Elections Highlight Importance of Pregnancy Centers Reducing Abortions

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 8, 2006   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Elections Highlight Importance of Pregnancy Centers Reducing Abortions Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 8
, 2006

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Pro-life advocates didn’t fare well on Tuesday in both the Congressional elections and in three attempts to limit abortions using state ballot initiatives. However, the head of a national organization of crisis pregnancy centers says they will continue their part to reduce the number of abortions by helping pregnant women.

"As the tide turns in Congress, pregnancy centers will play an increasingly strategic role in the pro-life movement," Kurt Entsminger, the president of Care Net, told LifeNews.com in a statement.

"As the gavel is passed to abortion advocates in leadership positions, pro-life legislative advances will inevitably be shut down," he explained.

However, Entsminger said "pregnancy centers remain the best and last hope for reducing abortion in America" in this current pro-abortion climate where Roe v. Wade doesn’t appear likely to be overturned in the near future.

Thousands of pregnancy centers across the nation provide women with pregnancy help and abortion alternatives.

Whether its medical help and referrals, baby needs, assistance with education or career goals, or giving a pregnant woman a place to live, pregnancy centers have been meeting the needs of women with unplanned pregnancies for decades.

Because they have become effective in cutting the number of abortions by removing the socioeconomic pressures that prompt women to have one, abortion advocates have increasingly targeted their work.

Entsminger said he expects a Congress under the control of abortion advocates to "continue to attempt to malign our work."

"Abortion advocates are emboldened by the election results and alarmed by the growing effectiveness of pregnancy centers," he told LifeNews.com.

"We are committed to sustaining our critical efforts and keeping our hand to the plow – empowering women and men facing crisis pregnancies with love, support, and help finding abortion alternatives," he said.

Even as the minority in Congress, abortion advocates attempted to distort the public image of pregnancy centers by making false claims that they distribute misleading information to women about abortion’s risks and dangers.

Pro-abortion lawmakers will also likely try to derail federal funding for pregnancy centers and abstinence education programs some centers use to help reduce rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Founded in 1975, Care Net supports a network of 1,000 pregnancy centers across North America.

Care Net pregnancy centers offer free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, peer counseling services, post-abortion support and other practical, emotional and spiritual help to empower women and men facing pregnancy-related concerns.

Related web sites:
Care Net – https://www.care-net.org