HBI said that they provided openDemocracy with scientific studies on the effects of abortion, but that these were not included in the final report.
HBI also refuted a claim from openDemocracy that they have "close ties" to Washington. HBI said the claims were false or misleading, such as the claim that Vice President Mike Pence has spoken at HBI events in D.C., when instead HBI was attending a roundtable event hosted by Students for Life of America, at which Pence spoke.
OpenDemocracy also claimed that HBI urged its allies to apply for funding from its "new friends in Washington." HBI said that this quote came from Godsey, who was encouraging pro-life groups to apply for Title X funds after Planned Parenthood declined the funding so that it could continue providing abortions.
Subsequent to the initial publication of this report, openDemocracy contacted CNA with a statement:
"openDemocracy is a global news outlet that produces responsible, fact-based reporting on a wide range of issues, including the economy, environment, democracy, politics and human rights. It is not part of any pro-abortion lobby and we have not 'misreported' any of our findings," the group said.
"While openDemocracy sent the results of our investigation to Heartbeat prior to publication and, at their request, extended the deadline for comment, Heartbeat has subsequently published a number of inaccurate claims about openDemocracy, none of which were put to us for comment or verification. We believe that readers across the world, whatever their position on abortion, will be very concerned by our findings, which show that women across the world are being misled about their legal and reproductive options. If Heartbeat took their duty of care to women and girls seriously, they would be taking immediate steps to investigate."
For its part, HBI said that the attempts to discredit pro-life pregnancy resource centers are not new.
"The attack is very familiar," Godsey said. "It's just coming from different players."
Editor's note: This story has been updated Feb. 14 with a statement from openDemocracy, a clarification of CNA's description of the organization, and to clarify that openDemocracy reported that the assertion that abortion could have some correlation to homosexuality was made in online training materials.