Pregnancy centers spread in Texas as abortion clinics close

COLLEGE STATION, Tex. – Women visiting the Hope Pregnancy Center here could receive a free sonogram, counseling on the virtues of parenting and adoption, a tutorial on the risks of terminating a pregnancy and pamphlets on “Car Seat Safety” and “How to Receive Christ.”

What they won’t get is a referral to an abortion doctor.

“Our main intent is to give people all the information they need to make an informed decision,” said Tracy Frank, the center’s executive director. “When you’re in the middle of that crisis, there are some things you can’t see.”

Pregnancy centers such as Hope are proliferating around Texas, as abortion clinics, such as those run by Planned Parenthood, shutter under budget cuts and tougher safety standards. In 2011, Texas lawmakers slashed the family planning budget by more than $70 million and, two years later, mandated that abortion clinics meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers and employ doctors with admitting privileges at local hospitals, a move being challenged in court by pro-choice groups. Supporters of the laws say they make abortion procedures in Texas medically safer, but critics maintain the provisions are too costly for smaller clinics to meet, causing them to close.

As the rules took effect, the number of facilities offering abortions in Texas dwindled by more than half –  from 45 in 2010 to 20 today, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Last month, Texas officials took another step when they announced the state would cut Medicaid payments to all Planned Parenthood clinics after videos surfaced purporting to show clinic officials selling fetal tissue.

At the same time, state funding for pregnancy centers and other services in the Texas Alternative to Abortion Services Programhas nearly quadrupled, from $2.5 million in 2008 to $9.15 this year, according to the commission.

At least eight other states, including Missouri, Montana and North Carolina, have sought funding this year for so-called "crisis pregnancy centers," said Elizabeth Nash of the New York-based Guttmacher Institute, a policy and research center that advocates reproductive health rights for women. At $9.15 million annually, Texas spends far more for the centers than any other state, she said.

“This is yet another way for abortion opponents to pursue what they see as their mandate, which is to support any type of law or policy that minimizes abortion,” Nash said.

Overall funding for women’s health services is at a historic high in Texas; it's just not going to clinics that perform abortions, said Joe Pojman, head of the anti-abortion group Texas Alliance for Life. This year, state lawmakers earmarked more than $130 million for services ranging from breast and cervical cancer screenings to family planning counseling and pregnancy centers, according to state figures.

The number of pregnancy centers in the greater Austin area grew from just two in 1986, when he joined the anti-abortion fight, to 16 today, Pojman said. There are about 230 centers across Texas that he knows of, he said. Most of the new pregnancy centers are privately-funded and those that take state dollars should not  be offering religious material, Pojman said.

The centers play an important role in the critical early weeks of a pregnancy, furnishing women with information so they can make an informed decision on their pregnancy, he said.

“Yes, they are committed to promoting passionate alternatives to abortion,” Pojman said. “I find that to be a very good thing.”

The Hope Pregnancy Center opened here in 2001. It doesn’t take any state dollars, relying on private donors and churches for most of its funding, and all its services are free and confidential, Frank said. Women at  the center are counseled in warmly-decorated rooms. If they decide to take parenting classes, they could earn “Mommy Points” which are later traded for baby clothes, wipes, blankets and even car seats. Classes vary from First Aid for Children (15 points) and Intro to Breastfeeding (20 points) to Discovering God’s Plan (20 points).

Last year, when a Planned Parenthood clinic closed four miles up the road in neighboring Bryant, Tex., center officials bought the building. Today, it houses an STD testing and treatment clinic run by Hope, a private medical practice and a faith-based, pro-life organization.

Now the nearest place to get an abortion is about 100 miles away in Houston.

Less than 5% of the women who walk into the Hope Pregnancy Center ultimately choose to have an abortion, Frank said. Even if they do, they're encouraged to return for services and counseling should they get pregnant again, she said. Some have.

“We hope they do choose life,” she said, “but we’re here for them if they don’t.”

Regardless of the lack of abortion services, women's health advocates say the pregnancy centers are no substitute for Planned Parenthood clinics.

A main problem is that they don’t provide the same medical services offered by the rapidly-closing Planned Parenthood clinics, such as cervical cancer screenings and breast exams, or birth control devices, and are often singularly focused on dissuading women from having abortions, said state Rep. Dawnna Dukes, of Austin, who is on the budget appropriations committee and has fought the shift away from abortion clinics toward pregnancy centers.

The centers receive little oversight and no one has been able to provide proof of their effectiveness to warrant the increased funding, she said.

“One cannot audit nor get any firm grasp on what [pregnancy centers] provide other than a guilt trip to women regarding their pregnancy,” Dukes said. “The only thing they’re doing is a counseling service based on guilt against abortion.”

Last year, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, which advocates for women’s reproductive health rights, investigated 16 of the centers across Texas, sending undercover agents to the facilities. The centers gave false or misleading information about abortions, such as they can lead to breast cancer or cause future miscarriages, and often delayed appointments in order to further a pregnancy’s term and dissuade abortions, the report said.

John McNamara, executive director of the Texas Pregnancy Care Network, the agency which distributes state funding to the centers, referred all questions to the Health and Human Services Commission. A commission spokesman didn't respond to requests for comments on the NARAL allegations.

Even though centers that receive state funding are prohibited from disseminating religious material, Bibles were given out at some centers and, in one case, volunteers prayed for an undercover client, said Heather Busby, the group’s executive director.

“We don’t need to get religion when we go to the doctor,” Busby said. “We need medical services.”