Alpha Center, National Abstinence
Clearinghouse targeted by liberal group
WASHINGTON —
Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund have helped to secure
exoneration by the Internal Revenue Service for two non-profit
organizations targeted by a Left wing special interest group in
Washington. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
sent a complaint to the IRS, demanding that it open an investigation
to revoke the tax-exempt status of a crisis pregnancy center and an
abstinence information clearinghouse in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
“Pro-life and
pro-abstinence viewpoints should not be treated as second-class
perspectives. This is just another attempt by political special
interests to silence these viewpoints in the great debates of the
day,” said ADF Senior Counsel Gary McCaleb. “Groups like CREW
apparently will try anything to shut down non-profit organizations
that promote abstinence, pro-life services, and other worthy causes.
CREW’s allegations were disproved by the IRS and both groups got a
clean bill of health.”
In July 2006,
CREW sent a letter to the IRS asking that it investigate the
National Abstinence Clearinghouse and Alpha Center, advising that
the IRS should revoke the tax-exempt status of both 501(c)(3)
organizations. The National
Abstinence Clearinghouse provides factual and medical materials
on the practice of sexual abstinence, and
Alpha Center provides a
variety of services for men and women involved in an unplanned
pregnancy.
ADF attorneys
represented the two organizations throughout the IRS investigation,
and confirmed Monday that the IRS found that there is no basis to
change either organization’s tax-exempt status.
“It is
unfortunate that radical, Left-wing activist groups like CREW
willingly intimidate organizations that are pro-life and
pro-abstinence,” said McCaleb. “The National Abstinence
Clearinghouse and Alpha Center are helping young people make good
decisions in the midst of a culture war that generates confusion. It
takes a very vindictive attitude to try to shut down these
organizations, which build up and strengthen individuals, the
community, and the nation.”
ADF is a legal
alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through
strategy, training, funding, and litigation.
