Two Republican congressmen from Georgia are pressuring the University of Georgia to end what they say is its involvement in a website that identifies the locations of centers that counsel pregnant women.
U.S. Reps. Jody B. Hice and Andrew S. Clyde say the site exposes “crisis pregnancy centers” nationwide to violence by making them targets for terrorist groups. Their July 7 letter to UGA President Jere W. Morehead cites a Fox News report in late June that said “far-left radicals” were targeting centers using two UGA professors’ map of “pro-life clinic addresses.”
Hice and Clyde are demanding immediate “corrective action,” writing that they don’t want university resources used in a “reckless and irresponsible” way. They note that the professors’ website refers to the centers as “fake women’s health centers.” Nearly a hundred are listed in Georgia.
Groups that support abortion have been critical of such centers. For instance, a blog last year on the Planned Parenthood website said they have “a shady, harmful agenda: to scare, shame, or pressure you out of getting an abortion, and to tell lies about abortion, birth control, and sexual health.”
The UGA press office didn’t have an immediate response Friday afternoon, saying Morehead hadn’t yet read the congressmen’s letter. But the university’s College of Public Health did appear to address the controversy with an online message published June 25, the same day as the Fox News report.
It says the map by its professors was created in 2018 “to promote academic research and increase public awareness” about these centers, and it compiles publicly available information about their locations. “The authors of the site condemn all threats or acts of vandalism or violence against crisis pregnancy centers,” it says.
The map provides basic information about each center, including whether pregnancy tests or “limited” medical services are provided. It says the centers “primarily aim to prevent people from having abortions.” It is not published on UGA’s internet domain, but a UGA email address is offered on the contact page and its launch was noted on the website of the College of Public Health.
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