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Abortion Alternatives Programs: Reducing Abortions and Protecting a Woman’s Right to Choose Childbirth Over Abortion
By Maggie Datiles | July 1, 2008
The Minnesota abortion alternatives program, “Positive Alternatives,” has just been granted roughly 1.5 million dollars in state funding per year for the next three years, totaling to 4.7 million dollars.
The Positive Alternatives program was approved by the state legislature in 2005. Non-profit organizations that qualify for participation in the program will be reimbursed with state funds for services they have provided. Under the program, maternity homes, pregnancy centers, counseling agencies, and other social service agencies will be reimbursed for the free services they have already provided to women who have chosen childbirth over abortion. Reimbursable services include medical and nutrition services, prenatal care, parenting classes, housing, adoption counseling, food, personal counseling, and educational and employment assistance.
Executive Director of Positive Alternatives Scott Fischbach stated that “[t[hese grants ensure that pregnant mothers…won’t feel abortion is their only option.” Fischbach continued: “We know that the grants are helping more women choose life for their unborn children, and we hope that they are enough to reduce the overall number of abortions.”
Indeed, abortion alternatives programs have been shown through the years to reduce the number of abortions performed. Pennsylvania’s abortion alternatives program, “Real Alternatives,” is the oldest government-funded abortion alternatives program in America, and has been used as the model for all other state abortion alternatives programs. During the 2004-2005 fiscal year, the PA program served 17,233 women. In that year alone, the number of abortions performed in PA dropped 3%. This drop has been attributed directly to the free services provided by Real Alternatives supporting women’s right to choose childbirth over abortion.
When the MN Positive Alternatives program was approved in 2005, it received overwhelming bi-partisan support. During its first year of funding, the program served at least 5,600 women. This year, Representatives Ken Tschumper (D), Shelly Madore (D) and Will Morgan (D) pushed the Minnesota legislature to completely cut off all funds for the Positive Alternatives program. The legislature, however, recognized the need and importance of the program, and renewed funding for the next three years.
The Minnesota legislature recognized that women who have exercised their right to choose by electing childbirth over abortion deserve the care necessary to carry through with their choice. The state’s funding of the Positive Alternatives program protects women facing crisis pregnancies from being forced by financial and other pressures to resort to an unwanted abortion. The legislature has seen thousands of women served by the program, and has chosen to continue to serve pregnant women in need.
Abortion alternatives programs are prevalent in other states besides Minnesota. Using the successful Pennsylvania program as a model, the state legislatures in Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas have created state-supported abortion alternatives programs. These programs are effective and have improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of women.
State legislatures concerned with meeting the needs of women in need and with protecting the right of a woman to choose childbirth over abortion should consider establishing an abortion alternatives program in their state.
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Topics: Abortion, Abortion Alternative, In The News, Judiciary |
