Prayers and lobbying aim

to halt 'attack' on

pregnancy care centers

By JOHN FORTMEYER
CNNW publisher
    SALEM — With abortion rights advocates controlling both houses of the Oregon Legislature as well as the governor’s office, the only obstacle to a bill targeting pregnancy care center ministries statewide was the power of prayer and of people willing to act, according to concerned Christian groups.

   By March 22, that combination seemed, at least in the short term, to have worked, according to the head of the state’s largest prayer center network.
   “We won!!” wrote Larry Gadbaugh, executive director of Pregnancy Resource Centers of Greater Portland. “Thanks to your dedication in writing and calling your senators about SB 776, the attack on (pregnancy centers), your voice has been heard and the bill is dead.”
    However, Beth Chase of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates the next day pointed out that the bill could be resurrected by the Senate Rules Committee anytime before the legislative session ends.
    In early March, at the urging of Planned Parenthood Advocates for Oregon and NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon, legislators introduced Senate Bill 776. Opponents said the bill could ultimately have shut down the centers.
    The bill called for the state Department of Human Services (DHS) to collect and study data on all aspects of the state’s pregnancy care centers. It would have established a phone line and online form for the agency to track and investigate complaints against the centers.
    Language used in the bill openly presumed that the centers used deceitful tactics to mislead and manipulate women into choosing life over abortion.    Some pregnancy care centers are health clinics that offer counseling and ultrasound imaging. DHS would also have examined the centers’ religious affiliations and counseling methods. The bill was quickly opposed by Christian pro-life groups; even those groups that don’t usually agree on other pro-life strategies were united against SB 776.
    Mary Starrett, former broadcaster and gubernatorial candidate who leads the activist group Oregonians for Life, had termed the bill “unnecessary and vindictive.”
   “Not content with the thousands of abortions that occur each year in Oregon, now the pro-abortion forces want to make sure there’s no ‘competition’ for business,” Starrett wrote in an e-mail.
    In an e-mail to members, Oregon Right to Life noted centers “follow nationally recognized standards of care” but that the Senate bill was a “one-sided investigation with a built-in bias ... The bill begins with a series of statements slandering (the centers) with no evidence to support them. It also requires no investigation of organizations that do provide abortions or referrals for abortions.”
    Other groups that opposed the bill were Eagle Forum of Oregon, Life Support and New Christian Coalition.
    Gadbaugh told Christian News Northwest that a hurriedly organized lobbying effort saw about 100 representatives of centers statewide hit the Capitol on March 21 to talk to the senators or their staffs, explain the centers’ goals and practices, and invite them to visit the facilities.
    The daylong lobbying effort begin at 8 a.m. with prayer, which “obviously was the foundation of all of it,” he said. Also present that day were representatives of the CareNet national network of pregnancy care centers, and the National Institute for Life Advocates.
    Letting the legislators meet the caring people of the centers made a big difference because they stood in sharp contrast to the bill’s harsh description, said Gadbaugh.
    “It was almost like the bill was considered ‘over the top,’ even for the legislators,” he said. “We even heard from some legislators who said they support Planned Parenthood’s mission, but that this bill went too far.”
Gadbaugh said the bill attracted national attention. He noted that Tom Glessner, president of the institute, said SB776 was “the most dangerous state bill attacking pregnancy centers” he had seen introduced anywhere.
    “The supporters of SB 776 are not known for giving up, and while this particular bill may be dead in the water, there are other means by which Planned Parenthood and NARAL can ask their supporters in the Legislature and the (Gov. Ted) Kulongoski administration to attempt to harass pregnancy support ministries,” Gadbaugh warned.