The government of Louisiana Gov. In the past year, Jeff Landry has not been able to supervise or supervision of public money that is given to anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers”, as required by the Steens Act.
The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services has not checked how state dollars were spent on ‘crisis -pregnancy centers’, create regulations for how they can use that money, whether the centers have achieved the goals of their state contracts, according to according to their state contracts A report that the Louisiana has released legislative Auditor’s Office September 8.
It was expected that those benchmarks would be met A Steenswet from 2024 To set up the maternity and baby care initiative, which has replaced a similar state program that alternatives are called abortion.
“DCFS could have paid pregnancy centers for services that are not eligible for financing according to the State Act”, read the report Legal auditor Mike Waguespack that was submitted to Wetgevers on 3 September.
For years, Louisiana has financially supported the controversial “crisis pregnancy centers” that were originally designed as competitors for abortion clinics. Proponents say that the centers, often affiliated with religious groups, offer help to pregnant people and new parents who are more than ever necessary, because the Louisiana abortion ban came into force in 2022.
Critics said that many of the centers misunderstand themselves as clinics for health care, even when their employees have little medical education. Some centers also have taken unfounded medical concepts and treatments on customers.
Five of the “Crisis pregnancy centers” that have received government financing in the past year, for example,, according to the Auditor’s report, offer “Abortus Pill Reversal” services. Such treatments have not been effective or safe and are being denounced by Leiden doctors’ organizations.
In total, the state divided $ 1.2 million to 12 “Crisis pregnancy centers” from August 2024 to July 2025. Eleven of the 12 centers drew the maximum financing of the state of $ 100,800 in that period of $ 100,800.
The Landry administration is planning to give Louisiana anti-abortion centers more money this year. It has increased the annual cap for financing per center to $ 249,999 in the current budget cycle, despite the auditor’s concerns.
But most “crisis pregnancy centers” in Louisiana do not receive state funds. From June there were 38 anti-abortion centers in the state based on the audit report.
Lack of supervision
Louisiana legislers were specifically about which services the state was willing to pay ‘crisis pregnancy centers’.
The 2024 law that set up the pregnancy and baby care initiative says that only counseling, mentoring, classes and material items such as cradle or diapers can be covered with state money. Financing can also pay for references to government agencies that can help to register for public benefits, childcare or health programs.
The auditor could not distinguish whether the $ 1.2 million of the state was about covering these services or other items, because government officials did not need the “crisis pregnancy centers” to give documentation about where the money was spent. State contracts with the “Crisis pregnancy centers” also did not limit how the money could be used for services established in the status of the State.
In addition, the Department of Children and Family Services told the auditor that it never paid less than the maximum amount that $ 300 per customer is permitted per month for a “crisis -pregnancy center” in the first year of the program.
“DCFS did not require pregnancy centers to invoice only for services that are eligible for government financing or additional supporting documentation provided for services provided,” said the audit report.
The centers offer a number of services to customers that do not have to be covered by the state, including ultrasound, pregnancy tests, screening for sexually transmitted infections and medication recipes.
The agency also has no provisions for the contract of the State that requires the centers to achieve certain service goals. It initially refused to impose more than $ 7,500 on fines on centers for missing those benchmarks, according to the report of the auditor.
In response to the audit, Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services Secretary Rebecca Harris said that she will implement stricter reporting requirements for the centers and make state regulations towards the end of the year. She will also have the centers pay the $ 7,500 in fines that they would otherwise owe.
“DCFS will not allow the payment for any services outside the scope of those who are permitted according to the Studies Act,” Harris wrote last month in a letter to the auditor.
Michelle Erenberg, executive director of Abortus Rights Group Lift Louisiana, was not surprised that the state did not closely follow his spending with the anti-abortion centers. She partially opposed the law, because the reporting requirements were not strict.
“Several of these recommendations regarding supervision and transparency and more rigorous reporting are things that we have suggested for years that the legislative power is doing,” said Erenberg in an interview of 8 September.
Umbrella non -profit is not picked
Proponents of the “Crisis pregnancy centers” believe that Louisiana’s supervision will improve the program as soon as the Landry administration chooses a non -profit organization to supervise this.
The 2024 law requires that the Department of Children and Family Services contract with a single non -profit group to distribute state financing to “Crisis -Swing Centers” via subcontractors. The non -profit must also set up a website and promote the centers, according to the state law.
“We believe that this program is most effective when a general contractor is called,” said Ben Clapper, executive director of Louisiana Right to Life, the largest anti-abortion group in the state, in an interview Monday. “We just urge the department to mention a contractor for the best success.”
The agency has not finished developing the contract offers for the non -profit and, according to the report, will not have hired an organization for the job until July 2026, two years after the law was approved. According to the auditor, the Department of Children and Family Services is struggling with the contract guidelines, due to restrictions that legislators have set in law.
The Statute does not allow the Department to demand something of the non -profit, except for creating a website and a commitment to do some marketing. Other obligations are explicitly prohibited, according to the law.
In his report, the auditor wondered whether the non -profit entity is even necessary or the best use of state financing. For years, the Department of Children and Family Services has directly concluded a contract with ‘Crisis pregnancy centers’, and the auditor suggested that it could be a waste of money to hire an intermediary.
“This could possibly reduce the available financing for pregnancy centers for services that are granted because the general contractor will collect an administrative fee to pass on DCFS financing to the pregnancy centers,” the report said.
Other states with similar financing programs for “crisis pregnancy centers” have also had problems when they have used non -profit contractors to spread the money.
Texas has overhauled its financing program for ‘Crisis pregnancy’-that more than $ 100 million distributes-this year after a few anti-abortion centers seemed to spend the state money on other activities other than direct services for pregnant people. Critics also claimed that the state paid the centers for services such as the distribution of pamphlets to customers.
In Oklahoma, an auditor also found only $ 106,000 of $ 392,000 published with his umbrella non -profit went to ‘Crisis pregnancy centers’. The non -profit said that for a year for one year it would provide services to 9,300 women in Oklahoma, but only 524, according to information in the Louisiana audit report.
The man who set up that umbrella -Non profit organizations in Texas and Oklahoma, John McNamara, Was also interested in working in Louisiana.
In 2024, McNamara testified to a Louisiana Senate Committee For the law that has established the new structure for the financing of ‘Crisis pregnancy centers’.
He also reserved the name Louisiana pregnancy care network with the Louisiana Secretary of State for a few months last year, although he did not ultimately use it. The title is comparable to the non -profit organizations he has set up elsewhere, such as the Texas pregnancy care network and the Oklahoma pregnancy network.
This article was originally published by the Louisiana Illuminator, Part of States Newsroom. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact editor Greg Larose for questions: [email protected].
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