So there I am reading Twitter, and I see Tennessee Holler tweeting about how one of the beneficiaries of Gov. Bill Lee’s proposed $100 million for anti-abortion "crisis pregnancy centers" is a crisis pregnancy center that he was one of the founders of and still serves on the board of.
And my immediate thought — which I’m embarrassed about, because I’ve been watching Gov. Lee do his governing for a whole term now, so I should know better — is that there is simply no way the governor would funnel some huge part of $100 million of the state’s money to his own private vanity project. But, y’all. There he is, listed as a founder on the Hope Clinic for Women (whose slogan is "A Safe Place for Tough Choices") and serving on the currently all-male advisory board.
WKRN wrote a story about Hope Clinic in the wake of Gov. Lee’s State of the State announcement of his plan to send all this money to them, but as the Tennessee Holler notes, they don’t disclose Lee’s ties to the organization. Still, the story does at least get into some of the controversies about crisis pregnancy centers (which the Scene has reported on as well). And the reporter, Adam Mintzer, does a good job of getting Hope Clinic’s Kailey Cornett to tell on herself and Hope Clinic.
First of all, Hope Clinic is a religious organization that sees proselytizing to people in crisis as appropriate. Mintzer reports Cornett saying, “We are giving fish and loaves in the form of diapers and cribs, and if they want to have a faith conversation as we grow into a relationship we can lean into that.”
This is a ministry. Which, fine. Carry on, faithful folks. But I don’t want to support this ministry. In my regular life, if I think something a faith group is doing is wrong, I can choose not to support them. Or if I think their activities are fine but their theology is a mess, I can choose not to participate. But now Gov. Lee wants to force me to support his ministry — and that's bullshit. Not just because it’s coercive to use the power of the state to fund the governor’s preferred religious outreach, but because, since they’re waiting until they have a “relationship” with the woman in crisis to spring their religious beliefs on her, we don’t know what they are.
I mean, we can guess by the “fish and loaves” comment that these folks are Christian. There seems to be a very nominal Catholic presence on the various boards, which is surprising both because the Catholic church is anti-abortion and because we have a large Catholic hospital here in town. Why aren’t more Catholics involved in Hope Clinic? Is there something about the theological stance of the group that puts them off?
Also, we have religious colleges in town. Trevecca is well-known for its nursing program. Lipscomb offers a degree in health administration and has pretty good science programs. So what is it about Hope Clinic’s approach that makes them less likely to be involved? It’s hard to read the tea leaves here.
And normally I wouldn’t care. Hope Clinic does its thing and I do mine, and there’s room enough in the world for both of us. But if I’m being forced to give them money, then hell yes, I want to know what they’re telling people about God using my resources. And at least I’m nominally Christian. But all of the non-Christians in the state are also being forced to give money to help support Gov. Lee’s ministry? So much for separation of church and state.
But that’s not even the best part. Cornett tells Mintzer, “If a woman still decides to terminate her pregnancy, that is her decision and there is nothing we can do to stop her, but what we can provide is professional counseling.” This is obviously a lie. Women in Tennessee can’t get abortions. A woman in this state is not allowed to “decide” to terminate a pregnancy. But that’s not the heart of the lie. The heart of the lie is “there is nothing we can do to stop her.” But Hope Clinic’s “we” includes Gov. Lee. And Gov. Lee did stop women from terminating pregnancies.
Which, when you think about it, is mighty convenient. Hope Clinic is anti-abortion and wants to help more women in crisis pregnancies go through with their pregnancies. Gov. Lee, by ending abortion in the state, puts more women in a position to go to Hope Clinic, and then when more women’s only option is Hope Clinic, he funnels state money to them. He gets to wash his conscience clean for the real peril he’s put women in with his actions by ensuring Hope Clinic can flourish, and Hope Clinic gets to pretend that they’re not preventing women from getting abortions, even as their founder is doing exactly that.
It's an ouroboros of sanctimony and women’s suffering, and now we’re all going to be forced to support it.
