By Dave Andrusko
It’s hardly a secret that state legislatures that are firmly in the grasp of Democrats, traditionally/habitually go after Pregnancy Help Centers. The charge thrown at these volunteer-run women-helping centers begins and largely ends with the allegation that they are “deceptive,” indeed “intentionally deceptive.”
Colorado last week passed three bills in the state Senate “seeking to bolster abortion rights in Colorado.” That included Senate Bill 188 which “would protect abortion patients and providers giving and receiving care in Colorado from facing criminal or civil consequences from other states in which abortion is illegal” and Senate Bill 189 which “would require health insurance carriers that serve large employers — those with more than 100 employees — to pay for abortion coverage without deductibles, copays or coinsurance.”
You get the sense that some states have so thoroughly torn down (or are the process of tearing down) any limitations on abortion that their last great target are Pregnancy Health Centers, the object of the third bill, Senate Bill 190 .
Supporters do like to have it both ways. On the one hand, according to Alison Berg And Julio Sandoval,
In the month following the Dobbs decision, the Colorado-based Cobalt Abortion Fund reported that 94% of its clients seeking practical abortion support came from out of state, including 66% from Texas alone. In January, 750 people traveled to Colorado Planned Parenthoods from out of state for abortion care — compared to only 1,500 people during the entirety of 2021, according to Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.
On the other hand
“We are signaling to the rest of the union and the rest of the world that … Colorado will proudly end the life of any unborn child at any time during pregnancy,” said Sen. Kevin Van Winkle, R-Highlands Ranch. “It seems to invite anyone wanting an abortion to come to our state to end the life of a child. … It is wrong. It promotes a culture of death.”
What do proponents countered with? “That Colorado is and should continue to be a safe haven for people seeking abortion,” no matter how many abortion are performed.
They also target another abortion alternative–abortion pill reversal–with all the usual suspects announcing that APR doesn’t work (it does, actually). And one suspects it drive the abortion crew crazy that there are more than 50 Pregnancy Help Centers (“In some rural areas, they are the only option”) compared “to 20 abortion clinics” in Colorado.
But not everyone wants to destroy these havens of health. “Republican lawmakers in Florida are proposing a more than fivefold increase in taxpayer funding for anti-abortion centers like the Pregnancy Help Medical Clinics, to $25 million from $4.45 million in 2022,” according to Laura C. Morel and Clara-Sophia Daly.
God bless them.