File photo of an ultrasound. (Getty Images.)

An Ohio Republican state senator has reintroduced legislation to provide tax credits for donations to anti-abortion pregnancy resource centers.

State Sen. Sandra O’Brien, R-Ashtabula, introduced Senate Bill 40 in the Senate Ways and Means Committee this week, a similar measure to one she championed in the previous General Assembly, but which failed to pass.

The bill would allow a nonrefundable income or commercial activity tax credit for “donations to a certified Ohio nonprofit pregnancy resource center that primarily serves Ohio residents and offers free or low-cost pregnancy resources and assistance,” according to an Ohio Legislative Service Commission analysis of the bill.

Ohio voters passed a state constitutional amendment in 2023 protecting reproductive rights with 57% support, including access to abortion care.

Pregnancy resource centers, also called crisis pregnancy centers, are facilities that are not equipped for medical procedures beyond ultrasound services or pregnancy tests, and provide referrals and counseling to pregnant individuals but steer visitors away from abortion as an option.

“As the pro-life movement makes the case for life, it is more important than ever to take concrete steps to support women and families facing an unexpected pregnancy,” O’Brien said during sponsor testimony for her bill. “Helping to sustain and expand the work that local PRCs are already doing in their communities only serves to help the communities in which they are involved.”

O’Brien praised the facilities, saying the need is “getting greater and greater in Ohio.”

“Some of the mothers (who go to the centers) … are between a rock and a hard place, because perhaps they’re questioning what they should do, and yet, maybe the father or maybe their families are encouraging them not to bring a baby into the world, and they’re a little confused and they’re just looking for help,” O’Brien told the committee.

Creating a tax credit for donations to the centers indicates that the state is “investing in a network providing high-quality health care to pregnant women,” she said.

The facilities are often religiously affiliated, and while some mention abortion as one of the options for pregnant individuals who reach out to them, information provided about abortion services is often medically debunked or false, and information meant to dissuade individuals from pursuing abortion services.

In fact, facilities that could be a part of the tax credit and those which receive grant money from the state are barred from “promoting” abortion services or counsel about the option.

SB 40 states that donations must go to a “qualifying pregnancy resource center,” defined as a Ohio-based 501(c)(3) non-profit, that serves the “principal purpose” of free or low-cost assistance, including pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, and other services “to pregnant women carrying their pregnancies to term.”

The facility cannot be a hospital, nursing home or residential care facility, and must not “perform, promote or contract with an organization that performs nontherapeutic abortions, and is not affiliated with a person that performs or promotes nontherapeutic abortions.”

Under the bill, a nontherapeutic abortion is “one that is performed or induced when the life of the mother would not be endangered if the fetus were carried to term or when the pregnancy of the mother was not the result of rape or incest reported to a law enforcement agency.”

While O’Brien touted the tax credit as a way to incentivize Ohio businesses and individuals to donate to the centers, people are already donating “like there’s no tomorrow,” she told the committee. Plus, the state already directs funding toward some of the facilities, through grants distributed from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

In an annual report released last May by the Ohio Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, 118 grants totaling $13.5 million were given out, with 41 of them listed as “children’s initiatives.”

Grant money went to Elizabeth’s New Life Center, Inc., Pregnancy Decision Health Centers and Pregnancy Solutions & Services, Inc., all of which promote pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and counseling as part of their services.

On the website for Pregnancy Decision Health Centers, “considering an abortion” is a page, but does not provide any information about the procedures, instead encouraging the scheduling of an appointment and an ultrasound as “the clearest way to determine how far along you are, which will play an important role in your abortion options.”

Elizabeth’s New Life Center Inc. touts “life-affirming services.” Pregnancy Solutions, Inc., states “you could choose abortion,” and encourages “speaking with a medical professional about abortion facts, options and procedures” to “prepare you for a life-long decision you can live with.”

O’Brien didn’t give names of specific centers she praised during her committee testimony, but said the centers’ general philosophy is “they take every dollar they possibly get and move it right to the pregnant gals.”

“It’s an excellent example of monies being spent for the purpose instead of getting stuck in all kinds of administrative costs,” she said.

Pregnancy Decision Health Centers was one of the facilities mentioned in a 2023 report commissioned by the city of Columbus and done by Abortion Forward (formerly Pro-Choice Ohio) to analyze centers in the area. In the report, researchers who visited and called centers for information, said Pregnancy Decision Health Centers and others “frequently have no medical personnel on staff and provide very limited medically-adjacent services such as over-the-counter urine pregnancy tests.”

The 2023 report’s analysis of the budgets submitted to the state from some of the facilities showed the decision health centers “allocated only 5.65% of their budget to participant support and education” from December 2021 to June 2022, and from July 2022 to June 2023, only 3.1% went to those particular areas. More than half of the budget went to salary, benefits and staff travel, the report said.

TANF funding is also distributed to some centers through the Ohio Parenting and Pregnancy Program, and through a “choose life” license plate. In the 2024-2025 state budget, the Ohio Parenting and Pregnancy Program received $13 million over the two years to “promote childbirth, parenting and alternatives to abortion.”

Entities are eligible for funding through the program if they are private, not-for-profit facilities with the “primary purpose” to “promote childbirth, rather than abortion, through counseling and other services, including parenting and adoption support.”

The program also says facilities cannot be “involved in or association with any abortion activities, including providing abortion counseling or referrals to abortion clinics, performing abortion-related medical procedures or engaging in pro-abortion advertising,” according to the final 2024-2025 budget document.

The newest executive proposal from Gov. Mike DeWine continues the TANF funding for the Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and the Fatherhood Commission. The proposal shows TANF estimates of $16.6 million over the next two years for the office of faith-based initiatives and the commission. That proposal, along with the rest of his budget recommendations, are still under consideration by the Ohio legislature.

State Sen. Dr. Beth Liston, D-Dublin, a member of the Ways and Means Committee, mentioned the TANF funds when questioning how the tax credit bill would help the state battle low rankings in child wellbeing. She said the $10 million cost to the state should come with assurances that donations are going to centers with the ability to enact change in maternal mortality rates or child outcomes, for example.

“If we’re looking at an additional $10 million expenditure, I certainly would want to make sure there were guardrails in place, such that people were receiving it towards an improved outcome for pregnant women and babies,” Liston said.