Pregnancy Care Center Director: We’ve Been Forced to Spend Up to $150K Just to Protect Ourselves
(CNSNews.com) – The director of a pregnancy care center in Sacramento, Calif., said Tuesday that her she has had to spend $150,000 in “valuable resources” to protect themselves from violent assaults and vandalism, including someone armed with a machete, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“Over the last five years, American pregnancy care centers have served nearly 2 million women who are faced with pregnancy and wanted an alternative to abortion. Yet, pregnancy care centers from coast to coast are being targeted for violent assaults of vandalism and hateful attacks online and in the media,” Heidi Matzke, executive director of the Alternatives Pregnancy Center, told the Senate Judiciary Committee at hearing titled, “A Post-Roe America: The Legal Consequences of the Dobbs Decision.”
“Just last week, as the exhibit shows, a man approached our care center with an armed machete. We have been forced to hire 24-hour on site security. We’ve had to reinforce doors and bullet-proof our walls. We’ve had to paint our building with anti-graffiti coating. We’ve added cameras, armed our staff with pepper spray and stopped running our mobile clinic, because of threats of violence,” she said.
“We have been forced to expend valuable resources – resources for women of up to $150,000 just to protect ourselves. Why? Because we offer free care to women. What we do though is worth the risk. Every community needs a place for women facing unplanned pregnancies who are seeking dependable, medical resources in a safe, caring environment during one of the most difficult times of their lives,” Matzke said.
“’You are pregnant.’ Three of the most powerful words a woman will hear in her life. For some, the words bring incredible joy, and for others, incredible fear. Both deserve support,” she said.
Matzke explained that her pregnancy center offers “compassionate, holistic care, ministering in whatever gentle ways we can” to the “physical, emotional, and even spiritual needs” of pregnant women.
She said that there has been “a great deal of misinformation” about pregnancy centers since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which effectively overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion.
So it grieves me that since the Supreme Court announced its Dobbs decision, a great deal of misinformation has been spread about who we are and what we do, so let me share with you some of the facts. Our clinic is one of nearly 3,000 pregnancy care centers serving women across America. Each year, hundreds of thousands come to our clinics looking for free medical care, emotional support and practical resources, that will enable them to carry their pregnancies to term.
Our clinic alone in Sacramento provides over $1 million of free medical services each year to women who come to us. We charge them nothing. That means we never financially benefit from any choice a woman makes. We make no profit of any kind off the women who turn to us for help. We offer pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, pre-natal visits up to 24 weeks, well-woman visits.
We test for sexually transmitted diseases. We offer abortion pill reversal services, abortion recovery counseling, and parenting classes, and if finances are a problem, we have diapers, wipes, baby formula, baby food, baby clothing, baby supplies, and if a woman needs a hotel room, we provide that as well. We pay for all of that.
It doesn’t matter who she is, where she comes from, or what her past is. At our center, all medical services are provided by a staff of licensed medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, and medical assistants.
They are deeply compassionate people, because most of them have experienced abortion for themselves. Our OB/GYN doctor was an abortionist. When a woman comes in so afraid of what an unplanned pregnancy might mean for her life, her ambitions, her relationships, we do not urge her to make any decision.
We listen. We try to hear her heart. We offer professional services and emotional support. Whether she chooses parenting, adoption, or abortion, we continue to be there for her for years if necessary. Many women choose abortion, because they lack the resources and support they need to confidently choose to parent.
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