It is our understanding that you lease property to Gateway Women’s Care of Raleigh. As you may know, Gateway is an anti-abortion center, also commonly described as a “crisis pregnancy center” or “pregnancy resource center.” We are a group of students and other community members concerned about the harms that this center poses to our community. Our demand is that you stop providing space for Gateway. We would greatly appreciate the opportunity to meet with you to discuss ways to replace this harmful institution.

Gateway describes their center as “serving the Triangle” with “excellent pregnancy and reproductive healthcare services.” However, aside from the mere 6 hours a month that the Raleigh clinic holds STD testing, it is difficult to describe the remainder of their services as “healthcare.” Gateway offers no discernible form of prenatal care or other healthcare for expectant or new mothers. The “limited ultrasounds” they offer may confirm a pregnancy, but cannot detect fetal or placental abnormalities that could endanger the health of the mother. Gateway also features “abortion pill reversal” on their list of services, which according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is an “unproven and unethical” procedure. Most concerningly, Gateway is not a licensed medical facility, and as such is not subject to regulation and oversight which protects patients from medical misinformation and manipulation. Without a proper chain of command, health hazards like HPV contamination or cases of malpractice such as undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy may go unaddressed and have caused considerable harm (and litigation).

While Gateway’s website and social media present their mission as providing quality healthcare, information provided to the government and to the religious groups that finance them tell a different story. In their most recently available 990 form, Gateway Women’s Care reports themselves as a “faith-based nonprofit organization which empowers women to choose life for themselves and their unborn children.” The group spent $166,214 on general advertising and marketing in 2022 to fulfill this mission. The center is listed on the “pro-life” sites Care Net and LifeLink Carolina, revealing their close affiliation with the anti-abortion movement. And disturbingly, in a ministry profile for the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, Gateway describes their goal as “transform[ing] lives through Christ in sexually broken and abortion-minded communities.”

Expenses listed on Gateway’s 990 form reveal which “sexually broken” community they are so concerned about; $20,335 was spent on “college outreach.” Gateway is conveniently sandwiched between multiple college campuses (NC State University, Meredith College, Shaw University, St. Mary’s School, and more) and a Planned Parenthood clinic a half mile further down the road. The center may be intentionally positioned to intercept students seeking care; there is even a “Gateway vs. Planned Parenthood” section on their website. Anti-abortion centers are known to target communities with limited healthcare options such as college campuses, rural, low-income, and predominantly BIPOC neighborhoods, as well as open near abortion clinics to divert patients.

Anti-abortion centers like Gateway Women’s Care also harm communities by diverting funding from facilities offering genuine reproductive, prenatal, and postpartum healthcare. This is of particular concern in North Carolina, where a majority of counties do not offer maternity care. In the most recent state budget, fake clinics like Gateway were awarded over $20 million in tax-payer dollars. North Carolina also diverts federal funding designated towards poverty alleviation to anti-abortion centers. Because the funding amount is tied in part to the number of clients served, the more anti-abortion centers that operate, the more their funding increases. This comes at the expense of funding trusted sources of healthcare for low-income communities, such as Planned Parenthood and the Nurse-Family Partnership.

Our community deserves access to credible and high-quality healthcare. Anti-abortion centers like Gateway interfere with this goal. For reasons stated above, please take our concerns into consideration and cancel the lease on Gateway Women's Care for the public health risk that they pose.

Thank you.