Point of contention: The state attorney general's investigation of pro-life counseling centers has stirred accusations of intimidation and debate about the fairness of the probe
   
By Gene Warner and Douglas Turner, Buffalo News, January 29, 2002

The executive director works a full-time job elsewhere. The entire staff is composed of part-time volunteers. The office is open only eight hours per week. And the annual budget is under $20,000, half of that paying for two ads in the yellow pages.

It would be hard to find a more low-key operation than the Crisis Pregnancy Center, on the second floor of a business building on Main Street at Winspear Avenue.

But now the Crisis Pregnancy Center finds itself in the middle of a statewide investigation by Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer, in response to a handful of complaints, Spitzer's aides say.

State investigators and lawyers now are trying to determine whether the center and others like it are practicing medicine without a license and enticing pregnant women into their facilities with deceptive ads.

The operation in Buffalo's University District is part of a larger, potentially volatile story involving 24 counseling centers across the state whose computer files, other records, manuals and lists of referrals have been subpoenaed by Spitzer's office.

For 17 years, the Buffalo center has operated quietly, away from the spotlight that shines on the abortion controversy, clearly billing itself in the yellow pages as an "Abortion Alternative." "We're as grass roots a movement as you can find," said Lewis James, executive director of the center. "We're the silent part of the pro-life movement. We don't picket. We don't make a fuss. We just help where we can."

Women who think they may be pregnant go to the center, where they can get a free pregnancy test, literature, volunteer counseling, essentials like cribs or baby clothes and referrals to doctors who won't steer them toward an abortion, he said.

The two sides in this latest abortion-related battle have different takes on whether Spitzer is just investigating some complaints - or trying to close some of these centers. The smallest of the pro-life operations can't afford a drawn-out legal fight with Spitzer, "whose bills are paid by the people of New York," said Vincent McCarthy, an attorney for a trio of large crisis pregnancy centers in New York City. "Closing down these places may well be the result of this litigation," McCarthy added.

Laurence D. Behr, attorney for the Buffalo center, said another potential effect is intimidation. "Our people are all volunteers," Behr said, "and there may be some who just don't want to get involved in lawsuits and investigations, particularly not with the state attorney general." But Darren Dopp, a Spitzer spokesman, said the attorney general's goal is to work with any centers that misrepresent themselves or mislead women, to get them to modify their procedures.

"There's a misconception that we're trying to close down the facilities," he said. "That is not the case. We believe these centers do good work." Dopp also emphasized that the attorney general's office merely is seeking information now. "Judge us by whatever our ultimate action is, not by our request for information," he said.

Abortion politics

The most outspoken foe of Spitzer's initiative is Christopher Slattery, director of five Expectant Mother Care centers in New York City, whose records also have been subpoenaed. The attorney general's request for records, Slattery said, is part of election-year, abortion politics. Spitzer is beholden to the National Abortion Rights Action League, a powerful lobby for women's choice, Slattery claimed. That national organization backed Spitzer's successful campaign against pro-life Republican incumbent Dennis C. Vacco four years ago, Slattery said. Now, he added, Spitzer's campaign is following a manual advertised on the organization's Web site on how to put crisis pregnancy centers out of commission.

Those charges linking Spitzer's probe to the National Abortion Rights Action League "are just crap," Dopp replied. He noted that the national group contributed $2,900 to Spitzer's election campaign, which spent a total of $12 million.

"It's unfortunate that organizations opposed to a woman's right to choose would make false allegations about the attorney general's efforts to protect women's health," said Bob Jaffe, deputy director of the abortion rights group's New York State affiliate. "We have never communicated with the attorney general's office about the problem of crisis pregnancy centers."
Still, Spitzer announced at a meeting of the group's leaders in New York City in 1999 that he was forming a team in his office, the reproductive rights unit, to investigate the pro-life centers. Spitzer said he would use the new unit to bring racketeering charges against anti-abortion groups that broke the law.

