In their budget, Republican state lawmakers proposed $2.6 million in funding for crisis pregnancy centers and anti-abortion organizations. This funding would quadruple the amount given to one particular nonprofit, despite a report from the state Department of Health and Human Services that does not recommend expanding the program.
Crisis pregnancy centers may offer pregnancy tests, counseling and assistance in signing up for Medicaid. Their stated aim is to assist women experiencing an unexpected pregnancy. They offer some free services and others that require attending specific religious events. Host Frank Stasio talks about crisis pregnancy centers in North Carolina and around the country with Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, a reporter at the News & Observer who has followed the funding; journalist and documentary filmmaker Lindsay Beyerstein who recently completed a project on CPCs; and Kimberly Kelly, an associate professor of sociology and director of the gender studies department at Mississippi State University.
