A crisis pregnancy center in North Carolina is the subject of a 93-page complaint filed by the Campaign for Accountability (CfA), a Washington, D.C. non-profit with ties to progressive activist and Media Matters founder David Brock.
CfA is calling for state officials such as North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Attorney General Josh Stein and Secretary of Health and Human Services Mandy Cohen to” investigate and terminate” a contract between the Human Coalition and Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”).
“The state granted Human Coalition funding to help support women with unplanned pregnancies, yet the reality is, those taxpayer funds have been spent proselytizing, which is not the same as actual healthcare,” said CfA Counsel Alice Huling (pictured, above) in a press statement.
North Carolina’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein has waged his own war using North Carolina taxpayer funds by pulling the state into a multi-state suit challenging the Trump Administrations ‘Protect Life Rule‘ as part of Title X.
“North Carolinians should be leary of a Washington, DC-based liberal nonprofit that uses litigation and aggressive communications in an attempt to defund pregnancy centers at a time when Marist poll finds more Americans are pro-life,” responded Tami Fitzgerald, NC Values Coalition Executive Director.
Fitzgerald said that the North Carolina Values Coalition applauds the innovative Continuum of Care program and work that Human Coalition efforts to coordinate “long-term assistance through a network of support services for women choosing to keep their baby.”
“It is ironic that pro-abortion enthusiasts who rally for public funding of Planned Parenthood fail to understand how a faith-based, life-affirming nonprofit can practice good samaritan principles without proselytizing,” said Fitzgerald.
The Human Coalition, based out of Texas, took over Curo Women’s Care Clinic of Raleigh in 2016. That clinic offers crisis pregnancy counseling and alternatives to abortion.
CfA alleges that the Human Coalition has religious undertones, that they are in violation of terms of the CPCF agreement which says that funding “shall be used for nonsectarian purposes only.”
The CfA complaint asserts that the use of public funds for such a group violates both the United States and North Carolina Constitutions and is a violation of the First Amendment under an “establishment of religion” argument.
The crux of the CfA complaint seems to be using faith to bolster their objection to a clinic that gives pregnancy counseling alternatives that are not limited strictly to abortion.
The contract involved is a two-year $600,00 grant given to the Carolina Pregnancy Care Fellowship (“CPCF”). In 2017, the North Carolina General Assembly set aside $1.3 million to fund CPCF pregnancy care options. The appropriation to CPCF included giving $300,000 a year to Human Coalition for the ‘Continuum of Care’ program.
At the time the appropriations were made for CPCF, pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood and NARAL North Carolina went on the defensive, making blanket claims about crisis pregnancy centers.
“Time and time again Crisis Pregnancy Centers have been revealed to provide false information about both abortion and birth control,” said Tara Romano, Executive Director of NARAL NC. “It’s outrageous that our legislature would increase these centers’ funding without also creating a mechanism to hold them accountable.”
This is not CfA’s first complaint in the Tarheel state. Late last year and again early in 2019, the Brock tied outfit launched back to back complaints at North Carolina Speaker of the House Tim Moore. The first complaint filed by CfA was dismissed in December 2018 because it failed to prove Moore knowingly used his position to leverage financial gain.
CfA is closely linked to David Brock, known for being a Democratic political operative tied to George Soros and Hillary Clinton. Brock is also the founder of a progressive propaganda outlet known as Media Matters. Brock’s various organizations, such as American Bridge and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) are behind multiple legal attacks on the Trump Administration.
CfA is staffed by multiple Brock-tied organization alums and has the same purpose as CREW, which is to launch politically motivated legal battles almost exclusively against Republican elected officials.
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A.P. Dillon is the North Carolina Bureau Chief for The Tennesee Star and a reporter at Battleground State News. Follow A.P. Dillon on Twitter. Email Tips to [email protected].
Photo “Alice Huling” by Alice Huling.
