Democrat Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has decided to end a state program that provides millions of dollars to pregnancy centers that provide abortion alternatives and support women who have their babies rather than aborting them.

“Pennsylvania plans to end on Dec. 31 its longstanding contract with the nonprofit Real Alternatives, the first organization in the nation to secure significant state and federal subsidies to support anti-abortion counseling centers,” the Associated Press reported. “Under the program, Real Alternatives distributed the state and federal funds to dozens of Pennsylvania centers, including Catholic Charities, anti-abortion counseling centers and maternity homes, which provide support and housing for pregnant women.”

“For decades, taxpayer dollars have gone to fund Real Alternatives. My Administration will not continue that pattern – we will ensure women in this Commonwealth receive the reproductive health care they deserve,” Governor Josh Shapiro said in a statement. “Pennsylvanians made clear by electing me as Governor that they support a woman’s freedom to choose, and I will be steadfast in defending that right.”

The Real Alternatives organization was started in the 1990s by then-Governor Robert Casey, who was a pro-life Catholic Democrat, and both Republican and Democrat governors had continued to fund it since.

The impact

The program's defunding will impact facilities all over the state who do what abortion advocates always claim the pro-life movement doesn't do--provide for mothers and babies who decided not to abort their children.

According to Eileen Artysh, the executive director of St. Margaret of Castello Maternity Home, most of the women the home serves have already decided not to abort their babies.

The home receives funding for housing, materials and parenting counseling for these women, and will now have to find other funding sources or figure out how to scale back services (or shut down completely).

It's stunning that Shapiro and other Democrats in Pennsylvania think it would be better for these women to abort their babies than to have them.

A win for women's health?

The Pennsylvania Pressroom, a government site, called the defunding a "major win for women's health," but is it?

How is it healthy to end the lives of babies, many of them female, and expose women to a number of present and future health risks that would not result in carrying the pregnancy to term?

It's yet another misnomer in a society that increasingly brings to mind dystopian novels like 1984 and Brave New World.

Human life is being devalued by the likes of Shapiro and his cronies, and Republicans can seemingly do nothing about it.

Program's spread

Despite Shapiro's move, however, the program has spread to other states and their Republican governors continue to fund these vital centers that help women who find themselves in a bad situation but want to do right by their babies.

As for Pennsylvania, well, it may be time for Republicans who live there to decided whether they really want that kind of leadership when other states are much more friendly to their values and concerns.