Choose Hope. Support Your Local Pregnancy Center
They are saving lives, not only now but in the generations to come.
In one of my recent posts, I profiled a pregnancy center local to my area. This past week, I attended a fundraiser dinner for another local pregnancy center, one that does the same kind of vital work as the one I profiled. This is one of three devoted to these kinds of services in my area, and there are more charitable organizations that offer pregnancy support services beyond these. I think this speaks so well about the area where I live, I think, in that there are so many avenues of support for women in trouble.
The organization in which I attended the fundraiser has three locations that complement the locations of the other area pregnancy centers. They provide pregnancy testing, mentoring, and parenting classes with 87 volunteers helping to offer their services. They offer education on pregnancy and child rearing, and complete, unvarnished information on abortion procedures and pills.
Like the other pregnancy center I profiled, one of their main tools in the process are ultrasounds. They estimate that 92% of women who see their baby inside of themselves chose to keep the baby, either as a parent or allowing for an adoption. The ultrasound machine is not simply a tool of enlightenment. This pregnancy center is supported by a volunteer medical director who reads the ultrasounds, scanning for signs of development issues with the baby and the mother herself.
As the evening went on, we heard testimonials from volunteers and staff. A director of one of the center’s locations described their program for post-abortive mothers—an eight-week program that she herself took advantage of in years past, being also a victim of abortion. She knew first hand that so many women like her suffer in silence. She herself, through this non-judgmental support, found love, forgiveness, and hope that changed her life.
We heard the story of their medical director, who found himself called to offer his services by the example of his predecessor in the role, a doctor who worked tirelessly at the center but succumbed to cancer. The testifying doctor saw himself how the center saved and changed lives, and supported families. The doctor offered the story of one mother who was told by other medical professionals that she could not bring a baby to term, but with support from the center’s medical staff throughout her pregnancy—even holding her hand all during her delivery—she gave birth safely to a healthy baby.
They boast of 1,584 babies’ lives saved by their good works. It’s hard to imagine anyone deploring that achievement. But some will, simply, I assume, because they believe that abortion is the best answer to women in these troubling situations. However, even if I were to argue that abortion was a morally neutral choice for these women to make (which I decidedly do not), abortion centers simply do not offer any of the other support services that women in these circumstances need. The abortion procedure is done on them or they are given pills, possibly handed birth control in order to prevent the next one, and sent on their way. Pregnancy centers offer so much more and better support than this, both in the form of physical aid as well as emotional and moral support.
I also suspect that those who would not support a pregnancy center’s work (or even mere existence) is that they cannot see past the suffering and hardships that accompany these clients’ circumstances. After all, a typical client to the pregnancy center is quite poor and can live in frightful conditions, lacking things we may take for granted, such as a refrigerator and a stove, much less a support family or a supportive father of the baby. It’s easy to give up on someone like that and tell them it’s too much, that they are suffering too much now, and in no position to bring a new life in this pitiable world.
This is in fact where the pregnancy center works its magic, offering 22 different initiatives to get women through their pregnancies, and get them back on their feet. As the keynote speaker noted, the center’s chief mission was to give their clients hope. They work to make their client realize that they and their unborn child have value. Clients often come in not realizing that they have a gift inside them, the speaker said. They can’t see it then because of fear and anxiety, but it is a truth that each new life is indeed a gift. And each choice for life changes everything, and will affect the generations to come.
All of this is done free of charge. While free to each client, the services are not cheap—it costs $700 to perform a pregnancy test, an ultrasound scan, consultation, and counseling. In fact, to properly support clients with the center’s full services, it costs $2,400 for each client on average. Pregnancy centers need our financial support to give the hope-filled, life-giving services they offer to their clients.
I hope you will consider offering your financial assistance, if not volunteer services, to one close by to you. You will not regret it.