The First Unitarian Church of Dallas is launching a pregnancy resource center to provide comprehensive reproductive health information and counseling. The church aims to counter misinformation from crisis pregnancy centers.
The Truth Pregnancy Resource Center will offer sonograms, pregnancy tests, and resources for adoption. Unlike crisis pregnancy centers, it will also offer information on contraceptives and out-of-state abortion resources.
“One of the focuses of this center is that birth and giving birth and determining the future of one's family isn't a crisis,” said T.J. FitzGerald, the minister of community care and engagement at the church. “The only crisis in this state is a crisis of humanity, a crisis of dignity, a crisis of compassion.”
He said the center’s goal is to offer “full information to the folks who are coming.”
“I've always kind of struggled with this idea that we're just not going to speak about abortion care,” FitzGerald said. “When someone comes through our doors, and they have access to the internet and are aware they can travel, they should not be journeying through that process alone.”
Since 2021, when Senate Bill 8 imposed a six-week abortion ban, Texans seeking an abortion have had to travel out of state for care.
Resound Research for Reproductive Health, a collaborative studying reproductive health in the state, found close to 1,400 Texans sought abortion care in Oklahoma and New Mexico between August and December 2021.
While abortion is now banned in Texas and much of the Southwest, it is still legal in neighboring states like New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas.
“Last I checked, providing education about medical questions, and providing support for emotional care or spiritual guidance is still legal in the state of Texas,” FitzGerald said.
What is a crisis pregnancy center?
Texas has the most crisis pregnancy centers, also known as pregnancy resource centers or abortion alternative clinics, in the country. Data from the University of Georgia College of Public Health shows there are close to 200 locations across Texas, with a fourth of those located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Crisis pregnancy centers often offer free services, like STI testing and ultrasounds, but are not medical clinics. Many centers are funded by and affiliated with faith-based organizations that oppose abortion and contraceptive access and may make claims that are medically inaccurate.
A 2022 study in the International Journal of Women’s Health said these claims can include “exaggerating the likelihood of miscarriage in early pregnancy to downplay the urgency in seeking abortion care, and emphasizing non-factual relationships between abortion and infertility, breast cancer and adverse mental health effects.”
Anna Chatillon, a research scientist with Resound Research for Reproductive Health in Austin, said people looking for abortion information and resources might accidentally end up at crisis pregnancy centers.
“All of these people could be better served with evidence-based medical care that would truly support their decision-making about their own pregnancies,” she said.
Pregnant people already have inadequate access to maternal care in Texas, Chatillon said, and almost half of the counties in Texas are considered maternity care deserts, with no maternity care centers or obstetricians.
Crisis pregnancy center funding in Texas
Alternatives to abortion, like crisis pregnancy centers, are supported by the Texas Legislature. The Thriving Texas Families program, previously called the Alternatives to Abortion Program, funds a network of crisis pregnancy centers and adoption centers, among other education and support organizations.
The program, out of the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, aims to “promote childbirth as an alternative to abortion” and provide support to pregnant people “to promote childbirth in all instances of pregnancy.”
Centers are prohibited from using funding from the Thriving Texas Families Program to “perform, induce, assist, or refer an abortion; or grant funds to an abortion provider or an affiliate of an abortion provider.”
Lawmakers in 2022 approved $100 million in funding for the program, and added another $140 million for 2024-25 during last year’s legislative session.
“Really only time is going to tell us how that increase in funding and the other changes in the reproductive health landscape are going to affect things,” Chatillon said.
But she said there is still a need for affordable maternity care, and the upcoming legislative session could prioritize other policy changes to improve pregnant people’s health access.
“That could include expanding income eligibility for health insurance under the Medicaid program, which would help people enter pregnancy healthy,” Chatillon said.
The Truth Pregnancy Resource Center in Dallas opens April 26.
FitzGerald said the center, headed by executive director Deneen Robinson, is “still staffing up and still growing.” He said the opening will help the organization get a better sense of what people need in the community.
“I believe that there is a future where this great state will care for all of its people in a way that is comprehensive,” FitzGerald said.
Elena Rivera is KERA’s health reporter. Got a tip? Email Elena at erivera@kera.org
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