NC government will give $300K in public funds to religious anti-abortion advocacy group

It’s bad enough that North Carolina lawmakers are preparing to give a bunch of money to so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” that mislead women by implying that they provide actual health care when their entire mission is to convince them to carry their pregnancies to term, no matter what the circumstances of the pregnancy or health risks. Now, they’re prepared to make things worse by earmarking $300,000 per year for two years to a Texas-based anti-choice advocacy outfit that exists to outlaw all abortions. This is from the folks at the nonprofit watchdog Media Matters:

“Human Coalition is an anti-abortion organization that uses internet marketing strategies to deceive so-called ‘abortion-determined’ women in an attempt to steer them to crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), facilities that try to convince pregnant persons to reject abortion. According to a February 2017 Live Action News profile of the group, the organization’s goal is to ‘make abortion unthinkable and unavailable’ by directing patients to a network of CPCs — some of which are operated by Human Coalition itself. In 2007, founder Brian Fisher and his friend Tim Kachuriak piloted the idea of ‘targeting the people making [pro-abortion] searches with ads for life-affirming resources,’ theorizing that they could use ‘internet search engine marketing’ to stop abortion. The organization was referred to as Online for Life until 2016 when it rebranded itself as Human Coalition. In a March 2017 speech for the hate group Family Research Council (FRC), Fisher told attendees, ‘Human Coalition is one of the larger pro-life groups in the country that no one has ever heard of.’”

This from the group’s website:

“Abortion is a stain on America. And the God who gives life will not hold us guiltless.”

Now, under the new proposed state budget, if it becomes law:

“$300,000 in nonrecurring funds for each fiscal year of the 2017-2019 fiscal biennium shall be transferred to the Human Coalition, a nonprofit organization, to develop and implement a two-year continuum of care pilot program…

Funds  allocated  to  the  Human  Coalition  shall  be  used  to develop and implement a two-year pilot program at its Raleigh clinic to provide a continuum of care and support to assist women experiencing crisis pregnancies to continue their pregnancies to full term.”

In sum, just one of scores of dreadful decisions in the new state budget. Let’s hope Governor Cooper vetoes it and calls out the many outrageous provisions (like this one) included therein.