Republicans launch bill to protect pro-life pregnancy centers from discrimination

Pro-life pregnancy care centers have been targeted in pro-abortion states and in the previous Biden-Harris administration, but a new bill unveiled by Republican members of Congress aims to bar federal, state, and local governments from discriminating against these centers simply because they affirm life from the moment of conception.

According to the text of the legislation, the Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act of 2025 (H.R. 2226) would “amend the Public Health Service Act to prohibit discrimination against entities that do not participate in abortion and to strengthen implementation and enforcement of Federal conscience laws.”

“There are more than 2,700 pregnancy care centers throughout the United States—each and every one of them an oasis of love, compassion, empathy, respect, and quality care for both mothers and their precious children,” said co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey during a press conference Monday. “Yet state governments like my state of New Jersey and some lawmakers seek to discriminate against pregnancy care centers by violating fundamental conscience rights to compel complicity in abortion.”

Smith described a dinner he attended at one New Jersey pregnancy resource center.

“Two women expressed through tears of joy their deep and abiding gratitude for the incredible love, respect, and care that persuaded them to reverse their decision to abort their babies,” he said. “They spoke of the pressure they had felt to abort. They spoke of how desperate—even hopeless—they felt. Until they met the director of the pregnancy resource center who reached out to both of them in a gentle and nonjudgmental way.”

“They chose life—and thanked God, the director, and the pregnancy resource center for helping them avert the loss of their baby’s lives,” the congressman shared.

As CatholicVote has reported, as of January of this year, at least 96 pregnancy care centers and pro-life groups have been attacked and vandalized since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

In addition to violent attacks, however, these community-based pro-life centers – nonprofits that provide emotional support and material resources to women, girls, and families during pregnancies – also suffer at the hands of pro-abortion lawmakers in blue states who have often had their political campaigns boosted through funding by Planned Parenthood and other giants in the abortion industry. 

Once elected, these lawmakers repay abortion vendors with legislation that increases their funding and expands access to abortions. Other measures target pro-life pregnancy centers by censoring and smearing them as “fake clinics.”  

As Smith’s office noted, according to a Knights of Columbus-sponsored January 2025 poll, 83% of Americans support pregnancy care centers, including 80% of those who identify as “pro-choice.”

In addition to physical, psychological, and spiritual support, services at pregnancy care centers also include pregnancy and other medical tests, ultrasounds, prenatal and parenting education programs, breastfeeding support, post-abortion support, and adoption referrals.

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