The Freedom From Religion Foundation is protesting the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners’ irresponsible grant of hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funds to a religious anti-abortion clinic.

A concerned Gwinnett County resident informed FFRF that on Aug. 5, the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners voted to approve $450,000 in Department of Housing and Urban Development funding for a local faith-based crisis pregnancy center, the Georgia Wellness Group. Reportedly, the group was previously under the Obria name, and the national Obria website still lists it as a clinic. Obria is a national health nonprofit whose 2024 impact statement makes its religious mission clear: “Our pro-life mission is at the heart of all we do. With a steadfast commitment to life-affirming care, we’re honored to serve our patients with compassion, dignity, and respect every day.” Obria’s mission statement continues: “Being led by God, we provide loving, compassionate, high-quality and comprehensive reproductive, medical health services consistent with the inherent value and dignity of every person.”

Despite the fact that the Georgia Wellness Group appeared to cut ties with Obria, CEO Robin Mauck still recognizes that the organization is faith-based and has stated, “Yes we are faith-based, but that isn’t a deterrent from being able to see us.” 

The Board of Commissioners’ proposal was passed before public comment was allowed during the Aug. 5 meeting, and many local organizations have been outspoken in their opposition.

FFRF is urging the board to refrain from transferring $450,000 in public funds to the Georgia Wellness Group, and to desist from awarding grants to religious organizations in the future.

“By partnering with and leading citizens to an explicitly Christian organization, the county will signal blatant favoritism toward religion over nonreligion, and Christianity over all other faiths,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence writes to Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners Chair Nicole Love Hendrickson.

Numerous studies have shown that so-called crisis pregnancy centers, like the Georgia Wellness Group, often sacrifice sound medical advice and basic ethical standards to spread their religious message.

Studies in multiple states have found that crisis pregnancy centers incorrectly inform pregnant teens that condoms are ineffective in reducing pregnancy and the transmission of certain STIs, and that abortion causes mental illness. These deceptive tactics are obviously employed to scare women from using contraception or seeking abortions, both of which crisis pregnancy centers oppose for purely religious reasons. It is inappropriate and irresponsible for Gwinnett County to provide grant funding to such an entity.

While Gwinnett County’s residents are free to seek out the support and services of religious organizations, facilitating and funding that relationship is beyond the scope of a secular government. The government cannot subsidize certain religions or dispense special financial benefits to religious organizations or ministries. The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause requires government neutrality between religions, and between religion and nonreligion.

Using public funds to support services from Christian organizations rather than secular alternatives needlessly marginalizes and fails to adequately serve the Gwinnett County residents who are part of the 37 percent of Americans who are non-Christians and the nearly one in three Americans who are now religiously unaffiliated. Furthermore, it is the duty of the county to ensure that information — not disinformation, propaganda and dogma — is disseminated via publicly supported resources.

The decision to pass the proposal without community input shows that the board is more concerned with advancing its own explicitly religious worldview on a vulnerable population. FFRF stands firmly on the side of bodily autonomy, and believes that women should receive appropriate, well-funded and scientifically based reproductive care options that suit their lives best, regardless of belief or nonbelief. Georgia already bans abortion at about six weeks, before most women even know they are pregnant.

“Democracy requires sunlight, and it’s clear the board  of commissioners sought to avoid community concerns by approving this funding without notice or public input,” FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor says. “It is grossly irresponsible to advance religiously motivated misinformation at a time when reproductive rights are under attack in Georgia.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with 42,000 members nationwide, including over 600 members in Georgia. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

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