Power

Michigan Senate Approves Bill to Fund Crisis Pregnancy Centers

SB 84 would create a state-run program in which the money raised from the sale of license plates reading “Choose Life” would be allocated to nonprofit organizations that promote alternatives to abortion.

SB 84 would create a state-run program in which the money raised from the sale of license plates reading “Choose Life” would be allocated to nonprofit organizations that promote alternatives to abortion. Shutterstock

Michigan state senators on Wednesday approved a bill to increase state support for so-called crisis pregnancy centers, anti-choice organizations that seek to deter pregnant people from going through with abortions.

SB 84, introduced earlier this month by state Sen. Patrick Colbeck (R-Canton), would create a state-run program in which the money raised from the sale of license plates reading “Choose Life” would be allocated to nonprofit organizations that promote alternatives to abortion.

Those organizations include crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), homes for pregnant women, and other “life-saving programs and projects as alternatives to abortion.”

Colbeck said in a statement that the bill is meant “to support the most vulnerable in our society—pregnant mothers and the child within their womb.”

“The Choose Life message is a simple message. It is a message of love. It’s love for baby in the womb, love for the mother facing an unplanned pregnancy and love for a nation founded on the principle that governments are instituted to secure our unalienable right to life,” he said.

Despite Colbeck’s claim that organizations like CPCs support women, abortion access advocates have noted that the centers, which often intentionally disguise themselves as abortion clinics, do anything but.

“Once she’s inside the doors of a CPC, the unsuspecting woman has an experience that’s a far cry from what’s promised in the misleading ad campaigns or over the phone,” NARAL Pro-Choice America wrote in a recent national report on crisis pregnancy centers. “CPC representatives unleash a documented pattern of deception, coercion, and misinformation to discourage her from abortion, contraception, and comprehensive, medically accurate counseling.”

An undercover investigation by NARAL California came to similar conclusions, writing that “these centers fraudulently present themselves as medical offices while their true intent is to lie to and shame women about their reproductive health options. CPCs use a wide array of deceptive tactics to push women to continue their pregnancies no matter what.”

Legislators continue to support CPCs and other organizations like them, including through state-sponsored “Choose Life” license plate fundraisers. Twenty-eight states allow production of “Choose Life” plates, 15 of which donate the proceeds to anti-choice organizations like CPCs, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Republican state senators shot down amendments to SB 84 that would have mitigated the proposal’s effects, including one to create a “Women’s Health” license plate, and another to use the proceeds from the “Choose Life” plates to fund infant mortality reduction efforts in the state.

A similar bill was introduced in the Michigan house earlier this month, but has not yet made it out of committee. The state legislature is considering several other anti-choice bills, including one to restrict later abortions, and another to restrict the use of state funds for abortions.

This legislation is about unleashing generosity,” Michigan Right to Life Legislative Director Ed Rivet said in a statement for the bill. “The pro-life movement is already well practiced in that regard.”