History
Florida Pregnancy Care Network is a 501(c)(3) organization, first incorporated in Florida on August 26, 2005, by Rufus S. Armstrong and Kiera Camron. Armstrong is a Tampa-based obstetrician and gynecologist who was sued twice in 1995 for medical malpractice. An attorney representing the victims at the time proposed his own legislation, explaining to state legislators the need for potential patients to more easily obtain information on a doctor’s history. That same year, a bill was defeated that would have established a reporting system to inform patients.[1] Armstrong went on to create an organization responsible for administrating millions of dollars in counseling to pregnant people. Armstrong left the network in 2007. Kiera Camron is a veteran in the anti-abortion movement and was executive director of Open Door Women’s Clinic, an anti-abortion pregnancy center in Tallahassee, Florida. Kiera left the network in 2008 and is currently the president of the Good Shepherd Catholic Church, also in Tallahassee. Florida Pregnancy Care Network currently has five board members and an executive director. All parties currently involved with the network are entrenched in Florida’s anti-abortion and conservative political circles.
Florida Pregnancy Care Network’s mission “is to enhance the efforts of Florida pregnancy resource organizations that deliver wellness services to qualifying women, and that provide emotional and material support to pregnant women in need, enabling them to carry their pregnancies to term and choose parenting or adoption.” Since 2009, Florida granted the network over $30 million in tax dollars for distribution to subcontractors. Despite this wealth of state funding moving through the network, it is required to do little monitoring of subcontractors’ performance.
Contracts require all subcontractors in the program must provide accurate medical materials and information to all clients and references for any medical statements made, but the network’s website has a link for “Emergency Pregnancy Services” that directs visitors to the website abortionpillreversal.com, for the organization Abortion Pill Rescue. As described previously, abortion reversal is not effective and has been rejected by the greater medical community.
Board of Directors
Rather than having any expertise in reproductive health, Florida Pregnancy Care Network’s board members are conservative political operatives, some of whom have been tied to scandals across the Southern United States.
Jim Kallinger (Chairman)
James “Jim” Rudolph Kallinger was a Republican state representative for Florida House District 35 from 2001 to 2004. Kallinger is a longtime Florida political insider and in 2020 was a candidate for the Florida House District 9.
Kallinger’s 2020 campaign was audited twice for campaign finance violations, once for receiving a campaign contribution from a supporter over the $1,000 contribution limit, and the second for gifting his own campaign over the $1,000 limit. Kallinger’s board seat at Florida Pregnancy Care Network is not listed on his campaign website, despite the site promoting him serving on two additional boards at the Interfaith Hospitality Network and the Florida Housing Development Corporation. Pictures on the “Jim Kallinger for Florida House” Facebook page show Kallinger campaigning during the COVID-19 epidemic without a mask, along with supporters without social distancing precautions.
Kallinger is a Senior Strategist at Front Line Strategies, a public relations firm, specializing in grassroots and political campaigns. Front Line Strategies is run by President Brett Doster and Vice President Matt Doster, who are brothers. Brett Doster is a longtime insider of the Florida Republican party; their father, Russell Doster, a wealthy real estate broker of Doster Broker Group, is also heavily involved in conservative Florida PACs and nonprofits.
Front Line Strategies and Brett Doster produced the first television ad for Roy Moore’s 2018 U.S. Senate campaign. The day Front Line Strategies and Brett Doster released the produced ad for Moore, The Washington Post broke allegations that Moore sexually assaulted a 14-year-old and pursued romantic relationships with at least three other teenage girls when Moore was in his 30s. The deeply troubling allegations did not sway Brett Doster from staunchly defending his client. Brett Doster tweeted, “Interesting how the GOP establishment is lining up with Libs to attack @MooreSenate before weighing evidence. Almost like they were colluding – as usual. They’ll be proven wrong, and @MooreSenate will win in 4 weeks. #ALSEN.” Kallinger is listed on the Front Line Strategies website as specializing in “political and issues campaigns.”
Amber Kelly Butler (Board Member)
Amber Kelly Butler is a conservative lobbyist and political communications operative. Prior to joining the board of Florida Pregnancy Care Network in 2005, she graduated from the University of South Florida in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a minor in Economics. She later received her bachelor’s degree in ministry from the River Bible Institute in 2015. The River Bible Institute was established in 1997 by Rodney Howard-Browne and his wife Adonica Howard-Browne. In addition to the River Bible Institute, Howard-Browne and his wife established the church The River at Tampa Bay Church in Tampa, Florida, Revival Ministries International, River School of Worship and River School of Government.
