If ever a headline got everything transposed—everything backwards—it was a story in last week’s Politico written by Caroline Petrow-Cohen. The headline read “New Jersey aims to be a safe haven for abortion. Crisis pregnancy centers stand in the way, leaders say.”
You have to read that twice. In Petrow-Cohen’s upside down world, the abortion clinics which resembled slaughter houses are a “safe haven” for the killing thwarted only by crisis pregnancy centers which “stand in the way.”
Her story gets a D- for originality. Crisis pregnancy centers [more often known nowadays as Pregnancy Help Centers] are supposedly “unregulated,” “deceptive,” and “promote false science”—otherwise known as Abortion Pill Reversal.
The story is built around frustrated Democrats who, try as they may, are, for the most part, unable to strangle Pregnancy Help Centers despite controlling all the levers of power. Take New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy “who is trying to crack down on these clinics as the governor seeks to make New Jersey a safe haven for women in the post-Roe era.”
The state is so thoroughly pro-abortion that the primary target left is Pregnancy Help Centers. But “similar plans have had mixed results in other Democratic-controlled states such as California and Connecticut.” Left unsaid is why states which never found an abortion they object to can’t squelch Pregnancy Help Centers.
You can tell that Petrow-Cohen’s shares their frustration. I mean why can’t these bastions of pro-abortion Democrat muscle destroy these tiny, underfunded, largely volunteer-run organization?
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Here’s a hint:
Although crisis pregnancy centers exist in many red states with strict abortion laws, blue states like New Jersey make a logical choice for the centers to establish a strong presence. They often outnumber abortion clinics in progressive states that have put abortion protections in place, said Ashley Underwood, director of the reproductive rights organization Equity Forward.
Get it? “Progressive states” such as New Jersey are outnumbered. “New Jersey had 43 abortion clinics in 2021” but “New Jersey also has more than 50 crisis pregnancy centers.” Nationwide there are 2,500 CPCs.
What can poor little old abortion clinics do against the CPCs Goliath? It would be amusing if it weren’t so tragic.
She cites other Blue states such as Illinois and New York and California which have introduced bills to outlaw “deceptive” advertising practice. “New Jersey state lawmakers introduced a similar bill in February 2022 that would outlaw crisis pregnancy centers’ deceptive advertising under the consumer fraud act,” according to Petrow-Cohen. “But a previous version of that bill never made it to a full vote and the latest measure has yet to receive a committee hearing.”
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin “issued the consumer alert last December to warn residents of crisis pregnancy centers and what he said are deceptive marketing tactics.” They do have one thing right:
“Crisis Pregnancy Centers try to convince pregnant people not to have abortions.”
One final telling quote that speaks volumes. Needless to say the underlining is mine:
Assembly member Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-Mercer), who sponsored New Jersey’s crisis pregnancy center legislation along with Mila Jasey (D-Essex) and Ellen Park (D-Bergen), said the bill is essential to protecting abortion access.
“Women deserve accurate and unbiased information, and that’s not what these organizations provide,” Reynolds-Jackson said in an interview. “It’s misleading and it’s a threat to both mom and baby.”
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
