Crisis Pregnancy Centers Helped Save 800,000 Unborn Lives in 5-Year Span: Study

Crisis pregnancy centers saved 800,000 unborn lives during a five-year span from 2016-2020 and provided hundreds of millions of dollars in free services to pregnant women, according to a new study that is being widely cited by pro-lifers in light of attacks on the centers by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren.

The study by the Charlotte Lozier Institute found that crisis pregnancy centers – sometimes called pregnancy resource centers or pregnancy help centers – saved an estimated 828,131 unborn lives between 2016 and 2020 and have saved “millions of lives” since the first centers were launched more than 50 years ago.

The 828,131 figure “reflects the tremendous and awe-inspiring collective work of life-affirming pregnancy help centers, both medical and non-medical, to empower women and couples to choose life for their children,” the study said.

Further, the centers assisted roughly 2 million men, women and youth in 2019 with “services estimated at a value of over $266 million,” the study said, citing previous data.

According to the study, there are more than 2,700 crisis pregnancy centers in the U.S. filled by 15,000 staff and nearly 54,000 volunteers.

Crisis pregnancy centers provide education, classes, medical care and resources such as diapers, clothes, car seats and strollers to pregnant women. The study used the term “pregnancy help centers” (PHCs).

“Pregnancy help centers are making a difference in the lives of American women and families,” the study said. “… More than any other organization, pro-life PHCs are best equipped to support women facing unintended pregnancies in a post-Roe America.”

This week, Warren called for the centers to be shut down.

“In Massachusetts right now, those crisis pregnancy centers that are there to fool people who are looking for pregnancy termination help outnumber true abortion clinics by 3 to 1,” Warren told reporters. “We need to shut them down here in Massachusetts, and we need to shut them down all around the country. You should not be able to torture a pregnant person like that.”

The study said crisis pregnancy centers are helping America “embrace a culture of Life.”

“More than any other group, pro-life pregnancy centers are best equipped to support women facing unintended pregnancies in a post-Roe America,” said Moira Gaul, a Charlotte Lozier Institute associate scholar and lead author of the study. “On average, pregnancy centers consistently have client satisfaction rates over 95% leading to many ‘word-of-mouth’ referrals to pro-life pregnancy centers – meaning that the 800,000 lives saved just since 2016 represent a significant number of women who received support and then told their friends and families about the compassionate and cost-free care they received.”

Related:

Elizabeth Warren Slammed for Attacking Crisis Pregnancy Centers: ‘We Need to Shut Them Down’

Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Jacek Sopotnicki

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

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