Last night my wife and I attended one of our favorite events of the year, the LaVie Pregnancy Care Center Banquet in Billings. It’s an evening spent with some of our favorite people, supporting one of our favorite causes. It’s a time to thank God for lives saved over the past year, a time to ask for healing for those impacted by abortion, and a time to reflect on the strides made in the pro-life movement over the course of the past 30 years. For those who don’t know, the changes to the pregnancy resource centers over the past 15 years are amazing. It’s like night and day compared to the older crisis pregnancy center model.
In the old days, women entering the pregnancy care centers were given a pregnancy test and counseling to discuss the possible options. All of the patients were shown love and compassion, but the list of services was minimal. Now fast forward to 2014—pregnancy care centers of today are modern. Many offer ultrasound services, sexually transmitted infection testing, and counseling and classes for both moms and dads. They often have doctors and nurses on staff to ensure the highest quality of care for those who walk through their doors. It’s been an amazing transition, and one of the most exciting things at the event last evening was hearing about the change in attitudes of the millennial generation with regard to abortion. This generation is now more pro-life than its parents, and trending even more so. It’s got the folks at Planned Parenthood and NARAL scared because they know they’re on the wrong side of history. Doctors who perform abortions are getting older – and they’re not being replaced. Last night’s speaker called them bottom feeders, incapable of surviving in the real medical world. People like Kermit Gosnell and Douglas Karpen, who routinely abused women and children for their own profits. Now, as the stories of abuse and fraud become even more prevalent, states are cracking down. New laws have forced abortion clinics to raise their standards and operate more like real medical facilities, and it’s having the desired effect. More and more are closing their doors because they can’t compete, and this despite huge taxpayer subsides. Even the big operators like Planned Parenthood are being caught up in scandal after scandal; everything from Medicaid fraud, to covering up rape and incest, to complicity with pimps and sex traffickers as they perform abortions on trafficked minors. Pro-life investigative groups like Live Action are performing stings and revealing the ugly truth about America’s abortion providers. And the truth is they’ll do whatever it takes to earn a buck, even if it means covering up sexual abuse.
Fortunately, women with unplanned pregnancies have a safe alternative. Pregnancy care centers exist to provide hope and compassion to women in crisis. They provide medical testing, medically accurate advice, options including adoption, and most of all – God’s love.
If you have a pregnancy resource center in your community, consider getting involved. You can help in two ways, first through your donations. Unlike abortion providers, pregnancy care centers receive no government aid. The second way to help is through volunteering. Volunteers are the life blood of these clinics, and what better way to use your talents than by saving lives. As Psalm 127 says “children are a gift from the Lord”—let’s treat that gift and their moms with love and respect.
