Jane was young, pregnant, and homeless. She had left home due to her mother’s drug use, wanting a better life for herself and her preborn child.

Searching for help online, she found Mary’s Choices pregnancy help center in Topeka.

For over two years, Mary’s Choices surrounded Jane with the love, support and resources she needed – from grocery gift cards, hygiene products and parenting and child development education to baby clothes, formula, diapers and wipes. 

Thanks to Mary’s Choices, Jane and her child are now thriving. She obtained her GED, is renting a home, has a job at a daycare, and is making plans to further her education.

Yet, Pregnancy Resource Centers such as this one are becoming targets of smear campaigns in other states, and public dollars are being used to fund these insidious campaigns.

This is why Kansans for Life (KFL) will be pursuing legislation this session to protect pregnancy help centers – so women like Jane can continue to receive the care and support they need.

States such as California, New York, Vermont and Washington are aggressively going after Pregnancy Resource Centers in the courts and through legislation designed to harass them, cripple their effectiveness in helping women and their children, and ultimately shut them down. 

Recently, the Supreme Court of the United States heard arguments in the First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin case.

These pregnancy help centers have been assisting women in New Jersey for decades, and are now being threatened by the state’s attorney general with legal action unless they turn over 10 years of private information on their donors – despite there being no complaints against the centers, and no evidence of any wrongdoing.

According to the Charlotte Lozier Institute’s latest report on Pregnancy Resource Centers, “Pregnancy Centers: Rising to the Occasion with Unwavering Care,” data showed that 2,775 centers across the country provided over $452 million in total medical care, support and educational services and material goods to women and their families in 2024.

The report also revealed these centers saw over 1 million new clients last year, had substantial increases in the amount of material goods given to their clients, and reached a client satisfaction rate of 98%.

In Kansas, we are fortunate to have over 50 Pregnancy Resource Centers and maternity homes offering life-affirming services to women in crisis and their families, at no cost to them.

Kansans believe in what these centers are doing to assist women – and that they should be supported in that work.

This legislative session presents a great opportunity for our state legislators to stand in solidarity with Pregnancy Resource Centers.

Rather than waiting for a blue city or state administration in Kansas to assist the abortion industry by finding ways to harass, intimidate or discriminate against the nonprofit pregnancy help centers inside its borders, let’s protect them from discrimination now, rather than fighting back against bad policies later.