Just as the surge of vandalism against pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) and churches appeared to be slowing down in recent weeks, two more churches were targeted in Lawrence, Kan. over the weekend.
With this ongoing violence and with the rhetoric surrounding PRCs continuing to heat up on Capitol Hill, pregnancy center staff are increasingly finding themselves having to divert valuable resources away from helping vulnerable women in need in order to bolster security measures for their buildings.
“It’s in the tens of thousands of dollars,” said Becky Sheetz, CEO of Life First (which operates two PRCs in Virginia), when asked how much her organization is spending on security. Shortly after a draft of the Dobbs Supreme Court decision was leaked on May 2 that would eventually overturn Roe v. Wade, the outer walls and doors of Sheetz’s First Care Women’s Health Center in Manassas were defaced with pro-abortion slogans.
“We had a security firm in place as soon as the Roe v. Wade decision came down,” Sheetz told media. “That was a significant spend for us to have 24/7 coverage in both locations. Now we have alarm systems, enhanced door access controls … reinforcements to doors … shatter-proofing film on all our windows and our glass doors.” In addition, she noted that they installed extra security cameras to cover vulnerable spots behind their buildings.
CompassCare suffered even more extensive damage on June 7 when their office in Buffalo, N.Y. was firebombed, as windows were smashed and an incendiary device was thrown into the building, causing widespread fire damage. A CompassCare spokesman told media that the organization has since spent at least $150,000 on securing their building, and will need to spend an additional $60,000 annually in order to maintain security measures.
Janet Durig, executive director of Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center in Washington, D.C. informed media that their center has spent $51,000 so far on enhanced security measures, with the likelihood of spending much more going forward. In June, the center was smothered in red paint and pro-abortion slogans by abortion extremists.
These expenditures are in addition to the funds that have been spent on repairing the damage done by pro-choice vandals, who have racked up more than 100 violent attacks against PRCs, pro-life organizations and politicians, and churches in the weeks since the Dobbs Supreme Court leak.
Up to 90 percent of the funds that keep pregnancy centers running are from donors in local communities. The Charlotte Lozier Institute has found that PRCs provide an estimated $161 million in savings every year to the communities they serve by providing free ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, diapers and baby clothes, and other services to mothers in need.
Meanwhile, pro-choice Democrats in the U.S. Senate have introduced a bill that would fine PRCs $100,000 or up to half of a parent organization’s revenue for what progressives define as spreading “misinformation.” The proposed measure stands in stark contrast to bills introduced by Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and the companion House bill introduced by Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) that would strengthen criminal penalties for those who attack PRCs.
Still, Becky Sheetz was encouraged by the local response after her center was attacked in May. She described a silver lining amongst the turmoil surrounding PRCs, noting that her organization has had “a lot of support” from security vendors and the local community. “We got a reduced rate [from vendors],” she said. “We told them what we did, and we talked to our community and we said, ‘Who should we use?’ We found people who were kind. Even though we did spend tens of thousands of dollars, we didn’t spend as much as we would have had to [spend] if we hadn’t had kind people in our community to help support us.”
This article originally appeared at The Washington Stand and has been reprinted with permission.
Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.
Your tax-deductible gift helps our journalists report the truth and hold Christian leaders and organizations accountable. Give a gift of $30 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you will receive a copy of “Baptistland: A Memoir of Abuse, Betrayal, and Transformation” by Christa Brown. To donate, click here.
English 
Spanish 
8 Responses
God bless them. I’ve worked in many crisis pregnancy centers, and even years ago safety was a concern. I pray that the perpetrators are caught and brought to justice. God hates the shedding of innocent blood.
What an unfortunate situation, having to spend donations on needed security. It’s too bad, as this money could be spent on PR to explain truthfully all the good these pregnancy resource centers do. Perhaps the problem lies both in many pro-choicers’ reluctance to offer any real choices in crisis other than abortion and in the pro-life’s faulty image as only caring for pre-born lives.
Actually, the PRC’S and pro life groups do care for the mother and the baby. PRC’S provide a range of services free of charge to the mother including ultra sounds, testing, as well as a baby boutique, counseling, and gently offer alternatives to abortion. Pro Life groups like Students for Life, have been canceled, and attacked on college campuses and elsewhere when protesting or giving the truth about abortion and unborn children. Pray for us and if the Lord leads, stand with us and speak the truth in love.
Carol Marriott, Thanks for your comments. Yes, I know PRCs do all these things. My point is that they’re often misrepresented by pro-choicers, which is unfortunate. Same with pro-life groups, as you point out. It’s cheering to know there is a robust pro-life movement among young adults and students.
Whoever did this should be hunted down & prosecuted. Thank God no one was hurt.
I have a question, though, could a greedy lawyer or an ambitious DA subpoena Pro-Life Centers for information about women so that they could be sued or prosecuted? The Centers do not have to comply with HIPPA. (The principal Pro-Life group in Kansas supported a Kansas Bill that would criminalize abortion from “conception”.)
This is a serious moral issue, but support for restricting abortion goes down as you get closer to “conception”.
The people who are responsible are cowardly and hopefully they will be brought to justice. If Liberal Extremists do not get their way they cry and riot or destroy property.
Vance, please stop acting as if this is only one way. I just watched liberal Salman Rushdie get attacked and stabbed on stage while being introduced as part of a summer speaker series.
I used to live near a clinic that faced multiple attacks, vandalism, and bomb threats by pro life extremists – to the point that all staff wore bulletproof vests and visitors had to have police escorts from their cars to the front door.
We are watching the legal outcomes of several people who stormed the Capitol on January 6th – causing harm to police and threatening our democracy – play out.
This is a problem on both sides – extremists taking harmful action because they don’t get their way.
Marin Heiskell,
Nobody denies that there are vicious extremists on both sides. Most people, at least used to, see a problem when the major organs of federal law enforcement (DoJ, FBI, etc.) are 100% focused on only one side’s radicals.
The FBI has, for instance, been doggedly hunting down all those who have attacked or threatened abortion clinics since the infamous Dobbs leak in May. How many vandals/firebombers of pregnancy care clinics/pro-life activist offices have been investigated? The federal government even refuses to list Jane’s Revenge as a terrorist group, for instance.