Howard-Browne built a cult-like following with his methods, which have been criticized by other members of the faith community, and he was criticized in 1999 for his handling of legal entanglements involving The River church, including a Bible studies teacher charged with molesting an 8 year old. Howard-Browne has a history of promoting conspiracy theories and attacks on other religions based on racism. While hosting a rally for candidate Newt Gingrich, Howard-Browne called for a Christian American uprising “that will not sit idly by… allow[ing[ Islam to take over this country.” In 2017, during a meeting with President Trump and conservative pastors, Howard-Browne led the group in praying over the President. In a video posted after the meeting, Howard-Browne went on to say:
“[t]here is a planned attack on our president… and that’s all I can tell you about right now; I know what I’m talking about, I’ve spoken to high-ranking people in the government and this is being planned by people that hate God, hate America, hate our president and we have to stop this, in Jesus name.”
During an interview Howard-Browne claimed the Secret Service had visited him and asked him to explain the accusations made in the video he posted. During the interview, Howard-Browne explained, “[i]f the Secret Service in Washington, D.C., don’t know what’s coming down, then why should somebody from Tampa… It’s not my problem.”
Most recently, Howard-Browne made national headlines for promoting COVID-19 conspiracy theories. In March 2020, Howard-Browne conducted two religious services for packed audiences at The River church despite a stay-at-home order in Hillsborough County, where the church is located. Howard-Browne was arrested on charges of unlawful assembly and violating the County’s order but posted bond thirty minutes later.
Butler previously worked for the Florida Family Policy Council (FFPC) as the Director of Policy and Communications; the FFPC works toward “A Nation Where God is Honored, Life is Cherished, Families Thrive and Religious Liberty Flourishes.” She wrote weekly legislative reports for Florida Family Action, the PAC partner organization of the FFPC.
According to her LinkedIn, Butler currently serves as the Chief of External Affairs at the Florida Department of Education’s Division of Blind Services. Across social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, Butler has posted and circulated transphobic, homophobic, anti-immigrant, and anti-abortion content, including one tweet in which she assures transgender individuals that there is hope because “God did not make a mistake” while promoting a video indicating individuals identifying as trans can change their identity. She liked a tweet comparing abortion to slavery.
Teresa Cooper Ward (Board Member)
Teresa Cooper Ward is a Florida-based lawyer. Ward has practiced law at Dennis, Jackson, Martin & Fontela since 2014. Before that, she was Deputy General Counsel for the Florida House of Representatives Office of the General Counsel. Ward represented former Florida State Representative Doug Holder when he became embroiled in a financial disclosure legal entanglement.
Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Ward graduated from the University of South Florida with a Bachelor of Arts in 1977 and later graduated with a J.D. from Stetson University College of Law in 1981. Ward is involved with numerous Christian groups, including the National Legal Christian Society and the St. Petersburg chapter of the Christian Legal Society of which she was once president.
In 2003, Ward cosigned a letter from Children of God for Life, a religious anti-abortion nonprofit, to President George W. Bush urging him to ban the use of abortion-derived fetal cells in vaccine development. Despite lifesaving contributions of research using fetal tissue in medical science, the letter compares the practice to the use of “cell lines taken from Nazi experiments on the Jews.” Ward signed the letter as a “P.F.E.H.C. Advisory Board” member. Further investigation showed Children of God for Life’s Vice President, Jay Carpenter, established an organization titled Professionals for Excellence in Health Care, “a group of physicians, attorneys, nurses, pharmacists, and related health care professionals dedicated to the ethical treatment of persons, born and unborn.” An internet search reveals no references to P.F.E.H.C.
In 2005, Ward ran to become chair of the Pinellas County Republican Party. After the Tampa Bay Times wrote an article regarding the party’s abortion platform, Ward wrote a scathing letter to the editor in response to correct the article and state that she had, “worked hard to establish [her]self as an ardent pro-life worker” and the “Republican Party does not have an ‘abortion rights’ platform.” Instead, the party “believe[s] the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to live which cannot be infringed.”
The anti-abortion movement has a long history of racism and ties to white supremacy. Ward promotes similar ideas. In 2009, Ward expressed public support for the “birther” attacks against President Barack Obama. She expressed public support for Dr. Orly Taitz, and Barnett v. Obama, a lawsuit filed by Dr. Taitz on behalf of federal presidential candidates alleging President Obama as ineligible to be president. U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter dismissed the lawsuit on October 29, 2009 and Dr. Taitz faced criticism of her legal abilities and ethics, including claims that she forced witnesses to lie under oath.
