By Rep. Chris Smith - Friday, January 23, 2026

Korbe Bohac holds her nearly 8-month-old son, Winston, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Bohac received free services, including pregnancy tests, sonograms and parenting classes, from the Insight Women's Clinic in Lawrence before and after Winston's birth. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

OPINION:

              I met my dear wife, Marie, more than 50 years ago in the pro-life movement — and today, like you, we are more committed, hope-filled, determined and impatient than ever to see “Life is a Gift” embraced in hearts and laws.

              We say to you today, “With indomitable faith, compassion and tenacity, we must double down and do more!”

              Above all, we must pray, and fast — claiming God’s promises as in 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, upon whom my name has been pronounced, humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and heal their land.”

              More than 2,700 pregnancy resource centers throughout the United States are actively working to help women choose life — each and every one of them an oasis of love, compassion, empathy, respect and care for mothers and their precious children.

              Yet some state governments and lawmakers, including my state of New Jersey, seek to discriminate against pregnancy care centers by violating fundamental conscience rights to compel complicity in abortion.

              The Knights of Columbus Marist poll found last year that 83% of all Americans — including 79% of Democrats — support pregnancy resource centers.

              In the House, two bills have been introduced to protect these vital resources. H.R.6945 — the Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act, introduced by Rep. Michelle Fischbach of Minnesota —is a legislative effort to ensure that pregnancy resource centers remain eligible for vital federal funding under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

              H.R. 2226 — the Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act of 2025, which I introduced — seeks to prohibit discrimination against pregnancy centers and other entities that do not participate in abortion and would strengthen implementation and enforcement of federal conscience laws.

              Tragically, more women are using unsupervised and potentially dangerous abortion pills. In 2023, abortion pills were used for almost two thirds — 63% — of all abortions.

              Women are encouraged not only to use medication to induce chemical abortions to end the lives of their children in their own home, but to “stockpile” abortion pills in their medicine cabinets “just in case.”

              The purveyors of death — and their enablers in politics, the media and academia — aggressively foster a culture of death, denial, disrespect and discrimination against babies and employ an endless array of deceitful tactics designed to trivialize and mask the cruel and ugly reality of abortion. They present the violent act as a “right.”

              One only has to look beyond the slogans and surface appeal arguments to find the harsh reality of abortion. Mifepristone — the abortion pill — is baby poison that kills the unborn infant by starving him or her to death. A second drug, misoprostol, then induces uterine contractions that expel the baby from the womb, often sending the child into the toilet.

              The dangers of the abortion pill, which are used to procure at least six out of 10 abortions in the United States, are being studied and revealed. On April 28, 2025, the Ethics and Public Policy Center released a report named “The Abortion Pill Harms Women: Insurance Data Reveals One in Ten Patients Experiences a Serious Adverse Event.”

              This report found that more than one out of 10 (10.93%) women who take the chemical abortion drug mifepristone experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging or another serious adverse event within 45 days.

              Each day, despite setbacks — thanks in large part to the prayers and efforts of the pro-life movement — many unborn children and their mothers have been, are being and will be protected. We know that the injustice of abortion need not be forever. Life is an amazing gift. There are no throwaways.

• Rep. Chris Smith is serving his 46th year as a member of Congress from New Jersey.


This article was published online on January 23, 2026 and can be found at https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/jan/23/protect-pregnancy-resource-centers/