Hope Clinic for Women’s tagline is “a safe place for tough choices.” But for pregnant people who seek testing and counseling at the Nashville center, abortion is not one of those choices. Hope is a crisis pregnancy center, one of 60 in the state. Until the recent reversal of Roe v. Wade, there were five total clinics in Tennessee that offered abortion procedures.
The organization was the target of an attempted arson on Thursday, which is under investigation by the FBI and the Metro Nashville Police Department. A statement from MNPD called it the first act of vandalism in Nashville related to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision rolling back Roe v. Wade, which is set to put into motion a near-total ban on abortion in the state.
Crisis pregnancy centers are known for giving false and intimidating information on abortions. They also come up in web searches for abortion clinics.
Shortly after last week’s attack, Gov. Bill Lee tweeted: “This is terrorism and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Stand with us in supporting clinics like Hope Clinic who provide critical resources to Tennessee families.”
Earlier this year, Lee gave $180,000 in taxpayer dollars to buy ultrasound machines for such centers across the state, and he has said he wants to continue using public dollars to fund the centers. Metro Councilmember Joy Styles of District 32 is president of the board at Hope Clinic for Women.
Representatives for Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood have pointed out Lee’s lack of response when the Planned Parenthood location in Knoxville burned down in December.
“Planned Parenthood condemns violence in every form, but we can’t be silent on the harm Crisis Pregnancy Centers like Hope Clinic cause,” says Francie Hunt, executive director for TAPP. “We believe they should be peacefully regulated so they can no longer lie and mislead patients, which has been documented at length by the American Medical Association.”
According to Kailey Cornett, president and CEO of Hope Clinic for Women, the clinic receives one state grant, which funds its abstinence-based education in schools. The organization has a total operating income of $1.1 million.
Cornett says she’s seen a slight uptick in phone calls about pregnancy service in the days immediately following the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
“I feel like we’re gonna be so essential for women who still want to experience good health outcomes in the midst of their pregnancy, and they still need someone to talk through all of the emotions that come with an unexpected pregnancy,” she says. “We just want to make sure people know that they can come and talk and walk through their options and that their options aren’t completely eliminated. It may look different than what they expected last week, but they still have some agency to really think for themselves and consider everything that’s going on in their life.”
But reproductive freedom advocacy organizations like Healthy and Free Tennessee warn against crisis pregnancy centers.
“In the simplest form, it is a center that pretends to provide comprehensive reproductive health care, but they do not support abortion access,” says Briana Perry, steering committee member for Healthy and Free. “This is a deception — you’re not providing comprehensive reproductive health care and not providing referrals, and giving the illusion that you are.”
Hope Clinic for Women opened in 1983 under the name The Crisis Pregnancy Center. According to the organization’s website, its stated goal was to “reach primarily the abortion-minded and also the likely to carry young women prior to going to an abortion clinic and sooner than she would possibly consider going to an adoption agency.”
The center began offering a post-abortion support group in 1985, a regular feature of crisis pregnancy centers. It began offering counseling for pregnancy loss in 2009.
Over the years, the faith-based organization expanded its services to include the abstinence-based education in schools, parenting programs in which parents can earn points to redeem at a store with baby items, oral contraceptive prescriptions, and some health exams and STI testing. According to its 2021 report, the center saw 841 people for initial pregnancy testing and counseling that year, which represents more than half of the total operation. Fifty-six percent of those people were uninsured.
In its mission to prevent abortions, the Hope Clinic reports that it has proven successful.
According to Hope, of those who learned they were pregnant at their initial appointment, 84 percent came back for another appointment; 89 percent of those who returned chose to carry the pregnancy.
