Boston, MA, June 15, 2023 – The Pregnancy Care Alliance of Massachusetts (PCAll), the state’s first-ever network of pregnancy resource centers, invites the media, legislators and the public to visit PRC facilities on Saturday, June 17.
PCAll members will host open houses at their respective PRCs, celebrating the new network, which was launched in April. Guests are invited to tour participating centers, speak with staff about their day-to-day work and meet women who received help within PRCs.
Established by women for women, the mission of PCAll is twofold: First, PCAll aims to educate the public, media, and those in government about the ways pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) safely, charitably and compassionately care for women during crisis pregnancies. Second, PCAll intends to enhance PRC operations, enabling each member PRC to serve a greater number of women through effective collaboration and sharing of resources.
“PRCs have been under direct attack in this state since last summer,” explained Teresa Larkin, Executive Director of Your Options Medical and PCAll’s Vice Chairman for External Relations. Vandalism and threats against PRC staff occurred in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, which overturned Roe vs. Wade in June 2022.
Additionally, Massachusetts legislators and community leaders have attempted to prevent PRCs from operating, proposing local ordinances that would ban them and legislation to spread false information to the public. On March 30, Governor Healey signed a supplemental budget which earmarked $1 million for what can only be called a smear campaign against PRCs. Currently, legislators are reviewing H.377, which seeks to prevent “deceptive advertising” by PRCs, yet which ultimately infringes on the First Amendment’s freedom of speech protection.
“My colleagues and I knew that attempts to damage our reputations and prevent us from serving women would persist. Together, PCAll members are working not only to broaden our care and free services to women across Massachusetts, but we’re launching our own public awareness campaigns, so residents here know the truth about what we do.”
Larkin hopes open houses will result in cooperation instead of continued divisiveness. “All of us, legislators and PRCs alike, want to help women. We share that common goal. Harming organizations that help women is not the way to achieve it.”
Contact: Teresa Larkin, Vice Chairman for External Relations
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