The Real Crime

Catholic New York editorial, Archdiocese of New York, Edward Cardinal Egan, Archbishop, February 2002

Let's see. Last year, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) puts out a 60-page manual called "Unmasking Fake Clinics," offering step-by-step instructions on how to shut down the crisis pregnancy centers that have operated around the country for years counseling against abortion and offering alternatives.

The handy NARAL guidebook even has a chapter on how to get a state attorney general to bring a case.

This year, New York's aggressively pro-abortion attorney general, Eliot L. Spitzer, begins serving subpoenas on 24 crisis pregnancy centers run largely by volunteers around the state, including two in Manhattan and one on Staten Island.

Is there a connection here? Spitzer's spokesmen insist there isn't. NARAL's strong political support for Spitzer, they say, and the campaign contributions from its members, have nothing to do with the subpoena blitz, never mind that it's an election year.

Yet his move against the pro-life centers is completely in character. Spitzer, after all, once pledged at a NARAL luncheon to carefully monitor hospital mergers that could restrict abortion availability, following up on it with an unsuccessful challenge to an upstate merger involving a Catholic and nonsectarian hospital.

Still, it's hard to see how the pregnancy center probe is going to get him where he really wants to be down the road - in the governor's chair.

There are at least as many pro-life supporters around the state as there are abortion supporters, and an investigation that's seen as a witch hunt might be just the thing that could stir up pro-life people to vote no to a Spitzer second term. And out of office is not a promising place for an ambitious politician to land.

The attorney general's office says the investigation came after "concerns" were expressed to them that some women might have been misled by the crisis centers about the services they offer. Yet Expectant Mother Care in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx, one of the largest of the centers subpoenaed, is listed in the Yellow Pages under "abortion alternatives." In fact, any center with the money to advertise will be listed in that category. They have to be, under consent orders they signed under two previous attorney generals.

Centers who received subpoenas in January say they've been ordered to supply documents listing staff credentials, operating manuals, number of clients served, communications with donors, appointment calendars and even the names and phone numbers of clients.

We expect most centers to challenge that last demand, but we're astonished that it was made at all. Would investigators call in these women-some of whom went on to have abortions, some who placed their babies for adoption - for questioning? The invasion of privacy that would bring is mind-boggling, especially in that Spitzer has given no indication that he's looking for any serious violation or crime.

There were signs in late January that Spitzer was trying to wriggle out of the hole he dug for himself. A spokesman told us, "We're not seeking to close any centers down. We believe the facilities do good work."

Really? Then the honorable thing to do would be to call off the chase. Now. Before the hole grows too deep to crawl out of, and before too many good people at the centers - donors and volunteers alike - become discouraged and give up. That would be the real crime.