A Midwest state that previously stripped funding from Planned Parenthood out of its annual budget is now set to increase funding for pro-life crisis pregnancy centers.

Ohio’s state Senate passed a bill last week that includes $5 million for crisis pregnancy centers – a $4 million increase from previous budgets, according to Cleveland.com.

Earlier this year, a federal appeals court upheld an Ohio law that stripped most funding from Planned Parenthood. The organization received about $1.5 million in annual state funds.

“This is the first budget opportunity we’ve had since then to invest additional funds into crisis pregnancy centers,” said Ohio Senate President Larry Obhof, a Republican, during an interview on Tony Perkins’ Washington Watch radio program.   

Republicans control both chambers. Ohio’s governor, Mike DeWine, is a Republican. 

Crisis pregnancy centers, Obhof said, provide women ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, prenatal care, parenting classes, counseling, diapers and clothes, and other financial aid. 

Ohio has around 200 crisis pregnancy centers that serve low-income women “who need help,” Obhof said. The centers don’t perform abortions. 

“They’re providing pretty valuable services to women in need, and that’s true for rural communities, suburban and urban alike,” he said.

Although the $5 million funding for…

A North Carolina woman undergoing a chemical abortion had a change of heart when she learned she was carrying twins and was able to save her babies thanks to the work of a pro-life pregnancy center.   

The woman was six weeks pregnant when she visited a Charlotte, N.C., abortion clinic – A Preferred Women’s Health Center – with the goal of ending the pregnancy. 

Pregnancy Help News first reported the story. 

“Oh – twins,” the technician at the abortion clinic said while performing an ultrasound.

The pregnant woman had always wanted twins, and she swallowed the first pill without having time to consider the consequences. 

A chemical abortion is a two-step process involving a pair of drugs, RU-486 (mifepristone) and misoprostol. Together, they’re known as the abortion pill. Mifepristone blocks the natural hormone progesterone and causes the lining of the uterus to release the unborn baby. Misoprostol starts the contractions that result in delivery of a dead baby.

Leaving the clinic, the woman heard a sidewalk counselor: “It might not be too late for you – AbortionPillReversal.com– they can still help you save your baby.”

The woman, known pseudonymously as “Alexis,” visited the website and called the phone number that was listed. She wanted to save her babies. 

“We got her started on the abortion pill reversal treatment extremely…

Religious donations dropped nearly $2 billion last year, reversing a years-long trend of steady growth, according to the Giving USA Foundation’s annual report on philanthropy.

The decline comes as 2018 marked the first full year of the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. That law doubled the standard deductions for families meaning many filers no longer need to itemize charitable donations. Critics of the plan argued the change would hit charitable organizations hard, as there was no longer a tax incentive to give.

Giving USA Chair Rick Dunham, the CEO of Dunham + Company, in an interview with the Christian Post, suggested there were other factors at play in the findings.

“I do think there are some negative things happening within the religious community that could affect giving, such as a denominational split we are seeing, the problems within the Catholic church,” Dunham said. “There are a number of things that could definitely be forces that are driving down giving.”

The 2019 study, conducted by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and released on June 18, found that, although overall charitable giving in the U.S. rose 0.7 percent to a record level of nearly $428 billion last year, when adjusted for inflation total giving declined by 1.7 percent from 2017’s record levels.

In the religion category, giving dropped by…