New Jersey Democrat Rep. Josh Gottheimer has launched an effort to shut down pro-life pregnancy centers in his state.

Gottheimer held a press conference Oct. 6 outside a Lighthouse Pregnancy Resource Center in Hackensack to detail his efforts.

“Women go to these healthcare hoax clinics thinking they will get real medical help, but instead they are greeted by people with no medical background whose goal is to brainwash women with their own ideological agenda,” Gottheimer said.

Gottheimer said he plans to stop at crisis pregnancy centers across New Jersey “so women know they exist and to fight to shut these dangerous centers down.”

One of the speakers who joined Gottheimer at the press conference was Bergen County Commissioner Mary Amoroso, who said: “These centers masquerade as clinics and guidance centers who supposedly provide unbiased information to women in crisis. But these centers are largely run by evangelical groups who operate on the principle that women are just baby-making machines who fall for deceptive advertising and that fetal rights trump women’s rights every time. They use guilt and misinformation to interfere with a woman’s autonomy and decision-making process in an anguishing moment. … We stand with Congressman Josh, our state officials and our lawmakers to protect vulnerable women in crisis and stop the manipulation and the evangelical scamming.”

“That was excellent,” Gottheimer remarked following Amoroso’s comments.

Jor-El Godsey, president of the Heartbeat International network of pro-life pregnancy centers, responded in a statement to The Christian Post about abortion proponents. “They deny the truth about women who don’t really want an abortion; they deny the truth about pregnancy centers providing practical help as alternatives to abortion; and they deny the truth that every woman should be loved and supported during a pregnancy,” Godsey said.

The Charlotte Lozier Institute, which provides scientific, statistical and medical research for the pro-life movement, has published a fact sheet about pregnancy centers. The fact sheet reports that in 2019, client satisfaction rates at two national pregnancy center networks—Care Net and Heartbeat International—were 99.19% and 99.6%, respectively.

Further, affiliates of the three largest national networks (Care Net, Heartbeat International and NIFLA) follow a code of ethics that provides, in part, that “all medical services be under the supervision and direction of a licensed physician in accordance with applicable medical standards. The code also addresses truthfulness in all communications; client information confidentiality; rigor in screening volunteers and staff, nondiscrimination, a consistent life ethic, and kindness to and compassion for clients.”

Photo: gottheimer.house.gov