Reverend Remains Steadfast After Firebombing of Pregnancy Center, Despite ‘No Call’, Money or Other Help From NY Government By Billy Hallowell for Faith Wire
GNN Note – No call, no money no offer of assistance from the city…because, you know, love and all like that. / END
“This is an all-out war on pregnancy centers.”
That’s how the Rev. Jim Harden, president of CompassCare Pregnancy Services in Rochester, New York, framed the current rhetorical – and physical — attacks on crisis pregnancy centers.
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Harden has been speaking out against this violence while attempting to shatter some of the claims from politicians and activists who oppose crisis pregnancy centers.
The Firebombing of His Clinic
Harden’s Buffalo clinic was among those centers firebombed by individuals purportedly infuriated over the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Women’s Health Organization ruling last month that overturned Roe v. Wade and returned abortion laws to the states.
The faith and crisis clinic leader said the building faced severe damage in early June, weeks before the Dobbs ruling was released. With a leaked draft version of the decision circulating at the time, crisis pregnancy centers and churches like his faced furor and damage.
“All the glass in the facility [was] broken, and the fires were lit, and the damage was catastrophic,” Harden said.
Watch him discuss the attack, the ongoing debate over pregnancy centers, and more:
Rather than receiving support from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and other state officials, Harden said politicians have decided to launch an investigation into crisis pregnancy centers to explore whether these organizations are sharing incorrect medical information.
Hochul attracted quite a bit of attention this month for calling pro-life Americans “neanderthals,” something Harden responded to quite fervently.
“[Hochul has] referred to us as subhuman she called us ‘neanderthals,’” he said. “I mean, it’s like something out of a dystopian novel.”
