Pro-life leaders strongly criticize Minnesota attorney general’s alert for pregnancy centers

Twin Cities pro-life leaders decried an Aug. 23 consumer alert issued by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison criticizing the state’s crisis pregnancy centers, with one leader calling it “horribly disingenuous and harmful.”

The impact of Ellison’s statement is to besmirch the good work of pregnancy resource centers and put people on notice that he has a target on their back, said Jason Adkins, executive director and general counsel for the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

“Of course PRCs should be truthful about what services they offer and what they do not,” Adkins said. “Not all of them have medical staff, nor do they hold themselves out as having such resources.”

Many focus on connecting women with housing and providing a safe, non-judgmental environment where women can access clothing and other support, Adkins said.?“But this alert is a solution in search of a problem.”

Ellison’s alert states that “many so-called Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) may pose as reproductive healthcare clinics despite not providing comprehensive reproductive healthcare to consumers,” and some don’t provide any health care services at all. The alert can be found at ag.state.mn.us/abortionrights.

“CPCs are private organizations that attempt to prevent or dissuade pregnant people from accessing their constitutionally protected right under the Minnesota Constitution to a safe and legal abortion,” Ellison’s alert states.

Executives at Minnesota pregnancy resource centers — or what Ellison called crisis pregnancy centers — and leaders in the pro-life movement disagree with that premise. Vaunae Hansel, president of the Eagan-based nonprofit?Elevate Life, is one. Hansel, whose organization provides training and resources to a network of 37 pregnancy resource centers in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, said she was deeply saddened because the alert is not factual. She encourages people with questions to visit a local pregnancy resource center and ask about its services.

Of the alleged problems listed in Ellison’s report, Hansel took issue with all eight except for a phrase in one of them — that the number of crisis pregnancy centers may, in fact, outnumber abortion clinics in Minnesota by about 11:1. That may be possible, she said.

Adkins said he thinks Ellison hopes to generate complaints against pregnancy resource centers, impose penalties and provide excuses for lawmakers to try to cut Positive Alternatives Grant funding, a state program that provides funding to some pregnancy resource centers as they “promote healthy pregnancy outcomes, and assist pregnant and parenting women in developing and maintaining family stability and self-sufficiency,” as the state’s Catholic bishops described it in June.

John Stiles, deputy chief of staff and media spokesperson for the Minnesota Office of the Attorney General, said several reasons prompted the attorney general’s alert. Ellison has issued other consumer alerts, including those addressing technology-related scams or warnings to be wary of door-to-door sales, he said. And the office has heard from some consumers who have concerns about “misrepresentations that some of these crisis pregnancy centers make,” Stiles said, such as not necessarily providing the services that they claim to.

Because crisis pregnancy centers are unregulated under Minnesota law, the attorney general wanted to use the power of his office to let people know that they should be careful and ask exactly what services are provided and which are not, Stiles said.

But above all, the timing was prompted by national attention “suddenly focused on the right to abortion by the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision,” Stiles said.

On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that the U.S. Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, striking down its 1973 Roe v. Wade and 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decisions. Abortion remains legal in Minnesota under the state constitution.

On July 28, Ellison said he wouldn’t appeal a separate ruling in Minnesota that struck down most of the state’s restrictions on abortion as unconstitutional, saying the state was not likely to win an appeal and had spent enough time and money on the case.

Brian Gibson, executive director of St. Paul-based Pro-life Action Ministries, said Ellison’s consumer alert was “horribly disingenuous and harmful to these amazing places that help out so many in need.”

“He was supposed to be defending laws that would help protect women who are going for abortions, and he failed miserably in doing his duty there,” Gibson said. “And now he’s attacking the very places that offer real, concrete help, generously helping women all the time, helping families.”

Tens of thousands of people have been helped by crisis pregnancy centers over the years, Gibson said, and tens of thousands of babies’ lives have been saved “and he’s attacking them without knowing what they do. He’s taking the word of pro-abortion activists, of which he is one, with no knowledge of the truth.”

Last year, Elevate Life affiliates offered educational and, in many cases, medical services including ultrasound and pregnancy testing, to more than 7,500 clients, Hansel said. The organization’s values align with the Catholic Church’s, but it is not directly connected with the Church, she said.

Hansel said that among other things, she takes issue with Ellison’s consumer alert claim that CPCs do not counsel or provide accurate information about available abortion services.

“We provide medically accurate information on all of their options, including abortion,” she said. “We encourage all of our centers to use the Minnesota Department of Health’s (printed) piece ‘If You’re Pregnant.’ We don’t refer for or provide abortions, but we do provide medically accurate information from the Minnesota Department of Health on abortion and abortion procedures.”

The consumer alert also states that more than 95% of CPCs do not provide prenatal or wellness care to “pregnant consumers, and a majority do not even provide prenatal referrals.” Hansel said that is not true.

For example, Options for Women East, an Elevate Life affiliate on St. Paul’s East Side, provides full prenatal care at no cost to clients, she said. And Options for Women St. Croix Valley in Oak Park Heights, another affiliate, also offers prenatal care.

“Every one of our centers provide referrals for prenatal care,” Hansel said — and usually three referrals, so women have a choice.

Ellison’s actions on abortion are selective and appear to be ideological, Adkins said, noting that the 2021 Minnesota Department of Health abortion statistics report indicated five babies were born alive during abortion procedures and left to die.?“That is against the law,” Adkins said. The statute can be found at https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/145.423

“Is A.G. Ellison investigating the providers where those deaths took place?” Adkins asked. “Is he ensuring abortion clinics are safe places for women, despite evidence that abortion clinics, among other things, facilitate sex trafficking of minors?”

With Ellison up for reelection this November, he might want to look “really good” to his base, which is “pro-abortion,” Gibson said. “It’s not surprising in that sense that they’re making these statements and … some in their base get charged up to go vote.”

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‘Designed to Deceive’

Attorney General Keith Ellison’s consumer alert referred to “a recent comprehensive study of the CPC industry” with a link to a report published by The Alliance: State Advocates for Women’s Rights and Gender Equality. The report published data for centers in select states, including Minnesota, in a document titled “Designed to Deceive: a Study of the Crisis Pregnancy Center Industry in Nine States.” https://tinyurl.com/23cetxub

The Alliance describes itself as a collaboration of state-based law and policy centers working across the country to advance gender equality at the intersection of reproductive rights, economic justice, LGBTQ+ equality, and gender-based violence.

The focus of its work is to ensure “equitable access to evidence-based reproductive health care and to secure transparency and accountability in government-funded programs for pregnant people.” To that end, the Alliance’s website says, it partners with California Women’s Law Center and researchers across the country “to examine the expanding network of crisis pregnancy centers, which are anti-abortion organizations that undermine the reproductive autonomy of vulnerable pregnant people while purporting to assist them.”