A NJ AG ‘consumer alert’ attacking crisis pregnancy centers was in part written and edited by Planned Parenthood Action Fund employees.
Planned Parenthood’s New Jersey affiliate is targeting crisis pregnancy centers across the state by disseminating misleading information and coordinating with state attorney general Matthew Platkin’s (D) office to give credibility to those claims.
Last year, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey (PPAFNJ) crafted a report attempting to discredit the state’s pregnancy centers. Broadly speaking, the Planned Parenthood report is “riddled with speculative claims, unfounded assertions, incomplete research, and flawed reasoning,” the pro-life Lozier Institute said in its report, which National Review obtained.
“Rather than a credible analysis, it is instead a thinly veiled attempt to discredit pregnancy centers, which are vital institutions that provide valuable support to individuals facing unintended pregnancies,” the report adds.
Planned Parenthood’s report appears to contain factual errors about the number of pregnancy centers in New Jersey and the services they provide. Planned Parenthood lumps every pro-life charity together in tallying the total number of pregnancy centers at 59, and lists locations that are no longer open.
Of the organizations listed, 47 of them conduct pregnancy care, and 83 percent of those organizations are affiliated with credible national networks committed to high standards of care and competence. Those guidelines require centers to give patients accurate information about pregnancy and disseminate truthful advertisements. The medical guidelines also mandate that the centers deliver medical care supervised by a licensed physician in accordance with legal and medical standards.
However, Planned Parenthood suggests that the pregnancy centers provide patients with faulty ultrasound data, with its only citation being a New York Times article about a Texas pregnancy center organization that does not operate in New Jersey.
Planned Parenthood also fails to cite any federal laws the New Jersey pregnancy centers may be violating and falsely likens them to clinical laboratories, even though the pregnancy centers have obtained waivers explicitly suggesting otherwise.
“We cross paths with women who have very different stories; some come to us as victims of sex trafficking or domestic violence seeking rescue and safety, some are battling addiction and seeking freedom,” said Debbie Binskey, CEO of Options for Her, a pregnancy resource center in New Jersey.
“But ALL have one thing in common- they are seeking HOPE for the future, and we get to be that hope. Not only do we get to support and walk alongside these women during their pregnancies, we get to continue developing lifelong relationships that last for life! That is the beauty behind our mission- to see women empowered and to see lives saved and transformed forever.”
The Planned Parenthood report makes sweeping claims based on very little medical research, and no studies on New Jersey pregnancy centers specifically, the Lozier Institute found. It references one out of state study to claim New Jersey pregnancy centers are providing false information about abortion to patients, even though that study has flawed methodology. The report also ignores the significant body of evidence showing negative emotional consequences of abortion. National Review has reached out to Planned Parenthood for comment.
Planned Parenthood’s study offers no data on the health care services provided by the pregnancy centers, which the Lozier Institute tabulated instead. Services at 34 New Jersey pregnancy centers included over 8,000 free pregnancy tests, nearly 7,000 free ultrasounds by licensed professionals, and 2,210 STD/STI tests.
Additionally, the centers gave 10,387 free consultations, parental education for almost 2,000 moms and dads, 9,025 packs of diapers, 7,884 packs of baby wipes, 75,472 free new and used baby outfits, 172 used strollers, and other items to help parents.
While Planned Parenthood claimed the report was generated independently, it makes reference to a “consumer alert” generated in coordination with the abortion provider and the New Jersey attorney general’s office, according to documents cited in the Lozier Institute report.
The misleading Planned Parenthood report makes note of a “consumer alert” issued by Platkin’s office in 2022 accusing crisis pregnancy centers of misleading patients about abortion and contraception. Emails obtained through a public records request reveal that Platkin’s alert, which lacks citations to back up its claims and does not contain specific incidents of deception by pregnancy centers in the state, was drafted, edited, and reviewed before publication by PPAFNJ employees.
After being ordered by the court to release the emails, “the state revealed that PPAFNJ was directly involved in writing the consumer alert, reviewing it in advance of publication and making edits and changes to its language. PPAFNJ thus knowingly cited the very consumer alert it helped to develop in support of its own purportedly ‘independent” report,'” the Lozier Institute report indicates.
Platkin is now targeting a Christian, pro-life charity that provides pregnancy care in New Jersey. His office issued an expansive, sweeping subpoena to First Choice Women’s Resource Centers to turn over documents and information about its donors or face judicial sanctions. The organization, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, is accusing Platkin of selective harassment based on its religious viewpoints.
In court papers, Platkin’s office has defended its investigation into First Choice by suggesting it may be violating laws related to charitable organizations and professional occupations. Platkin’s office asserts that there are “widespread concerns” about pregnancy centers deceiving patients and details the leads his office appears to be looking into. The court filings argue that First Choice is attempting to evade the subpoena and notes multiple courts have sided against First Choice’s attempt to have the investigation shut down.
The New Jersey attorney general’s investigation concerns matters such as First Choice’s pitch to donors, privacy practices, and the qualifications of individuals performing sonograms. The court filings argue that First Choice is attempting to evade the subpoena and notes multiple courts have sided against First Choice’s attempt to have the investigation shut down.
Platkin’s office declined to comment because the litigation is pending and referred National Review to the court documents. First Choice is asking an appellate court to halt Platkin’s case, and oral arguments in that litigation took place Tuesday.
“Attorney General Matt Platkin’s assault on babies in the womb and women’s choice cannot stand. After the Dobbs decision, Platkin worked with Planned Parenthood to draft a consumer alert attacking pregnancy centers. Now he’s using state resources to force First Choice to hand over private information on volunteers and donors,” said Kelsey Pritchard, director of state affairs at Susan B. Anthony pro-life America.
“The Democrats are no longer pro-choice. They are openly pro-abortion. They seek to shut down pregnancy centers that embolden women to have the ability to make a real choice. They will use any means possible to stop organizations that stand in the way of the Democrat agenda for more abortions.”
New Jersey is one of several Democratic states to publicly go after pregnancy centers despite the health care they supply to pregnant mothers and the mothers and fathers of newborns. Democratic efforts to attack and shut down the centers have escalated following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, sending abortion legalization back to the states and prompting abortion restrictions in many red states.