but need support, why not support them? And why not support the very centers that give them the services, the classes, a shoulder to lean on and talk to?

Steven Potter:

Reporting from Mukwonago for “Here & Now,” I’m Steven Potter.

Frederica Freyberg:

Next week on “Here & Now,” a report on the lawsuit over the 1849 abortion ban now in place, with practicing physicians trying to understand how best to provide care to their patients. You can also tune into a special series of reports on Wisconsin Public Radio looking at abortion regulation since the state based its original abortion ban titled “How we got here: Abortion in Wisconsin since 1849.”

For more on this and other issues facing Wisconsin, visit our website at PBSwisconsin.org and then click on the news tab.