Imagine fighting a case all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States—only to admit during oral arguments that the entire premise was based on a lie.
This embarrassing scenario became a reality for New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin this month, in his case, First Choice Women’s Resource Centers Inc. v. Platkin. During questioning, counsel for New Jersey acknowledged that the state had not received any complaints regarding First Choice Women’s Resource Center prior to issuing the subpoena, despite alleging that First Choice misled customers. When pressed, counsel clarified that any complaints received involved other pregnancy centers, not First Choice, which is the sole subject of the subpoena in this case.
Despite this admission, Platkin was not ashamed to force the good women staffing the center to go all the way to the Supreme Court—devoting precious time, money and resources—to defend themselves from what was ultimately a transparent case of lawfare against political opponents. He hoped that this lawfare would successfully convince Americans that centers like First Choices are “fake” and “misleading” clients.
In my decades of experience working as an OBGYN and medical director of four separate pregnancy centers in North Carolina, nothing could be further from the truth. The nation’s nearly 3,000 pregnancy centers are not only credible and professional, but they also provide vital services that American women and children desperately rely on.
Anyone asserting otherwise is either uninformed or anti-woman.
In a nation that endlessly debates women’s “choice,” pregnancy centers are some of the only organizations making sure women truly have one. In 2024 alone, pregnancy centers offered over one million women and children more than $452 million in medical care, educational programs, and material goods.
These organizations strive daily to provide women with comprehensive support so they can make fully informed decisions, free of coercion or fear. Our approach is essential, especially given data showing that 60 percent of post-abortive women chose abortion due to a lack of emotional support or financial security. Our work ensures that fewer women face such unthinkable situations every year.
Platkin and others attacking these organizations likely don’t realize how many women rely on them for medical care. About 80 percent of these centers provide free or low-cost medical services thanks to the over 10,000 medical professionals like me who staff them. I can attest that many of my female patients at pregnancy centers can’t get care elsewhere. These women arrive feeling scared or alone, and leave feeling empowered by the information I give them regarding their pregnancy—gestational age, viability, confirmation of intrauterine pregnancies, and more. Most importantly, they leave knowing that I care deeply about them, and their future.
Almost a third of these organizations also offer Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) so that women have the right to continue their pregnancies if they want to. And 77 percent provide post-abortion support to help women heal from past abortions, and to overcome anxiety, depression, substance abuse, or even suicidal thoughts.
Ironically, despite pro-abortion smear campaigns, pregnancy centers boast 98 percent client satisfaction ratings and are supported by the great majority of Americans, from all political persuasions. Their undeniable success has made many pregnancy centers the focal point for community partnerships and support.
The pregnancy centers where I serve as medical director in North Carolina have established local partnerships that allow me to participate in and witness the power of a community that values a life-affirming approach to helping women, men, and their children.
Local counselors and church groups have repeatedly stepped up to provide post-abortive healing to women in need, while the Healthcare Foundation of my hometown in Wilson provided a grant for parenting skills and early childhood development classes for parents.
That is just the tip of the iceberg. When a young woman’s family threw her out after discovering her pregnancy, the community worked with our center to provide a home for her. Another center diagnosed a patient’s ectopic pregnancy in time for her to receive emergency surgery at the local hospital. Staff at another center helped a young woman navigate finding and applying to jobs so she could support her family. A donor to our Charlotte center ensures every woman who visits receives a gas card to help with her transportation needs.
The Wilson County Health Department was there for our center when we needed supplemental food, breast-feeding supplies, and nutritional counseling for our growing patients. When one of our patients needed to find quality and affordable day care, the Department of Social Services, Smart Start, and Head Start made it happen. When our Outer Banks center got a call about a mom in need at the hospital, they showered her with essential supplies within days of her baby’s birth. And just recently, a local caterer donated a “Friendsgiving” meal to our Chapel Hill pregnancy center for their last parenting and post-partum classes of the year.
These partnerships are not unique to North Carolina. Nationwide, pregnancy centers are unifying communities with a shared desire to truly support women and children in need.
Indeed, pregnancy centers’ success, and the bipartisan partnerships they enjoy, are a powerful contradiction of the political smear campaigns that activists like Platkin wield against them.
It’s unfortunate that Platkin had to travel all the way to the Supreme Court to learn it.
Dr. Susan Bane, M.D., Ph.D., is a board-certified OB/GYN and chair of the board of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists Action. She is the medical director of four pregnancy centers in North Carolina.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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