Firebombed NY pregnancy center facing investigation — for not offering abortion services

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 20, 2022 / 17:08 pm (CNA).

While Jim Harden waits for those responsible for firebombing the pro-life CompassCare pregnancy center he runs in upstate New York to be brought to justice, he’s facing another, unexpected investigation — of the clinic itself.

One of several pro-abortion measures New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law on June 13 authorizes the state’s commissioner of health, currently Dr. Mary T. Bassett, to conduct an in-depth study of pro-life pregnancy centers like CompassCare that don’t provide abortion services. 

The probe will assess the impact that so-called “limited service pregnancy centers” have on women’s access to “accurate, non-coercive health care information” and “a comprehensive range of reproductive and sexual health care services,” the legislation states. A final report is due in December 2023.

Harden, CompassCare’s CEO, told CNA that the state wants him to turn over information on CompassCare’s donors, patients, service processes, affiliates, and more. Meanwhile, no arrests have been made in the June 7 firebombing and vandalism of the clinic, located in the Buffalo suburb of Amherst, New York.

“They want to know anything and everything. They want an open book,” said Harden, who does not intend to comply. “It’s absolutely ironic and crazy.”

CompassCare is one of a growing number of pro-life pregnancy centers that have been vandalized in the past two months in response to the leak of a draft decision in a Mississippi abortion case that calls for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized abortion nationwide. The FBI confirmed Friday that it is investigating the attacks.

On EWTN’s “The World Over” with Raymond Arroyo on June 16, Harden took issue with the New York law calling pro-life pregnancy centers “limited.” He said abortion clinics are actually the ones with limited service because they only provide one service: abortion. 

“The only intent here is to draft more legislation to regulate us,” he told Arroyo. You can watch the full interview in the video above.

CompassCare provides women with free, baseline OB-GYN care, diagnostic pregnancy services, sexually transmitted disease (STD) treatment, and abortion pill reversal care. More information is available on the center’s website.