The Abstinence Clearinghouse Blog

ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND NEWS RELEASE
June 18, 2007 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT ADF MEDIA RELATIONS:  (480) 444-0020

IRS Exonerates Two South Dakota Non-Profits Targeted by Washington Special Interest Group

Leftist group targeted two Christian non-profit organizations, filed complaint with IRS to remove tax-exempt status

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 leftwing 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, S.D.

“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 (www.abstinence.net), and Alpha Center provides a variety of services for men and women involved in an unplanned pregnancy (www.alphacenter.org).

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.

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