Pregnancy crisis centers facing attacks following end of Roe v. Wade
Alternatives Pregnancy Center Director Heidi Matzke on the violence her pregnancy center has seen, including having to temporarily shut down a mobile clinic due to safety concerns.
The director of a California crisis pregnancy center said Thursday her location has been "under attack" by pro-choice activists since the Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Heidi Matzke, who heads Alternatives Pregnancy Center in Sacramento, joined "Fox & Friends First" to describe the violence her Sacramento-based center has faced and responded to Sen. Elizabeth Warren saying centers like hers must be shut down.
"We have had to stop operations of our mobile clinic. We've had to hire 24-hour onsite security. We've had to add cameras. We've had to arm our staff with pepper spray," she said, adding last week a man with a machete showed up and was stopped before he could inflict any harm or damage.
Warren, D-Mass., was criticized on Tuesday after attacking crisis pregnancy centers in the wake of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
"In Massachusetts right now, those crisis pregnancy centers that are there to fool people who are looking for pregnancy termination help outnumber true abortion clinics by 3 to 1. We need to shut them down here in Massachusetts, and we need to shut them down all around the country. You should not be able to torture a pregnant person like that," Warren said.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, speaks to members of the media during a protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, May 3, 2022.( Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images) (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In response to Warren, Matzke said her statements were "horrific".
"Pregnancy centers give away $266 million of free medical services and resources to communities all over this incredible country. And her words are just incredibly hurtful," she told Carley Shimkus.
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Matzke said her center provides fully licensed OB/GYN care with medical professionals. She said most of the women working at her clinic have had an abortion before and many believe their lives would be "so much different" if they had gone to a pregnancy center.
Matzke concluded with a story about a woman with drug addiction who came to her pregnancy center and turned her life around.
"She now, two years later, is 28 months clean and sober, a state worker, completely self-sufficient and now is helping women in her situation," she explained.
Fox News' Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report