Pa. continues to fund antiabortion organization in new budget

As it has done for years, Pennsylvania approved funding in the state budget it passed last month to support the antiabortion movement, some of it with money diverted from cash assistance for people in poverty.

The allotments — $6.2 million from the state and $1 million from federal TANF, or welfare funds — go to Real Alternatives, a private nonprofit in Harrisburg that funnels money into so-called crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs).

Such facilities advertise services offering pregnancy and parenting support to low-income women with the aim of dissuading them from getting abortions.

Though legal, abortion-rights advocates say, the centers use deceptive tactics and medical disinformation. People who run the centers say that charge is false and that their work is honest and science-based.

While Pennsylvania’s funding of Real Alternatives was always contentious, in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the subject is kicking up a firestorm among those who support abortion rights, as well as advocates for people in poverty.

“Now that we lost Roe,” said Tara Murtha, director of strategic communications for the Women’s Law Project, “it’s become clear that the quiet diversion of funds to CPCs has been the complementary strategy to the more headline-grabbing efforts to reverse Roe.

“Money is being pilfered into the coffers of antiabortion activists, and that’s outrageous,” Murtha added.

Real Alternatives didn’t respond to a request for comment. A statement released by the organization said its service providers “are motivated by the love of God to serve women in unexpected pregnancies so they do not feel they must abort their pre-born child. ... Real Alternatives facilities meet rigorous ethical standards.”

Sociologist Judith Levine, director of the Public Policy Lab at Temple University, said it’s “very disturbing” that funding for TANF, which supports low-income women and children, is continuing to be siphoned to the antiabortion movement.

Pennsylvania is one of only nine states that route federal cash assistance for mostly women and children in dire poverty — disproportionately Black and people of color — to an antiabortion entity.

“We want a world in which children are supported and cared for,” Levine said. “It’s very hard to see the policy of giving away TANF money while so many children are suffering.”

For decades, the Republican-led legislature has apportioned money for the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services to fund Real Alternatives. Thus far, DHS has allocated more than $113 million in state money and $21 million in federal dollars to Real Alternatives.

State Sen. Pat Browne (R., Lehigh), the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, did not respond to a request for comment.

A statement on the DHS website says the “program promotes childbirth rather than abortion ... and provides ... services regarding ... parenting and chastity.” The website lists Real Alternatives under the heading “Where to Go for Help.”

Real Alternatives is the sole contractor receiving money for running the alternative-to-abortion services program. It’s headquartered in the state capital in a nondescript office plaza, near a thrift shop.

Although organizations that perform abortions such as Planned Parenthood have received state funding for family planning, they aren’t allocated any money for abortions. Their funding comes mostly from donations and patient services, a Planned Parenthood spokesperson said.

A congressional report in 2006 found that 87% of CPCs that investigators contacted “provided false or misleading medical information,” such as saying abortions are unsafe, despite evidence to the contrary.

Pennsylvania’s choice to move money earmarked for its neediest to antiabortion operations underscores a “disconnect” plaguing low-income Americans, many of them Black and women of color, said LaDonna Pavetti, a vice president at the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“This funding is used to convince a woman to have a child,” she said. “But when the child’s born, the state provides few resources. A family of three gets an average of $403 a month in TANF in Pennsylvania, which hasn’t increased since 1990. It’s egregious.”

In Pennsylvania, Real Alternatives says it has served 50,000 women using TANF dollars alone, and 331,000 women in total during 1.7 million service visits since it opened.

Jill Hartman, executive director of A Woman’s Concern, described as a pregnancy support center in Lancaster, said women who “choose life deserve this network of people helping them.” Hartman said her center receives an average of $100,000 annually from Real Alternatives.

“Not only do we provide medical services for pregnant women, but also services to families until the child is a year old,” Hartman said.

If women in this post-Roe climate venture to Pennsylvania looking for help with their pregnancies, Hartman added, “we would provide information on all their options based on objective science.

“All would be treated with respect, dignity, and knowledge,” she said.

State Sen. Amanda Cappelletti (D., Montgomery/Delaware) said CPCs offer “unsafe, false narratives” to women seeking reproductive care.

“It’s absolutely horrific that we’re taking TANF money to pay for alternative-to-abortion propaganda,” she said.