Pro-life pregnancy care centers have been targeted in pro-abortion states and in the previous Biden-Harris administration, but a new bill unveiled by Republican members of Congress aims to bar federal, state, and local governments from discriminating against these centers simply because they affirm life from the moment of conception.
According to the text of the legislation, the Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act of 2025 (H.R. 2226) would “amend the Public Health Service Act to prohibit discrimination against entities that do not participate in abortion and to strengthen implementation and enforcement of Federal conscience laws.”
“There are more than 2,700 pregnancy care centers throughout the United States—each and every one of them an oasis of love, compassion, empathy, respect, and quality care for both mothers and their precious children,” said co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey during a press conference Monday. “Yet state governments like my state of New Jersey and some lawmakers seek to discriminate against pregnancy care centers by violating fundamental conscience rights to compel complicity in abortion.”
Smith described a dinner he attended at one New Jersey pregnancy resource center.
“Two women expressed through tears of joy their deep and abiding gratitude for the incredible love, respect, and care that persuaded them to reverse their decision to abort their babies,” he said. “They spoke of the pressure they had felt to abort. They spoke of how desperate—even hopeless—they felt. Until they met the director of the pregnancy resource center who reached out to both of them in a gentle and nonjudgmental way.”
“They chose life—and thanked God, the director, and the pregnancy resource center for helping them avert the loss of their baby’s lives,” the congressman shared.
As CatholicVote has reported, as of January of this year, at least 96 pregnancy care centers and pro-life groups have been attacked and vandalized since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
In addition to violent attacks, however, these community-based pro-life centers – nonprofits that provide emotional support and material resources to women, girls, and families during pregnancies – also suffer at the hands of pro-abortion lawmakers in blue states who have often had their political campaigns boosted through funding by Planned Parenthood and other giants in the abortion industry.
Once elected, these lawmakers repay abortion vendors with legislation that increases their funding and expands access to abortions. Other measures target pro-life pregnancy centers by censoring and smearing them as “fake clinics.”
As Smith’s office noted, according to a Knights of Columbus-sponsored January 2025 poll, 83% of Americans support pregnancy care centers, including 80% of those who identify as “pro-choice.”
In addition to physical, psychological, and spiritual support, services at pregnancy care centers also include pregnancy and other medical tests, ultrasounds, prenatal and parenting education programs, breastfeeding support, post-abortion support, and adoption referrals.
“The American people recognize the crucial services provided by pregnancy centers,” said Smith. “Pro-abortion legislators smear pregnancy center directors—who are mostly women compassionately seeking to help other women in their time of need.”
At Monday’s press conference, Smith was joined by legislation co-sponsors Republican Reps. Claudia Tenney of New York and Michelle Fischbach of Minnesota, and by pregnancy care center advocates and pro-life leaders.
Tenney explained that women with unplanned pregnancies must have access to “the resources pregnancy centers provide, empowering them to choose life.”
“Liberal states and the former Biden administration attempted to unconstitutionally restrict TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] funds from supporting pro-life pregnancy centers, hindering their ability to assist pregnant mothers and their unborn babies,” said Tenney. “The Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act ensures pregnancy resource centers and pro-life centers are not discriminated against and are able to carry out their services, including providing emotional support, access to prenatal and pregnancy care, and supplies to expecting mothers.”
Debbie Provencher, executive director of Lighthouse Pregnancy Resource Center of New Jersey, said young pregnant women need “a safe, confidential place” where they can “think through their critical next steps, without pressure.”
“Lighthouse and other pregnancy centers offer that opportunity free of charge,” she explained. “Our work is made possible by thousands of generous donors and volunteers from the community, supporting people they may never meet, simply because they believe every life has great value.”
In his remarks, Smith told of two teen girls who spoke at the pro-life dinner he attended.
They “took to the podium side-by-side and spoke about their lives—school, sports, friends—and their reverence for the sanctity of all human life,” he said. “Near the end of their remarks, they turned towards the director of the Center and said if you didn’t persuade our moms to let us live, ‘we’d be dead.’”
“We applaud Congressman Smith for standing up for New Jersey pregnancy centers against the unfair, slanderous attacks on them,” the New Jersey Association of Pregnancy Centers said. “Our pregnancy centers provide essential services at absolutely no cost to individuals throughout our community. Women who make the courageous choice to carry their pregnancy to term deserve support, compassionate care, and unwavering assistance throughout their journey.”
Rev. Jim Harden, CEO of CompassCare, said pro-abortion lawmakers in liberal states are clearly “more interested in protecting the abortion industry than they are in protecting women and children.”
“Liberal states like New York have a long history of harming needy families—specifically women facing unplanned pregnancy—by discriminating against pro-life pregnancy centers simply because we refuse to provide or refer for abortion,” he observed. “Despite not having access to federal funding, pregnancy centers heroically provide women with millions of dollars’ worth of free medical care and support every year. Women deserve better than abortion.”
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