On Twitter account which has been deleted, Ward has tweeted her support of legislation “protecting unborn children”[3] and support of arming school teachers to respond to mass school shootings. Ward has also posted and retweeted articles from far-right news outlets like The American Spectator and Breitbart, including a retweet of Joel Pollak, Senior Editor at Breitbart News, labeling President Donald Trump’s pardon of the Sheriff Joe Arpaio for criminal contempt of court as “awesome.” Sheriff Joe Arpaio is best known for his racial profiling when detaining individuals based “solely on the suspicion that they were in the country illegally, and turning them over to the immigration authorities.”
Rita Gagliano (Executive Director)
Rita M. Gagliano currently serves as the Executive Director of Florida Pregnancy Care Network. Gagliano graduated from Franciscan University of Steubenville with a Bachelor of Arts in Theology in 1991. After working as a theology teacher from 1991-1998, Gagliano served as a Family Life Coordinator for the Catholic Diocese of Savannah in 1999. Then, after working in college admissions for Savannah College of Art and Design and Thomas University from 2000-2018, Gagliano joined Florida Pregnancy Care Network in 2018.
On her active Twitter account, Gagliano has liked and retweeted scores of posts featuring vitriolic anti-abortion and anti-immigrant sentiments, COVID-19 denialism, mail-in voting fraud conspiracies, and anti-vaxxer rhetoric.[4]
Susan Grimsley (Former Executive Director)
Susan Elkins Grimsley joined the FPCN board as Executive Director in 2007. Grimsley represented Florida Pregnancy Care Network at a 2018 “Pro-Family Banquet” held by the Florida Family Policy Council, intending to honor “life-affirming pregnancy centers throughout Florida.” FFPC held its event as an opportunity for celebration; everyone in attendance anticipated the eventual signing of legislation guaranteeing “up to $4 million per year to pregnancy centers through the state’s Department of Health.” As Grimsley was quoted at the time,” [FPCN had] simply been a budget line item and had to be approved every year. Being in statute gives the program much more permanence.”
Grimsley and other “representatives of numerous outstanding Pro-life ministries” met with anti-abortion figure Jim Pinto in 2009. In a 2016 blog post about a fire at FPCN’s office building, Grimsley said of the accident, “God is good—He brings beauty from ashes and that’s what we’re counting on.”
Ingrid Delgado (Board Member)
Ingrid Delgado, a prominent Florida Catholic anti-death penalty advocate and a fervent, lifelong anti-abortion supporter, has been a board member of Florida Pregnancy Care Network since 2018.
Delgado is an Associate Director for Social Concerns/Respect Life with the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has an extensive anti-abortion social media presence. At an event where she was presenting the Defensor Vitae (Defender of Life) Award to a Florida legislator, Delgado said, “Protecting the unborn is one of the more challenging issues members of the legislature sponsor and support.”
Delgado has written opinion pieces against Florida legislation that allows children to be indicted as adults in criminal court and advocated for the minimum age to be 14 in order to indict children as adults in Florida. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when accessing an abortion is even more challenging due to unconstitutional state laws and stringent state mandates, Florida passed a law requiring anyone under the age of 18 to have a parent’s consent before accessing abortion care in July 2020. Delgado supported this law as being “common sense” despite a nearly identical law being struck down by the Florida Supreme Court in 1989.
Eric Haug (Board Member)
Eric Sigurd Haug is a Florida-based attorney who has been a board member of Florida Pregnancy Care Network since 2006. According to his LinkedIn page, after graduating from Western Illinois University in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Haug attended law school and graduated from Southern Illinois University School of Law with a Juris Doctorate in 1983.
Haug held various positions before serving as the executive director at Wildwood Church from 2003-2005. Haug then went on to serve as Staff Director and Chief Legislative Analyst for the Florida House of Representatives from 2007 to 2010.[5] In 2011, Haug started his own law and legal consultation practice, Eric S. Haug Law and Consulting, P.A., which he still runs today.
Haug and Eric S. Haugh Law & Consulting, P.A. filed a complaint on behalf of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, Inc. – a right-wing nonprofit law firm entrenched with climate change skeptic groups[6] and funded by the Koch brothers[7] – in November 2012, against the Florida Secretary of State and three Florida Supreme Court Justices asking the court to prohibit the Secretary of State from placing the Justices on the statewide ballot for the election cycle. The complaint alleged the three Justices failed to comply with Florida election law and were ineligible to be on the ballot. The complaint received criticism for its partisan motivations, given that the case had been investigated months earlier and no wrongdoing was found.