To head the unit, Spitzer picked Yale law graduate Jennifer K. Brown, former New York City president of the National Organization for Women. Dopp indicated the attorney general is doing only what his predecessors, Democrat Robert Abrams and Republican Vacco, did about pregnancy centers that were skirting the law. Abrams forced Slattery in 1989 to sign a consent decree that his centers would make it clear to clients they were opposed to abortion and refrain from performing health care functions for which they had no license.

Dopp released the text of another consent obtained by Vacco in 1995 against another New York City-area center dealing with the same issues.

Spitzer softens stance

But the current probe of the centers that Spitzer ordered caught the attention of Bishop Henry J. Mansell of the Buffalo Diocese, who last week challenged the state attorney general to investigate the abortion clinics in the same manner.

Spitzer is not probing the abortion providers. Spitzer's stance appeared to soften after the bishop's criticism. For example, the attorney general, who earlier said criminal prosecution was possible, later ruled it out. Dopp said the attorney general is just responding to a handful of complaints about the way these centers represent themselves to the public and about the way they counsel women. Not every center had a specific complaint.

But at each of the 24, there was some suggestion of a problem, either through a direct complaint or other means. The inquiry is preliminary, Dopp noted, "and if we find nothing, we will close the investigation." "At this time, there is no suggestion of any criminal violations," he added. Offering support

But the leader of the local center says the state investigation misses the mark. "We're not a medical facility," James said. "We don't pretend to be a medical facility. We're not a clinic. We're just an office that counsels women." And the local center does not mislead anyone about its objective, he said.

The ads in the yellow pages are clearly labeled abortion alternatives. And that's what the volunteer staff - mostly female teachers, housewives and nurses - tell women who call them or stop in their office. "We always encourage women to see their own doctor, to take care of their medical needs," he added.

We can refer them to physicians who we know are not going to rechannel them to an abortion." Cathy McGreevy, the center's director, said counselors are there to offer practical help and emotional and spiritual support. "Any time there's a medical question, we refer them to a doctor," she said.

The center has no professional counselors, James and McGreevy readily admit. The training is done internally, and the roughly 20 volunteer counselors rely on a manual that the center has compiled over the years, with answers to the most frequent questions from women seeking help.

Staff members estimated that the center sees 200 to 300 clients per year; that's an average of four to six per week. The emphasis is on listening to the women, and the only real service provided is a self-administered pregnancy test, the kind that a woman can buy in a drugstore.

"I would characterize our counselors as good listeners who are sympathetic to their needs," James said. "We try to provide them with anything they need, except for an abortion." The center may provide clients cribs, car seats, maternity or baby clothes, even groceries. Referrals are made to hospitals, doctors, educational programs, housing agencies and organizations such as Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army. Brochures are available on topics such as prenatal development, abstinence, abortion and its alternatives, pregnancy prevention and sexually transmitted diseases.

Not naive

The four-room office on the second floor above Parkside Candy Co. has an inviting feel to it, with pale yellow walls adorned by small pieces of art depicting flowers and Buffalo's skyline. The only hint of the subject matter is a bulletin board with photos of a baby's early development. James and McGreevy both were asked about the attorney general's office targeting their center with a subpoena and investigation. "I'm not entirely naive," James said. "I understand the attorney general is a pro-abortionist.

I've read that he gets political contributions from organizations that are trying to close us down, like NARAL. I don't have a problem with that. I would just ask the question: Is he being fair-handed about it and doing this to abortion clinics as well?" McGreevy said it's unfortunate that somebody thinks such crisis centers are doing anything wrong.

"We're not here to push our agenda or push our personal views," she said. "We're here to help the women." Statewide, some of the attorneys representing the centers have met with Spitzer's staff to discuss the case. The attorney general reportedly agreed to extend the time the centers could respond to the subpoenas, from Feb. 1 to Feb. 15. McCarthy said the attorneys, who are representing the centers on a pro bono basis, still are considering challenging the subpoenas in State Supreme Court.
Spitzer agreed to extend the time the centers could have to respond to his subpoenas after Brown and other Spitzer aides met with Roger Brooks, from the Manhattan firm of Cravath Swain & Moore, who is working pro bono for the centers.