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Ever feel like it never ends?
It was my plan to send out an email thanking all who have donated to help us these past few months and to invite you to give this Giving Tuesday to pro-life organizations, including Greater Columbus Right to Life. You can still do that, and please do, here.
Year-end giving is a major part of our operating budget, so whether it is a one-time gift or if you need to think about retirement distributions or would like to work with a foundation or legacy gift – we appreciate your consideration and your investment in our work.
I’ve deleted that entire email, because the Biden Administration has continued its all-out assault on anyone who has pro-life values. This time it is transparently targeting Ohio law and Ohio pregnancy centers.
I’ve spent the bulk of today drafting a backgrounder on this proposed federal rule change and the Ohio law it would impact. If you would like to get into the details, you can read them here.
The purpose of this email is to ask for your help opposing the rule by December 1st (that is this Friday).
Here is a synopsis of what is going on.
The federal government funds a program called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), intended as short-term programs to help families that are having trouble meeting their needs. Historically, the federal government has let states provide the direction, guidance, and allocate dollars to the program in the form of grants – assuming certain broad standards are met, states have had wide discretion on how to use them.
Ohio uses those funds in a variety of ways. One program, the Ohio Parenting and Pregnancy (OPP) program allows pregnancy help centers and other eligible entities to apply for grants that fund specific things like material aid, parenting information, and more to pregnant women and to families with a child up to one year of age.
In Ohio, pregnancy centers have consistently demonstrated positive outcomes. Because of that, the Governor and lawmakers have increased the OPP funds available to about $7 million a year. It is a lot of money – but it is only a fraction of TANF funds and only a fraction of the value pregnancy help organizations are contributing to our communities.
In response, the Biden Administration has published a proposed rule that specifically calls out pregnancy help centers as “likely” not meeting the standard to qualify for TANF.
This is a blatantly political move which has become hallmark of their relentless fight against anyone who does not support abortion on demand through the entirety of pregnancy. Just like their efforts to make the abortion pill widely available without medical supervision, women and children will suffer.
Even setting aside the good work that pregnancy centers do and this unconstitutional and deliberate attempt to silence pro-life voices, it is a shocking attack on the long-held program objectives that allows state leaders to design and fund programs that work best for their states.
We MUST fight back
I spent most of today (Monday) sounding the alarm to pro-life, policy, and political leaders, putting together background information, and creating an action portal. Now I need your help to generate the comments that we need if we have any chance for this rule to be re-written.
We have several specific ways that anyone can help, and we have made it as easy as possible. The first is to visit our website, review the background information, and submit your own comment to HHS. The deadline is close of business on Friday, December 1st. You can do this whether you are an individual or an organization leader, and even if you want to stay (mostly) anonymous.
If you are a church or organization leader or if you are an elected official, please also sign the letter that GCRTL is submitting. Feel free to do this even if you draft your own letter using our materials. We'll continue to add content that might be helpful as it is available - this is a quickly moving process! You can preview the letter, sign on, and even upload your logo (if applicable) on our website.
Note that at this time, I am asking individuals to submit a comment on their own rather than just sign onto (or copy and paste) ours. We want to generate a large number of comments asking HHS to reconsider this part of the rule, and the more unique and substantial comments the better and the more likely they are to be considered. There are tips and step-by-step information on our website.
I recently told a reporter that the relentless attacks on pregnancy help centers illustrate the hypocrisy of abortion advocates. They are willing to spend millions to guarantee abortion through all nine-months of pregnancy, but seek to defund and defame anyone who seeks to help someone who has chosen life for her unborn child. And these relentless attacks will continue to escalate the increasing violence against pregnancy centers, pro-life groups, and churches.
We need to continue to respond with firm resolve and stand up for what is right. Visit our portal and take action before Friday.
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