Pro-Life Groups Applaud Alabama for Honoring Pregnancy Centers

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 31, 2011   |   12:06PM   |   Montgomery, AL

While abortion advocates in places like New York City and Baltimore, Maryland attack pregnancy centers offering women abortion alternatives, the state of Alabama is honoring them.

The Alabama Senate passed a “Resolution Honoring Pregnancy Care Centers,” thanking the non-profit organizations throughout the state for their tremendous service to women, children, and the community. The resolution,  HJR 16, passed the Alabama House in early March and  Americans United for Life drafted the model resolution and worked for its passage.

Care Net and Americans United for Life joined the Alabama State Senate in praising the work the centers to do provide legitimate medical and logistical support and help for pregnant women in a time of need.

“The more you know about the compassionate outreach of pregnancy centers to women facing unplanned pregnancies, the more you want to cheer on this amazing work,” said Care Net President Melinda Delahoyde in a statement LifeNews received.  “In this era of state budget shortfalls, it’s organizations like pregnancy centers that help to hold our communities together, providing free services to help empower women and strengthen families.”

“Pregnancy centers are on the front line everyday in the defense of human life,” added Americans United for Life VP of Government Affairs Dan McConchie, who attended the vote. “Their work in Alabama is invaluable to the countless women who seek their assistance and to the unborn babies they help save. This recognition by the Alabama legislature is well deserved.”

Delahoyde thanked the bill sponsors and AUL for their leadership on behalf of pregnancy centers.  “Care Net is grateful to those who continue to come alongside our movement to champion the quiet, life-saving work of pregnancy centers,” she said.

Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life, added: “The praise that pregnancy centers are receiving for their life-affirming impact on the women, families, and communities they serve is well-deserved and long-overdue. We look forward to working with more states to adopt this important resolution and to further support the critical work of pregnancy centers.”

In February, lawmakers in South Dakota also approved a resolution honoring pregnancy centers, becoming the first state to do so.

The South Dakota state legislature praised the work of pregnancy centers with both the South Dakota House of Representatives and Senate passed a “Resolution Honoring Pregnancy Care Centers.” The resolution thanks the non-profit organizations throughout the state for their tremendous service to women, children, and the community.

New York City is facing two lawsuits over an ordinance the city council passed and Mayor Mike Bloomberg signed that places hefty restrictions on pregnancy centers. The city council approved the bill on a 39-9-1 vote and the ordinance that would place stringent limits on the advertising pregnancy centers use and require them to post signs designed to dissuade women from seeking their abortion alternatives services.

In January, a federal judge struck down a Baltimore law that was the subject of a lawsuit brought by the Archdiocese of Baltimore because it unfairly attacks pregnancy centers that provide women with abortion alternatives.

The judge granted summary judgment finding the anti-pregnancy center law is viewpoint-based and impossible to render constitutional under the First Amendment. He dismissed without prejudice all other claims and found a couple of the plaintiffs lacked standing (including the Archbishop and the Catholic church that provides space for one of the pregnancy centers that filed suit) but the ruling is viewed as a substantial victory by pro-life advocates.

Early in March, a federal judge struck down most of a law Montgomery County, Maryland officials passed that targets pregnancy centers and requires them to post signs that may turn potential clients away.