Temecula Funds Anti-Abortion Group

An anti-abortion group got $5,000 of taxpayers’ money from Temecula’s shrinking community services fund.

The City Council voted on Feb. 22 to give the grant to Birth Choice Temecula, a nonprofit ministry whose stated mission is "saving the lives of unborn children.” Meanwhile, groups with less partisan missions, such as Habitat for Humanity and Hospice of the Valleys, applied for grants and were denied.

Councilmembers Maryann Edwards, Mike Naggar and Chuck Washington, who were members of a subcommittee in charge of choosing which applications to grant, declined to comment.

Birth Choice’s mission is one likely to be loved by some, disliked by others. “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.

The council was originally scheduled to vote on the grant in November, but Councilman Ron Roberts asked to put it off. Councilman Naggar cast the only dissenting vote to do that.

Council members Naggar and Washington reexamined the list and brought it back to the council unchanged, according to city records.

Birth Choice got $5,000 grants from the city in each of the past three years. 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.

The grant program used to give out more than $100,000 annually. For example, in 2008, it gave out $117,500. Then, in 2009, that amount shrank to $55,500.

The cuts were due to the recession, said Genie Roberts, the city’s director of finances. The city gave out only $47,000 including the grant to Birth Choice this year. More than half of the 37 applications, which totaled $154,670, were denied.

Birth Choice operates in a strip mall on Enterprise Circle Way, where they counsel people and give out clothes, diapers and other things needed to raise a child, said Jennifer Cartell, Birth Choice's executive director. In fact, more than 80 percent of the organization’s funds go to providing for families whose children are already born, she said.

The ministry drew criticism from Planned Parenthood for passing off inaccurate information about reproduction in order to dissuade women from using contraceptives or seeking abortions, said Vince Hall, Planned Parenthood’s spokesperson.

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

Planned Parenthood is guilty of the same thing some accused Birth Choice of being guilty of: getting taxpayers’ money and using it for partisan purposes, Cartell said. Planned Parenthood uses taxpayers’ money to “kill babies,” she said in a December interview.

To read more about Birth Choice and the council's vote, click here.