By George Wilson | Georgia has 70 crisis pregnancy centers operated by religious organizations and others who oppose abortion and birth control. They lure women in without revealing their bias, then providing false accounts of medical and emotional risks of abortion. They slant information given out to their patients, such as on birth control methods. Senate Bill 308 recently passed by the Georgia Senate would allow a form of state funding for these centers. They try to get around the separation of church and issue by creating them as non -profits to receive grants from the state.
This legislation was fostered by Gwinnett Senator Renee Unterman (R-Buford). It’s bad for the women of Georgia that she is also the chairwoman of the Senate committee on Health and Human Services. In her 17 years she has actively pushed bills that curtail the freedom of women.
If this law is approved, these centers should be required to post a prominent notice that free or low-cost abortion, contraception and prenatal care are available to low-income women through public programs, and to provide the phone numbers to call. Hopefully, an amendment to this effect will remedy the harmfulness of this bill to women.
Moreover, the deception that goes on in these centers is in my view harmful to women who want objective options to their pregnancy. Here are some comments by other women senators that opposed this law. State Senator Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, says she worries that the centers may provide “false or misleading information.” Senator Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, calls “those biased organizations” and that they may not employ doctors or anyone with medical experience. Women would be better served by seeking out Planned Parenthood locations.
Finally, if Senator Unterman wants to aid Georgians, she should seek to have Georgia expand Medicaid. The lack of health care expansion is causing death among our citizens and the closing of rural hospitals.
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