 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(June 2021) |
Care Net is an evangelical Christian network of crisis pregnancy centers operating primarily in the United States. As an anti-abortion organization, its centers seek to persuade women not to have abortions. [1] Headquartered in Northern Virginia, it is one of the nation's two largest networks of crisis pregnancy centers (along with Heartbeat International).
According to its literature, Care Net was influenced by the leadership of former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop and Christian apologist Dr. Francis Schaeffer. The organization was founded in 1975 as the Christian Action Council by Dr. Harold O. J. Brown, with its primary focus to engage evangelicals in responding to the "abortion crisis". It opened its first crisis pregnancy center in 1983. [2]
In the 1990s, the organization’s mission shifted toward supporting anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers; in 1999, the organization changed its name to Care Net. Care Net reports having 1,100 affiliated pregnancy centers across North America. [3] [4] In 2012, Roland C. Warren, former president of the National Fatherhood Initiative, joined Care Net as president and CEO. [5]
In addition to counseling clients against abortion, Care Net affiliated centers may provide mothers with services such as temporary shelter, help with jobs, debt and welfare applications, Bible study, and baby supplies such as used clothing, diapers and formula. [6] [7] Care Net, like other CPC networks, touts medically disputed or discredited information about the supposed health risks of abortion; [8] [9] [10] it sometimes locates its centers near Planned Parenthood clinics and uses signs that read "Pregnant? Considering abortion? Free services," or otherwise advertises them as though they were medical clinics. [11] [6] Some Care Net affiliated clinics offer ultrasounds. [6] Care Net pregnancy centers have been honored by at least fifteen state legislatures, according to advocacy organization Americans United for Life. [12] [ better source needed ]
The United States abortion-rights movement is a sociopolitical movement in the United States supporting the view that a woman should have the legal right to an elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy, and is part of a broader global abortion-rights movement. The movement consists of a variety of organizations, with no single centralized decision-making body.
Heartbeat International is an international anti-abortion association that supports the largest network of crisis pregnancy centers (CPC) in the world, with over 2,000 affiliates in 50 countries. It does not offer, recommend, or refer for abortions. Heartbeat International describes itself as an "Interdenominational Christian association". Heartbeat International teaches its affiliated members to make their advertising look as though they are full-service reproductive health clinics that provide referrals for birth control or abortion. Staff are also trained on how to discourage pregnant women from accessing abortion, and how to discourage young women from using emergency contraception, birth control pills, or IUDs. Heartbeat staff are also encouraged to create two websites, one that has an explicitly Christian message, and one that looks like Planned Parenthood. Many pregnancy centers have the ultimate goal of converting women through a born-again experience to "save the mother, save the baby".
A crisis pregnancy center (CPC), sometimes called a pregnancy resource center (PRC) or a pro-life pregnancy center, is a type of nonprofit organization established by anti-abortion groups primarily to persuade pregnant women not to have an abortion. In the United States, CPCs that qualify as medical clinics may also provide pregnancy testing, sonograms, and other services, while many others operate without medical licensing under varying degrees of regulation.
The United Statesanti-abortion movement is a movement in the United States that opposes induced abortion and advocates for the protection of fetal life. Advocates support legal prohibition or restriction on both moral and religious grounds, arguing that human life begins at conception and that the human zygote, embryo or fetus is a person and therefore has a right to life. The anti-abortion movement includes a variety of organizations, with no single centralized decision-making body. There are diverse arguments and rationales for the anti-abortion stance. Some allow for some permissible abortions, including therapeutic abortions, in exceptional circumstances such as incest, rape, severe fetal defects, or when the woman's health is at risk.
George Richard Tiller was an American physician and abortion provider from Wichita, Kansas. He gained national attention as the medical director of Women's Health Care Services, which, at the time, was one of only three abortion clinics nationwide that provided late-term abortions.
Abortion is illegal in El Salvador. The law formerly permitted an abortion to be performed under some limited circumstances, but in 1998 all exceptions were removed when a new abortion law went into effect.
Efrat is the largest non-profit organization in Israel dedicated to preventing abortions by Jewish women. Efrat provides emotional, financial, and vocational assistance to pregnant Jewish women who feel pressured to terminate their pregnancy. Efrat supports abortions to save the pregnant woman's life or in cases of severe fetal disability. Until 2021, it was led by Dr. Eli J. Schussheim.
40 Days for Life is an international organization that campaigns against abortion in more than 60 nations worldwide. It was originally started in 2004 by members of the Brazos Valley Coalition for Life in Texas. The name refers to a repeated pattern of events lasting for 40 days in the Bible, such as Noah’s Ark, Moses’s 40 days on Mount Sinai, and Jesus’s 40 days in the desert.
Birthright International is an international anti-abortion organization of crisis pregnancy centers. It offers a range of services, to an estimated 10 million women, designed to "help support a woman's desire not to have an abortion," including referrals to legal, medical and psychological services, as well as a range of community support assistance such as financial aid.
