June 14, 2024

Gov. Healy launches media campaign targeting pregnancy care centers

REGIONAL
By Carolee McGrath

 

SPRINGFIELD – In what’s being hailed as a public service to protect women, Gov. Maura Healy announced a campaign highlighting the so-called “dangers and potential harm of anti-abortion centers.” The full scope of the campaign can be found on mass.gov.

The $1 million media campaign was included in the Massachusetts legislature’s supplemental budget in 2023. Ads will appear on social media platforms, radio, billboards and buses. Some of their messages include “avoid anti-abortion centers.”

Bethlehem House in Easthampton, a pregnancy care center (PRC), falls under the label of an “anti-abortion center.” Volunteers there give out free essential baby supplies to women facing an unplanned pregnancy. Yet the campaign states this about pregnancy care centers: “These facilities may cause harm to individuals looking for pregnancy or abortion care.”

“I am saddened to see the governor and her staff put together a campaign that falsely paints pregnancy care centers as a threat to women. The opposite is true,” said Father Daniel Pacholec, the director of Pro-Life Activities for the Diocese of Springfield.

“These are centers that are there to help women through their pregnancy and beyond. These are centers that walk with women who have been hurt by abortion. These are centers that are literally handing out diapers, clothes, bottles, car seats, pack and plays and all of the necessary items a family would need,” said Father Pacholec, who is also the pastor of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Parish in Westfield.

Attention was turned to pregnancy care centers in June of 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The 1973 ruling legalized abortion on demand across the country. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion laws are regulated by individual states. In Massachusetts, abortion is legal through the ninth month of pregnancy.

“Honoring the dignity of the human person is as central to the pro-life movement as it is to Catholic social teaching. In their commitment to support vulnerable women by offering a myriad of cost-free, life-affirming services, Massachusetts’ pregnancy resource centers elevate and seek to preserve a woman’s dignity above all else. That is why Massachusetts Citizens for Life (MCFL) initiated The Pregnancy Care Alliance,” said Myrna Maloney Flynn, the president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life. 

The Pregnancy Care Alliance, an affiliate of MCFL, released an impact report which shows more than 4000 clients were served by PRCs in 2023. Thirteen centers across the state, including Clearway Clinics in Springfield and Worcester are members of the alliance. Additionally, these PRCs performed 1371 ultrasounds and gave away food, clothing and baby supplies to families totaling $512,400.

“For the last 40 years, tens of thousands of Bay State women received the help they desired inside these critical community treasures. PRC clients in Massachusetts have indicated a 98% satisfaction rate following their experiences. There have been no complaints of merit filed against our PRCs. So for Governor Healey, who describes herself as a Catholic, to direct $1 million of taxpayer money to an effort that is strategically designed to steer women away from PRCs and into abortion clinics instead effectively conveys one message: in this state, politically-generated abortion revenue matters more than women, their dignity and the very lives of their children. MCFL intends to inform citizens of our state about the truth of Healey’s aim and, in tandem, the truth about PRCs,” said Maloney Flynn.

Maloney Flynn is encouraging people to sign a petition to protect pregnancy care centers. MCFL will deliver the petition June 25, on a planned Celebration of Life Day at the Massachusetts State House. A bus will be leaving from Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Parish in Westfield at 7:30 a.m.

“We as a Catholic community must pray for a change of hearts and let our friends and neighbors know that this a movement rooted in love – love of neighbor, love of the least of those among us,” said Father Pacholec.

“Politicians and the world will try to divide us, but we know better. Jesus is calling on us to be courageous and loving and to have endurance. It’s the least we can do for the most innocent among us,” he said.

To sign the petition to protect PRCs, go to https://pregnancycarealliance.com/protect-prcs/#start