Constance “Connie” Moore (Former Board Chair)
Constance “Connie” Moore served as the Florida Pregnancy Care Network Board President from 2015-2017. During her time on the board, Moore served as the CEO of the Tallahassee-based Pregnancy Help and Information Center, which received $43,500 in funding from FPCN in the fiscal year ending June 2015. Pregnancy Help and Information Center has as its mission statement “Bring[ing] God’s love to protect life, nurture families and promote sexual purity.”[8]
Since 2014, Moore has worked as a Wellness Advocate for doTerra Essential Oils, a multi-level marketing company that has been formally warned multiple times by the FDA and the FTC for falsely implying their products could assist in preventing or curing autism, Ebola, and, most recently, COVID-19.[9]
[1] Cindy Rupert, Patients Blame Doctor for Woes; Complaints Prompt Lawyer to Push for Reform, The Tampa Tribune (Jul. 13, 1995).
[2] Actual amount is $25,295,312.40 according to the Florida Accountability Contract Tracking System. See Total Budgetary Amount, Grant Disbursement Information for Contract COH5P between Pregnancy Support Services Program and Department of Health, Florida Accountability Contract Tracking System (Jul. 1, 2009 to Jun. 30, 2013), available at https://facts.fldfs.com/Search/ContractDetail.aspx?AgencyId=640000&ContractId=COH5P; Total Budgetary Amount, Grant Disbursement Information for Contract COHD2 between Pregnancy Support Services Program and Department of Health, Florida Accountability Contract Tracking System (Jul. 1, 2013 to Jun. 30, 2017), available at https://facts.fldfs.com/Search/ContractDetail.aspx?AgencyId=640000&ContractId=COHD2; Total Budgetary Amount, Grant Disbursement Information for Contract COHN6 between Pregnancy Support Services Program and Department of Health, Florida Accountability Contract Tracking System (Jul. 1, 2017 to Jun. 30, 2021), available at https://facts.fldfs.com/Search/ContractDetail.aspx?AgencyId=640000&ContractId=COHN6.
[3] Teresa Ward, @TerriCooperWard, Twitter (Jan. 11, 2017), available at https://twitter.com/TerriCooperWard/status/819300917644300289.
[4] Rita Gagliano, Likes: @RitaGagliano2, Twitter (last accessed Nov. 19, 2020), available at https://twitter.com/RitaGagliano2/likes.
[5] Eric Haug, Experience, LinkedIn (last accessed Nov. 19, 2020), available at https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-haug-055011a/; Legislative Analyst, Directory of The Florida House of Representatives, (2008-2010), available at http://endchildhoodhunger.org/images/FloridaHouseDirectory.pdf.
[6] Southeastern Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) in 2013 which eventually was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court alleging the EPA has overreaching power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions through the Clean Air Act. Mark Walsh, Did the EPA Go Too Far in Regulating Greenhouse Gases? SCOTUS to Decide, ABAJournal (Feb. 1, 2014), available at https://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/did_the_epa_go_too_far_in_regulating_greenhouse_gases_scotus_to_decide; Southeastern Legal Foundation, EPA, EPALawsuit.com (last accessed Nov. 19, 2020), available at https://epalawsuit.com/; Southeastern Legal Foundation maintains a webpage dedicated to its EPA lawsuits and the “10 Myths of Global Warming” https://epalawsuit.com/why-a-lawsuit/.
[7] Donors Trust, Background, DESMOG (last accessed Nov. 19, 2020), available at https://www.desmogblog.com/who-donors-trust; Todd Phillips and Andrew Blotky, The Conservative Takeover of State Judiciaries, Center for American Progress (Aug. 12, 2012), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/courts/news/2012/08/13/12011/the-conservative-takeover-of-state-judiciaries/. Being funded by the Koch network, Southeastern Legal Foundation is also an anti-union organization and has signed on to anti-union amicus briefs in front of the Supreme Court Don McIntosh, The Janus v. AFSCME Case: What it is, Who’s Behind It, the STAND (Feb. 15, 2018), available at https://www.thestand.org/2018/02/the-janus-case-what-it-is-whos-behind-it/.
[8] Connie Moore, Experience, LinkedIn (last accessed Nov. 19, 2020), available at https://www.linkedin.com/in/connie-moore-53548331/; Florida Pregnancy Care Network, Inc. FY 14/15 Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax Form 990 (Nov. 17, 2015), available at https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/203707766/2016_01_EO%2F13-142616_32308_203707766.
[9] Connie Moore, Experience, LinkedIn (last accessed Nov. 19, 2020), available at https://www.linkedin.com/in/connie-moore-53548331/; Rachel Monroe, How Essential Oils Became the Cure for Our Age of Anxiety, The New Yorker (Oct. 2, 2017), available at https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/09/how-essential-oils-became-the-cure-for-our-age-of-anxiety; Megan Graham, FTC Warns Multilevel Marketing Company Sellers About Coronavirus Health and Earnings Claims, CNBC (Apr. 27, 2020), available at https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/27/ftc-warns-doterra-rodan-fields-other-mlm-sellers-on-covid-claims.html.