NEW YORK—As the birthplace of Planned Parenthood and headquarters for several leading abortion organizations, New York City is the de facto heart of the abortion industry.

But abortion activism isn't the only worm in the Big Apple. Nearly half the city's pregnancies end in abortion—and abortion providers outnumber pregnancy-resource centers by more than 10 to 1.

Those pregnancy-resource centers could be the catalyst for change in the nation's biggest city. Through an organization called Project Reach, the influence of pregnancy-resource centers is growing as the centers provide the message to women in crisis that there are life-affirming alternatives to abortion.

Figures obtained from the New York Department of Health by Project Reach show that New York State had 133,000 abortions in 1999, of which 96,000 were performed in New York City. The Brooklyn borough alone had more than 33,000 abortions; the Bronx borough had more abortions than live births. What is particularly alarming about Brooklyn, says Project Reach's executive director, John Margand, is that 60% of pregnancies among blacks end in abortion.

“We're looking at populations that have been targeted for extinction, particularly African-Americans and Hispanics,” says Margand. “The numbers are overwhelming. The abortion ratios in New York are among the worst in the nation. The stakes are high because New York is the ‘birthplace’ of abortion in the United States and has become its abortion capital. Any progress we make here is bound to have national repercussions.”

In response to the crisis, Project Reach has launched a Web site, www.ProjectReach.org, which depicts abortion data by zip code as reported by the New York City Department of Health. The Web site educates the public about the nature and severity of the abortion crisis that has plagued the New York City area for more than three decades. It also provides crisis-pregnancy centers with reliable data to assess their own outreach programs and catalyze joint ventures among pregnancy centers, pastors and pro-life medical providers to target abortion-vulnerable communities where the pro-life presence is most needed. The project is seeking funding to post the 1999 and 2000 figures.

“Project Reach was started in 1998 to unite the pregnancy-resource centers, provide support for their needs and create more centers,” says Jim Manning, a founding member. More important, the centers needed to organize and focus pro-life efforts in New York, which he said is behind the rest of the country. Project Reach is currently working with 12 pregnancy-resource centers in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County. The hope is to help New York catch up to the rest of the country, where pregnancy-resource centers outnumber abortion clinics by an average of 3 to 1.

“What we're doing with Project Reach is really David and Goliath,” says Manning. “We're just beginning to crawl here. But you have to crawl before you walk.”

Manhattan Momentum

In a survey of resource centers, the leaders of Project Reach discovered that they needed more training for their staff and more advertising support. They conducted a series of seminars over two years for staff and board members, promoted telephone help-line techniques and developed manuals for centers to follow. They also started a pilot project in which peer counselors can get college coursework in counseling to help them better understand the issues involved with women in crisis, how to listen to their needs, and help those who are abortion-bound.

Perhaps most telling, Project Reach has helped the pregnancy centers purchase joint full-page ads in the New York-area Yellow Pages directories. The Yellow Pages is one of the first places a woman will look when seeking help, notes Manning, and there are nine full-page ads for abortion providers in the Manhattan Yellow Pages directory alone, along with hundreds of listings. The pregnancy-resource-center ads, which come first in the directory under “Abortion Alternatives,” have created greater exposure and increased the number of women calling and visiting the centers from 4,500 to 10,000 a year over the last three years. That number continues to grow.

Lorraine Gariboldi, executive director of the Life Center in Long Island, says the ads have been one of the best things Project Reach has done for the centers. She has been able to place more ads than before and is now drawing about 200 women a month to her center. The more women come through the doors of such centers, the more they will hear about the support services available to them—and the truth about the child in their womb through sonograms. Gariboldi refers women to an OB-GYN doctor nearby who offers free sonograms. A second life center under construction in Nassau County will offer sono-grams on site.

“I've never met a woman who's wanted an abortion. I've met many women who thought they had no other choice,” says Gariboldi. “When we can't change her heart, 98% of the time, the doctor does just by showing her her baby.”

Top Cop Stopped

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's recent attack on the resource center inadvertently raised public awareness about the good work that they do, notes Gariboldi. Last January, he served “carbon copy” subpoenas on pregnancy-resource centers throughout the state, charging them with false advertising and practicing medicine without a license. The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) backed the effort and developed a manual for dismantling crisis-pregnancy centers, called “Unmasking Fake Clinics.” Much of the wording in the subpoenas was “cut and paste” from that manual, says Gariboldi, who has 80 copies on hand for her staff.

Spitzer's actions backfired when numerous legal organizations and pro-life attorneys from prominent firms offered pro bono legal help, including the Christian Legal Society in Annandale, Va., the American Catholic Lawyers Association and the American Center for Law & Justice. Within two weeks, Spitzer withdrew the subpoenas when it was clear he was up against a legal stronghold and he could not produce any formal complaints against the centers.

Samuel Casey, chief executive of the Christian Legal Society, says the pregnancy-resource centers originally thought they operated under the laws for commercial speech. But his legal team, which represented 11 of the 12 centers, pointed out that, because these nonprofit charitable organizations do not charge for their services, they are fully protected by the First Amendment right to free speech and not subject to the regulatory jurisdiction of the attorney general as commercial speech.

Casey says his organization was motivated to help by the facts of this case and the abortion situation in New York. “We could see that the resource centers began to grow and get funding for their media outreach, and the abortion industry stood up and took notice. Based on the results in this case, I would say that the pregnancy-resource center movement will only grow.”

During the process, three accredited associations for resource centers, Heartbeat International, Care Net and the National Institute for Family & Life Advocacy, issued a set of press releases to the media about pregnancy-resource centers and the services they provide. That resulted in some positive publicity in the media, while Spitzer's office remained mute, says Margand.

“The attorney general has inadvertently helped to promote unity within the pro-life community throughout the state,” he adds. “He has helped to catalyze an authentic ecumenism among pro-life attorneys, Catholics and evangelicals [Protestant], who are now looking seriously about collaborating on other causes.”

“The pregnancy resource centers were able to demonstrate with the help of competent counsel, that they were operating well within their First Amendment rights in promoting the pro-life message,” says Margand. “That sends a significant message to pro-life movements across the nation.”

Barb Ernster writes from

Fridley, Minnesota.