Ultrasounds, pregnancy tests and parenting classes: SC funding for pregnancy centers questioned

COLUMBIA — Each year, faith-based pregnancy centers in South Carolina administer more than 10,000 free pregnancy tests, more than 5,000 ultrasounds and more than 1,600 tests for sexually transmitted diseases and infections, according to administrators.

Statistics from these centers, which aim to deter pregnant women from having an abortion, come as some legislators question how the centers have spent millions in state dollars funneled to them in the last three state budgets.

Due to lax reporting requirements for these and other nonprofit recipients of state dollars, the only information made available previously is that the money paid for “provision of pregnancy related care and resources,” as written on a form provided to the state’s Medicaid agency.

Now, in addition to $8 million in the last three budgets and $2.4 million proposed in the coming budget year, legislators are considering state income tax breaks for South Carolinians who make donations to these centers.

Speaking in favor of the tax credits that could encourage more private donations, as well as state budget funding, Kathryn Wade, chairwoman of the association that represents 18 such centers around the state, said the association divided past dollars among 15 of its member centers.

The statistics on services Wade provided are from 2022, before the centers received state money and before the Legislature enacted the state’s so-called “fetal heartbeat” law that essentially bans abortions six weeks into a pregnancy, though that timeline is the subject of a legal challenge before the state Supreme Court.

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“We’ve only increased in our ability to provide these services,” Wade told a Senate panel last week.

Wade went on to say that when the centers received the state funds, legislators and state agency personnel gave little guidance on how the centers could spend it.

“The first year was probably the most difficult because we were scared to spend it on anything,” Wade said.

Her comments to senators came the day after Rep. Heather Bauer criticized the meager information provided in state-mandated reports.

“It’s very vague at best. I think we deserve to know what they’re using their money on,” the Columbia Democrat said. “How many people have they helped? What kind of resources and programing are they giving these people? And I’d like to see evidence of what outcomes they have for pregnant women in our state.”

Bauer gave the example of a travel van, owned by non-profit A Moment of Hope, which parks in the parking lot of Columbia’s Planned Parenthood clinic and seeks to divert and dissuade women from entering the clinic.

But according to A Moment of Hope director Mark Baumgartner, his organization is not a member of the pregnancy center association, and therefore not a recipient of state funding.

But he told legislators the tax credits under consideration would be beneficial to his group, which he said has worked with nearly 400 pregnant women since its foundation in 2012.

That includes the ultrasound van, as well as church-based teams who, for a year during a woman’s pregnancy, drive her to doctors’ appointments, throw her a baby shower, do weekly check-ins and invite her to prayer groups and church functions.

When it comes to the pregnancy center association, Wade said the group has “reported what we were instructed to report.”

The association also hired an executive director to oversee where the money is going and an attorney who drew up a contract with member centers saying they would not spend the funds on executive salaries.

In addition to testing and ultrasounds, Wade said the centers offer parenting and prenatal classes, which she valued at $2.6 million annually. The centers also hand out donated diapers, cribs and clothing.

A dozen of the centers, Wade said, are staffed by registered nurses, physicians assistants or nursing assistants. The state funding, she said, has prompted more centers to consider adding ultrasounds to their list of services, as well as researching the potential for opening more centers in rural areas.

“Ultrasounds and pregnancy tests do not equate to medical help,” Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Vicki Ringer told legislators in opposing the tax credits. “We have got to provide better health care for women who are pregnant and for the babies than they have.”

And when it comes to state income taxes, the only credits currently given for charitable contributions are related to donations of venison to food pantries and monetary donations to a fund for education of special needs children.

The bill, which advanced Tuesday to the Senate floor, would add pregnancy centers, maternity homes, foster care and adoption charities and organizations that aid victims of human trafficking to that short list.

The state’s fiscal analysts estimate the tax credit could reduce state revenues by $10 million annually. That estimate accounts for donations to crisis pregnancy care centers and adoption and foster care charities.

Planned Parenthood provides ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, and STD testing, as well as birth control, cancer screenings and vaccines. But because it also provides abortions, donations to the organization are specifically excluded from the proposed tax credit.

“There are 33,000 nonprofits in South Carolina and we’ve cherrypicked one group to give contributions to,” said Ringer, who was spokeswoman for the state’s tax collection agency before joining Planned Parenthood.