Anti-abortion Group Gets Public Funds

An anti-abortion group is slated to get a $5,000 grant from the City of Temecula's dwindling community services fund.

Birth Choice Temecula, a ministry whose stated mission is "saving the lives of unborn children," is set to get a grant, while groups including Habitat for Humanity and Hospice of the Valleys, are set to be denied by a city council vote in January.

"The mission of Birth Choice of Temecula is to foster a Christ-like view of human life and sexuality by offering hope and compassionate help, thus enabling positive, life-affirming choices," reads its mission statement. 

But some residents said the grant is a misuse of taxpayer money.

"I don't agree with it at all. I think it's inappropriate," said David Gee, 49, of Temecula. "These people are basically impressing their beliefs of other people."

The grants went to the council for a vote last month, but council members decided to put it off until January when they could discuss the grant applications further.

To see the list of nonprofits that applied for grants, click here.

In each of the past three years, Birth Choice got $5,000 grants from the city. It used the money to prevent 59 abortions "through counseling and material support for those who wished to keep their babies but needed help to do so," according to its grant application.

When the economy turned down, the city cut its budget for the community service funding program. In 2008, it gave out $117,500. Last year, that number shrunk to $55,500.

This year, Temecula is slated to give out only $47,000 to 15 organizations including Birth Choice. More than half of the 37 organizations that applied are slated for rejection. The applications total $154,670.

Cutting funds to the grant program was an effort to balance the budget, said Genie Roberts, the city's director of finances.

"In the last four years, revenues have declined," she said.

To read the city's report explaining the grant program, click here.

Transparency problems

Birth Choice drew criticism for violating the conditions of its nonprofit status by refusing to disclose information on a $197,365 grant it got from the California Department of Education in 2008.

The state can only give money to a sectarian organization such as Birth Choice for non-sectarian uses, said Rob Boston of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. They likely refused to talk about the grant because they planned to use it for sectarian purposes, he said.

Jennifer Cartell, Birth Choice's executive director, denied this.

What Birth Choice does

The organization is run from a suite in a strip mall in the industrial area of western Temecula.

Chela Gomez, an 80-year-old volunteer at Birth Choice, showed off their counseling room.

A series of models showing a fetus at different stages of growth sat on a bookcase. Outside the room's door, a nativity scene sat on a shelf.

Gomez said she has seen miracles worked in her 15 years volunteering for Birth Choice.

She recalled a woman four years ago who came in wanting an abortion. "She came here, we talked to her and I prayed with her," Gomez said.

Gomez helped the woman put the child up for adoption.

"That was a joy for me to save a baby," she said. "It reminded me of Moses. We put the baby in a basket."

Public funds, partisan uses

Giving money to Birth Choice is an abuse of the taxpayers' money, said some pro-choice Temecula residents.

"I think its a waste of money," said Temecula resident Michael Blythe, 3o. "They have an opinion and the city's money shouldn't go to promoting an opinion."

For the most part, though, Birth Choice takes care of mothers whose children are already born, said Cartell, the group's executive director.

More than 80 percent of Birth Choice's money goes to give-aways of material goods, such as diapers, baby clothes and formula, she said.

"We help families get different things they need," Cartell said. The group helps young mothers get WIC, contact adoption services and connect to other social services, she said.

"Many (clients) are in really bad financial straits. We've been able to help a lot of people avoid becoming homeless," Cartell said.

Birth Choice presents itself as a reproductive health service, but its main purpose is to promote a pro-life ideology, said Vince Hall, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood.

"There's a completely unethical and dishonest political strategy at work at Birth Choice," he said. "They will say and do anything, with no boundaries, to dissuade a woman from having an abortion."

Birth Choice spreads medically inaccurate information he called "scare tactics," in an effort to discourage women from getting abortions.

For example, literature the organization passes out states that abortions increase the risk of breast cancer, which is a myth, he said.

"The city council has chosen to waste precious taxpayer dollars to spread medically inaccurate information in their community," Hall said.

When asked why the council was planning to give money to Birth Choice instead of Habitat for Humanity or Hospice of the Valleys, Councilmember Mike Naggar said it was a "very biased question" and refused to answer.

Cartell said Planned Parenthood is guilty of the same thing; getting tax money for something many tax payers oppose.

"Planned Parenthood gets millions of dollars to kill babies," Cartell said. "We get such a little amount of money, I can't believe people complain."

Councilmembers Maryann Edwards and Chuck Washington declined to return phone calls and e-mails seeking comment.