Harry Targ
The idea of the deep state is a
metaphor to alert the citizenry to policies that are made mostly in secret, or
if not in secret at least with very limited public visibility, in the states as
well as in the federal government. Often public policy decisions, made by
powerful political elites in relative secrecy or by invisible groups, are only
announced or uncovered after they are made. Policies secretly implemented become
difficult to challenge because decisions have already been made and appear
irreversible.
The
Mysterious “Real Alternatives” Contract With the State of Indiana
For example, on October 15, 2015, Governor
Mike Pence of Indiana announced that Indiana had signed a $3.5 million contract
for one year of anti-abortion counseling with Real Alternatives, a multi-million
dollar non-profit organization. The contract would be funded by Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) money. He reported that Real Services has
a “pro-life mission.” It does not provide advice concerning contraception and
most women’s reproductive health services. Its goal is to “actively promote
childbirth instead of abortion.”
The Governor indicated that this
contract follows a prior one year $1 million pilot program carried out in
Northern Indiana. He claimed that the contract provides important health
services for women and families. The stated purpose of RA is to “actively
promote childbirth instead of abortion.” The CEO of Indiana Right to Life
praised the pilot program and the new contract.
What
Is “Real Alternatives” and Where Did It Come From?
It turns out that Real Alternatives
is among a growing industry of Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPC) that have sprung
up around the country to oppose abortions, contraception, and family planning.
Jenny Kutner (“How Crisis Pregnancy Centers Are Using Taxpayer Dollars to Lie
to Women,” Salon, July 14, 2015)
points out that there are three times more CPCs than abortion clinics. They do
provide some modest services, such as pregnancy tests, some basic childcare
resources, and diapers for new born children of poor women. However, CPC
services are typically “…misleading, manipulative or downright coercive,
pushing a distinctly antiabortion agenda that relies heavily on lying to
clients.” CPC counsellors are usually religious and misrepresent themselves as
healthcare professionals.
At least 11 states provide millions
of dollars to fund largely religiously-based CPCs. One of the largest CPC
organizations, Real Alternatives, began operations in Pennsylvania in the
1990s. Former Democratic Governor Robert P. Casey put RA services in the state
budget to actively oppose abortions. Over the years the state’s support for RA
came from the legislature’s “pro-life” caucus and was followed by public money
being used by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare to fund Morning
Star Pregnancy Services and the Pennsylvania Alternative to Abortion Services
Program. By 1997 72 CPCs received public reimbursements.
Support for RA spread to other
states but Pennsylvania’s former Senator Rick Santorum failed in his effort to
introduce the Women and Children’s Resources Act to fund CPC programs like RA
in 1999, which would have been a federally-funded program. RA gave support to
parallel CPCs in Florida, Wisconsin, and North Dakota. In 2001 Pennsylvania
support for RA increased and the program was funded by money from the Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. By 2011, the RA model was used to
establish anti-choice services in Texas, Michigan, Ohio, Nebraska, Louisiana,
South Dakota, and in 2014 Indiana. Pence said that “We fund Real Alternatives
because it’s the right thing to do! We know that the work that you all do is
critical to making Pennsylvania a better place. We know that what you do every
day is making a tremendous difference in the lives of our children and
families.”
The
Deep States and the Anti-Choice Agenda
While so-called right-to-life groups
are aware of CPCs and particularly the work of RA, most of the public had
little knowledge of the pilot Indiana program. In addition, aside from a brief
report on Indianapolis television, the Pence extension of the RA program with public money received little
attention. The small but determined opponents of the right of women to control
their bodies, including particularly religious organizations, create
semi-public organizations such as RA and then set about building support among
the political class to gain state funding for their efforts. By the time the
public is aware of the state funding, it is too late to mobilize adequate
political opposition.
In the case of RA, and most CPCs,
state funding is in violation of the separation of church and state and the
Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. Progressives need to become familiar
with the “deep state,” those semi-invisible centers of power that shape the
public policy agenda and at the same
time work against policies that challenge the fundamental rights of all
citizens. And voters reflecting on if and how they cast their vote should be
aware of the semi-secret anti-women policies implemented by the
vice-presidential candidate on the Republican ticket, Mike Pence.
