Nevada Independent: “Of the seven Nevada-based centers and national hotline that Brown refers women to on his website, none refer for abortions.”
New reporting from The Nevada Independent revealed MAGA extremist Sam Brown’s decade-long anti-abortion agenda is still a prominent part of his platform, despite his recent efforts to hide his extreme record. Brown’s 2024 campaign website directs users to anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers, extreme organizations that “often oppose abortion across the board, do not refer women for the procedure and sometimes promote debunked theories that the procedure can contribute to future infertility or breast cancer.”
Read more about the anti-abortion centers that Brown is labeling as “resources for women” on his campaign website:
The Nevada Independent: GOP Senate candidate Brown refers women to crisis pregnancy centers on campaign website
Key points:
- When Sam Brown and his wife Amy sat down with NBC News last month to discuss an abortion Amy had before meeting her husband, the Republican front-runner urged politicians to “lead with compassion” on the issue.
- But in spite of acknowledging that there are circumstances in which an abortion may be appropriate, a list of “RESOURCES FOR WOMEN” appeared on Brown’s campaign website around the time of the interview that directs users to crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) — organizations that often oppose abortion across the board, do not refer women for the procedure and sometimes promote debunked theories that the procedure can contribute to future infertility or breast cancer.
- Instead, the centers offer parenting classes, referrals to adoption agencies and, sometimes, a place for pregnant women to stay and transportation to and from medical appointments. They often offer counseling, including for women who have had an abortion, and Bible studies.
- “CPCs are becoming more medicalized and presenting themselves as medical clinics when they’re not regulated as such,” said Andrea Swartzendruber, a professor of public health at the University of Georgia who mapped crisis pregnancy centers across the country. “They’re not subject to personal information privacy laws. They’re just not regulated as medical clinics.”
- Of the seven Nevada-based centers and national hotline that Brown refers women to on his website, none refer for abortions. But most have tabs on their webpages about abortion, listing side effects and sometimes promoting misinformation about long-term effects. Many caution that women who choose to terminate pregnancies are frequently coerced and have regret, anxiety and guilt.
- Brown, whose abortion stance has changed since he first ran for office in Texas in 2014, is not the only prominent Republican in Nevada to support these crisis pregnancy centers. While campaigning, Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) paid two of the centers Brown lists for events and hosted a town hall at an affiliated church of a third crisis pregnancy center — Las Vegas-based First Choice Pregnancy Center — that Brown also included.
- In October 2022, First Choice Pregnancy Center posted a video of its executive director pushing back against abortion ever being medically necessary to save a mother’s life and saying that pregnancies resulting from rape and incest are God’s will.
- “When you think about incest and rape, just ask yourself if it’s fair to hold somebody else accountable and to end their heartbeat for the actions of somebody else,” Deborah Costello, the executive director, said in the video. “God knew the circumstances surrounding creating that baby, and he chose to place that baby there for a reason.”
- Costello confirmed to The Nevada Independent that the center is still against exceptions for the 2024 election cycle.
- Swartzendruber said that since Roe was overturned, interest in and funding for crisis pregnancy centers has proliferated. Supporting crisis pregnancy centers could be a way for candidates staking out a more moderate position on abortion to advocate against it without supporting a ban or new restrictions, she said. New restrictions are unpopular in Nevada.
- But Brown’s referral to crisis pregnancy centers on his campaign website is unique among both Nevada Senate candidates and swing state Republican frontrunners.
- Among Brown’s Senate primary rivals, neither Jim Marchant, Jeff Gunter or Tony Grady have such a list on their website — in fact, Marchant and Gunter avoid mentions of abortion issues at all.
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