The National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) is an American 501(c)(3) charitable organization that is a member of the National Pro-Life Religious Council. Founded in 1993, it is based in Fredericksburg, Virginia and has the aim of "developing a network of life-affirming ministries in every community across the nation in order to achieve an abortion-free America." The organization provides legal advice to over 1,350 crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) within its membership network, and the bulk of CPCs in the US are affiliated with NIFLA, Care Net and Heartbeat International. The organization's 2009 IRS Form 990 stated that the group spent $759,259 in annual advocacy expenses.
Abortion in Costa Rica is severely restricted by criminal law. Currently, abortions are allowed in Costa Rica only in order to preserve the life or physical health of the woman. Abortions are illegal in almost all cases, including when the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest and when the foetus suffers from medical problems or birth defects. Both social and economic factors have led to this legal status. It remains unclear whether abortions are legal to preserve the mental health of the woman, though the 2013 United Nations abortion report says Costa Rica does allow abortions concerning the mental health of a woman.
CareConfidential is a charity which provides information and counselling independent of the NHS on pregnancy choices, and post-abortion support. They do this through their website, helpline and online chat. Information on their website and leaflets has been certified by the information Standard. They formerly supported a network of crisis pregnancy centers, but as of 2014, no longer do so. CareConfidential was founded as a programme of the anti-abortion organisation Christian Action Research and Education (CARE), and became an independent charity in 2011. Since becoming independent CareConfidential do not explicitly state whether they are support or oppose abortion rights but seek to acknowledge the freedom of choice, respecting all clients' decisions.
Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in response to the legalization of elective abortions.
National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra, 585 U.S. 755 (2018), was a case before the Supreme Court of the United States addressing the constitutionality of California's FACT Act, which mandated that crisis pregnancy centers provide certain disclosures about state services. The law required that licensed centers post visible notices that other options for pregnancy, including abortion, are available from state-sponsored clinics. It also mandated that unlicensed centers post notice of their unlicensed status. The centers, typically run by Christian non-profit groups, challenged the act on the basis that it violated their free speech. After prior reviews in lower courts, the case was brought to the Supreme Court, asking "Whether the disclosures required by the California Reproductive FACT Act violate the protections set forth in the free speech clause of the First Amendment, applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment."
Abortion in Michigan is legal at all stages of pregnancy. A state constitutional amendment to explicitly guarantee abortion rights was placed on the ballot in 2022 as Michigan Proposal 22–3; it passed with 57 percent of the vote, adding the right to abortion and contraceptive use to the Michigan Constitution. The amendment largely prevents the regulation of abortion before fetal viability, unless said regulations are to protect the individual seeking an abortion, and it also makes it unconstitutional to make laws restricting abortions which would protect the life and health, physical and/or mental, of the pregnant individual seeking abortion.
Abortion in Maryland is legal at all stages of pregnancy. The first laws regulating abortion in the state were passed in 1867 and 1868, banning abortion except by a physician to "secure the safety of the mother." Abortion providers continued to operate both within and outside of the law. Legal enforcement became more strict from the 1940s through 60s, with numerous police raids on abortion providers. In 1968, Maryland passed a liberalized abortion law that clarified the wording of the previous law, allowing abortion in hospital settings in cases of rape, severe fetal deformity, or when life and health were endangered.
Abortion in Florida is currently legal up until a gestational age of 15 weeks, whilst an embryonic heartbeat ban set to take effect on May 1, 2024 restricts abortion after a gestational age of 6 weeks after the woman's last menstrual period. Both pieces of legislation were passed by the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate, then signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis.
Abortion in Puerto Rico is legal throughout pregnancy. On June 22, 2022, the Senate passed a bill limiting abortion to 22 weeks, with exceptions for danger to the mother's life, fetal defects, and if the fetus would not be viable. The bill will need to be considered by the House.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-abortion government officials in several American states enacted or attempted to enact restrictions on abortion, characterizing it as a non-essential procedure that can be suspended during the medical emergency. The orders have led to several legal challenges and criticism by abortion-rights groups and several national medical organizations, including the American Medical Association. Legal challenges on behalf of abortion providers, many of which are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood, have successfully stopped some of the orders on a temporary basis, though bans in several states have not been challenged.
Jane's Revenge is a militant, extremist abortion rights group that encourages and claims responsibility for acts of firebombing, vandalism, and arson in the United States. The group's actions have targeted crisis pregnancy centers, a church, and a congressional office. The claimed attacks began in May 2022 following the leak of a draft of the Supreme Court's anticipated decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization; the draft indicated that the Court would soon overturn its 1973 abortion rights decision in Roe v. Wade, and the Court, in fact, did reverse Roe the following month when its final decision in Dobbs was released.