Pro-Abortion Activists Wouldn't Even Speak to the Women They Claim to Support

This week, the ABC Women’s Center in Middletown CT was met with a planned attack from NARAL Pro-Choice Connecticut activists. ABC is a non-profit pregnancy resource center affiliated with Care Net, an organization that supports one of the largest networks of pregnancy centers in our nation.

ABC has been a trusted part of the Middlesex community for almost thirty years. In that time we’ve served tens of thousands of clients from across our state. We provide no-cost pregnancy tests, limited ultrasounds, parenting classes, post-abortive care and material resources such as baby clothes, diapers, car seats and a number of related items. We have 99% client satisfaction and many of our moms consider us a second family.

All the good work we do on behalf of mothers and families is seen as ‘evil’ by NARAL Pro-Choice CT. In NARAL’s false report on pregnancy centers, they accuse us of not having any licensed medical staff, of targeting women of color, and of shaming women. They make big claims, but the staff and volunteers of NARAL have never visited our pregnancy center or met any of our clients.

When we got word they were coming to protest us at 4pm on a Wednesday afternoon we decided to let them see the faces of the women they claim they want to protect and the licensed medical personnel they claim we don’t have. We let our clients and community members know the accusations that were coming against us. They were hurt by the claims and wanted to help set the record straight. They came to our defense, ready to support the staff and volunteers who have loved and cared for them over the years. We made our signs and waited for the pro-choice activists to arrive.

When NARAL came, they brought signs that said, “Abortion is Healthcare” and the commonly used, “My body, My choice.” They yelled and chanted about fighting the stigma and stopping ‘fake clinics.’ At one point, this group of people (notably all Caucasian) began chanting the phrase, “Stay woke,” a phrase signifying awareness of the struggles facing the Black community. As a Black woman, I had to laugh, because their chant was the exact opposite of what they were doing. We had a beautiful, diverse representation of women and men countering their attack. We had Black and Latina clients expressing through their signs that our center has changed their lives for the better.

None of the NARAL Pro-Choice CT pro-abortion activists wanted to talk to the women. They pass out literature in our community saying we hurt women. They come to our center yelling with signs that we deny women care. Yet when faced with the actual women they claim to desire to protect, they wouldn’t dare talk to them.

They chanted about choice but refused to respect the fact that our clients made their choices and are happy with the outcome. Yelling about abortion rights to both women who have chosen life and to those who are post-abortive was dishonoring of our client’s stories. NARAL Pro-Choice CT made it clear our clients’ choices weren’t valid because they included getting care at a life affirming pregnancy center.

We may not have influenced NARAL Pro-Choice CT with our stand, but we stood up to their lies in front of our community. Later they posted images of their protest on Facebook, conveniently erasing every trace of our clients and community members. It’s sadly not surprising that a group who was unwilling to listen to the women of color they accuse us of targeting would exclude those same women from their images.

This week it was our center but tomorrow it may be yours. ExposeFakeClinics.com shares strategies pro-abortion groups have for targeting pregnancy centers. It’s important to look out for fake Google reviews, Yelp pages and even volunteers with wrong motives offering to help your center. We’ve experienced a few of those things in the past year.

I’m grateful we didn’t back down but instead expressed ourselves through hopeful signs. We even offered water bottles to the protestors because we have compassion for them. The battle is raging and it will continue, but we must not give up. Those of us who work for pregnancy care centers or in the pro-life movement know the work we do is valuable. At the end of the day, our service to women and their families is all that matters.