When you are going quietly about your regular volunteer work helping women and families facing the challenge of a new baby, you don’t expect to find yourself in the crosshairs of unhinged domestic extremists.
Recently, however, our humble, unmarked storefront in a nondescript South Florida strip mall was spray-painted with violent threats. It was our introduction to the "summer of Rage" that s-called pro-choice activists are carrying out across the United States. Staff and volunteers at our center were shocked and scared but feel fortunate in one respect. We know that many other pregnancy resource centers have been attacked, and some have not only been graffitied but firebombed. Thankfully, nobody has been physically hurt.
Yet.
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"[T] his will be a summer of rage. We will be ungovernable ... until the right to abortion is codified into law," said Women’s March President Rachel Carmona after the shameful leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Now we are living in a post-Roe world where the citizens of each state can democratically determine whether or not to protect the unborn. And sadly — on account of that simple fact — that world is a more dangerous one for the good-hearted people that make up the charitable-outreach arm of the pro-life movement. They have now become the targets of this "summer of Rage."
Pregnancy resource centers like ours dot the country. They’re often located across from a Planned Parenthood facility or some other abortion provider. They are run primarily by volunteers, with some paid staff that sacrifice more lucrative opportunities to do the work they love. These centers offer a range of services, from free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, diapers and formula, to parenting classes, employment assistance, help in accessing medical care, and even, in some cases, housing for expectant mothers. The most important thing they offer, however, is compassion and accompaniment for girls and women who are in a tight spot financially, socially or emotionally — or all the above.
Although not always located just across from Planned Parenthood, our pregnancy care centers are always diametrically opposed to abortion centers in their respective purposes. Planned Parenthood is a business that profits from abortion. When it performs an ultrasound, it’s to determine the age and size of the baby, to better plan the type of life-ending procedure staff will sell their clients. The price tag is generally many hundreds of dollars, borne by the taxpayer in the 16 states whose Medicaid programs cover abortion when it’s not borne by the woman herself.
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By contrast, the cost of an ultrasound at a pregnancy resource center is covered by the loving charity of strangers, usually but not always people of vibrant faith. A listening ear, a pat on the arm, the utter lack of judgement or condemnation greets the troubled expectant mother. We offer her a free ultrasound so she can see the reality of the little one inside her, so that she can make an informed choice. We do the best we can to minister to her needs, no strings attached. And if she still chooses abortion, she can cross the street and get one. Later, if (when) the grief that stalks post-abortive women strikes, our trained counselors will help her find peace and consolation. All at no cost.
These centers — along with the Supreme Court Justices and their families, along with many Catholic churches — are experiencing the bitter fruits of the "pro-choice" "summer of Rage." They have been targeted by extremists like Jane’s Revenge, a shadowy group whose communiqué calls for rage from "people who can get pregnant," so that everyone fully feels its wrath.
First, they exhort, feel the fury and then carry that anger out into the world and express it physically. The result: a rash of pregnancy care center vandalism and bombings across the country — at least 60 since the Supreme Court leak. And we’ve already seen the arrest of a man for the attempted murder of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and how irresponsible appeals to fury and wrath can trigger the unhinged.
It’s all shocking and scary. But it’s also ironic. While abortion advocates have been ginning up their violent "summer of rage," pregnancy resource centers and others in the pro-life community have been doing the important work of preparing for a post-Roe world. Accompaniment, support, sympathy, and welcome material assistance for women and girls who need it is what these centers do so beautifully, and apparently what makes the absolutists on the other side so furious.
