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Commentary

Who Doesn’t Like Pregnancy Resource Centers? Kamala Harris

August 10, 2024

Across the country, there are more than 2,750 centers of hope for women and men who unexpectedly learn they have conceived a child. They are called pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) or Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs). These organizations have an approval rate higher than 97.4% from the mothers and fathers they serve. Their work saves lives and drives out fear.

How? PRCs provide unwavering support for moms and dads in need. Everyone who walks through their door is met with an open heart, a listening ear, and a plethora of resources — clothing, diapers, wipes, formula; education about pregnancy, parenting, and life skills; and medical services like pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, and STD testing. Many PRCs also offer housing for mothers and their children, spiritual support, clothing, assistance for victims of abuse and human trafficking, and guidance in applying for Medicaid, SNAPS, and WIC. 

In 2022, it is estimated that pregnancy resource centers donated $367,896,513 in goods and services to moms and dads in need. Some of the material needs they provided include 3,590,911 packs of diapers, 1,216,438 packs of wipes, 4,256,274 baby outfits, and 300,008 bottles of infant formula. But perhaps equally important, 409,409 clients attended parenting and prenatal programs at PRCs; 20,863 clients received after-abortion support, and 660,064 youth attended sexual risk avoidance education programs. 

PRCs are places of hope — empowering moms and dads to receive the blessing of a child while feeling prepared to take on the future. 

Who doesn’t love PRCs? Kamala Harris. In fact, she has a history of working to shut them down.

In 2015, Harris sponsored the Reproductive FACT Act. While she argued this law would “ensure that all women have equal access to comprehensive reproductive health services, and that they have the facts they need to make informed decisions about their health and their lives,” what it really did was require California pregnancy resource centers to advertise for the killing of unborn children.

Pregnancy resource centers sued because this law prevented them from carrying out their mission of saving unborn children from being brutally murdered by abortionists. By the time the case was taken up by the Supreme Court, Kamala Harris served as a U.S. senator, but she filed an amicus brief against the PRCs anyway.

Following the Dobbs decision giving legislators the power to once again protect life, fellow amicus brief signatory and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called for PRCs to be shut down because she believes the loving care and resources they offer are “torture.”

A few months later, now as vice president, Kamala Harris met with Democratic state attorneys general at the White House to commend them for “taking on, rightly, the Crisis Pregnancy Centers.” She went on to describe the work of PRCs as “predatory practices.”

In the months preceding these slanderous remarks, there was a spike in violent pro-abortion protestors vandalizing and threatening PRCs. At least 90 PRCs have been attacked since the leak of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022. Dangerous rhetoric like that from Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren could serve to foment this kind of violence against PRCs.

Make no mistake, Kamala Harris is the most pro-abortion candidate to run at the top of the Democratic ticket. She could not even bring herself to vote for a law protecting babies born alive from being killed or left to die after an abortion. And Kamala Harris doesn’t stop at promoting the killing of unborn children — she actively works to silence anyone helping mothers and fathers in need choose life.

In stark contrast to this is the work of former President Donald Trump. During his administration, the Department of Health and Human Services notified the state of California that the law Harris co-sponsored requiring PRCs to advertise for abortion was unconstitutional. Thankfully, the Supreme Court agreed. 

Under Trump, in recognition of the lives and taxpayer dollars they save, PRCs were eligible to receive taxpayer dollars through Title X funds. While this past year, Vice President Harris became the highest-ranking U.S. official to publicly visit an abortion business, the Trump administration was the first in history to visit a pregnancy resource center. 

For American voters, this contrast presents a choice. Do we want to elect leaders who will stand behind pregnancy resource centers, which offer hope, personalized support, and a multitude of free resources for mothers and their children? Or, do we want to elect leaders who stand behind abortion businesses, who exploit the fears and discouragement of vulnerable mothers and fathers and profit off of the killing of their unborn children — while simultaneously working to silence anyone offering moms and dads a different option. On election day this November, we will be deciding between exactly those options.

Mary Szoch is the Director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council.

Arielle Del Turco is Director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, and co-author of "Heroic Faith: Hope Amid Global Persecution."



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