Government rules for pregnancy centres are ‘a shot across the bow’

Crisis pregnancy centres in the Lower Mainland are reacting with dismay to the Trudeau government’s plan to legislate them to publicly disclose their stance on abortion.

For one thing, they already make it clear to women what services they do and don’t provide, said Jared White, executive director of Advokate in Abbotsford. 

“This recent attack perpetuated false stereotypes of what pregnancy centres do,” said White, whose organization offers educational pregnancy services and operates pregnancy centres in B.C., including Abbotsford.

The post follows the official announcement, published on the Government of Canada website on Oct. 29, titled ‘Protecting reproductive freedom by preventing abuse of charitable status,’ stating that to maintain their charitable status, crisis pregnancy centres will need to disclose in their public reports, communications, and tax filings whether they provide abortions.

“Some crisis pregnancy centres are dishonest,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted to numerous social media accounts, including Facebook, Instagram, and X. “They don’t provide abortions — and they purposely don’t tell you that.”

White told The B.C. Catholic, “It’s sad to see that they are buying into that messaging fed by the radical pro-abortion side of things. It seems like they have the government’s ear.”

In fact, said White, “Pregnancy care centres are the only places that offer real options for women in crisis or unplanned pregnancies.”

The women who come to the centres “are often coming from a place of trauma, and pregnancy care centres are there to answer their questions, including questions about abortion,” he said.

“What I would like people to know is that most women who are googling for an abortion don’t necessarily want an abortion but are in a hard situation from which abortion seems like the only way out,” said White. “They don’t feel that they have another choice.”

Kimberly Bromley, executive director of Coquitlam pregnancy support organization Pregnancy Concerns, said she was surprised that concerns about crisis pregnancy centres were raised at all, since the agency is forthright about what it does and does not do.

“We aren’t doctors, we aren’t nurses – we aren’t a medical facility,” she told The B.C. Catholic. “When people call, we let them know we are not a medical facility.”

Bromley doesn’t know of any pregnancy centres that meets the Prime Minister’s description of deception and said the government is “creating a problem that isn’t really there – we are very open about what we do.”

Pregnancy Concerns supports women and families experiencing unexpected pregnancies, specifically those unaware of all their options, abortion or otherwise, she said. “We don’t interfere with whatever options they choose,” she said. 

If a woman chooses to keep her baby, the centre will supply diapers, formula, and other essentials. If she chooses adoption, the centre helps with planning and paperwork.

And if a woman chooses abortion, the centre will be there with post-abortive counselling, a service not mentioned in the Finance Department’s announcement of necessary disclosures for crisis pregnancy centres.

Rather than focus on whether crisis pregnancy centres advertise the services they provide, the planned amendments to the Income Tax Act and Canadian Income Tax Regulations will instead require centres to state the services they don’t provide.

Neither director thinks the legislation will change the day-to-day operations of their centres, but White is concerned the move is setting in motion political forces that will eventually damage crisis pregnancy centres’ ability to help women honestly.

“I find it offensive, but practically speaking, it won’t affect what we do,” said White. Like Pregnancy Concerns, Advokate “already has information on our websites about what we do.”

What concerns him is that the government is sending “a shot across the bow” with the legislation. “They are basically singling out one section of the charitable world.”

He’s also concerned about what will follow. “If you give in to this, it will only embolden the government to force centres to provide these services,” he said. “If we let it go, we are conceding to the whole narrative around pregnancy care centres.”

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