My sister pulled up and walked in the
door and collapsed on the ground and at
the time her and I were odds and so I
kind of looked at her and said, "Well,
what's your problem?" And she looked at me
and she said, "I'm pregnant." I'll never
forget that moment. When you hear those words, even
if it's not you, even if it's somebody
else that you care about, I'll never
forget thinking, "Oh God, could you just
make this all go away?"
At 19, I went to my
college health center, thought I had the
flu, took a pregnancy test and then that
day I found out I was pregnant. I was
shocked. I had no idea and I was so
terrified. The nurse that helped me, she
was kind, she was compassionate, but her
form of compassion was handing me a
referral for an abortion. If I had gone
to a pregnancy center like ours, I would
have had a different experience and a
different outcome.
It's important for me to impart to my daughters that life is important and deserves to be protected.
It should make absolute sense that an
American has the right to speak or not
speak based on the things that they
believe. For my daughters to see me
standing up for that, I think is of vital
importance.
Pregnancy centers throughout the country
are an incredible asset to our community.
They are there because women need help.
Many of the women that come into our
clinic, they really have two questions on
their minds.
Am I pregnant? And what am I going to do about it?
And that's why what
we do is so powerful because we're not
there to force them to make a choice
we're there to actually listen to them
and to hear their heart and to be a
support system to them.
In that time she's going to learn about different
options that she has from parenting
adoption and then education on abortion
because we do provide education on all
of her options, allowing her to make
decisions that she feels is best for her.
People that are not pro-life are often
surprised by the fact that pregnancy
centers are here to help even after the
decision is made. They learned that we're
offering diapers and wipes, baby clothes
far into the the child's life. There's
ongoing care. It doesn't just end at
that moment of decision.
We offer pregnancy testing, ultrasounds,
and we do not benefit financially from any choice that they make.
In fact, we work very hard
to go out and raise money so that we can
support women in the midst of this
situation.
I remember we drove past the Pregnancy
Care Clinic that was on the way and they
had this big banner and, you know, "free
pregnancy tests" and so I asked my friend
to stop and I was like, "Wait. Can we can
we go back there? I want to go there instead."
When a client comes in to our
doors, we spend a lot of time working on
making that environment welcoming and an
encouraging place to be.
What has happened is that California has decided
to pass a law that would require us to
use our walls as a billboard to promote
abortion.
The law is requiring us to refer clients
or post for
where they can go to get a free abortion.
It goes against everything
we believe in. We're a pro-life pregnancy center,
we believe every life is precious,
that every life matters, and that every
life should be fought for. The abortions
that I personally had, had really
affected me deeply. I wonder if I would
have made a different choice for myself
if I had known that there was support
and that there was someone that would
actually care and help me. I think it
makes a difference to know that there
are people that are there for them that
care for them.
Words matter. What we say to women in the midst of that situation matters in that moment.
The first thing they're gonna see is a sign that says,
here's where you can go for a free abortion,
when our process is to take her
into a room, be able to sit down with her,
allow her to express herself, and then
walk through the options.
Having that message in our waiting room,
for them to see before we even have an
opportunity to interact with her, goes
against the reason we exist.
What they're trying to do is silence the ability of
people who advocate for the pro-life
position to be able to freely speak
their message. And that's what we're
debating in the Supreme Court of the
United States. They're not trying to do
anything other than facilitate people
choosing abortion and forcing pro-lifers
to be the facilitators for that message.
It's not something that we want to
communicate. And even for myself, if I
walked in with my sister into a clinic
that had a posting on where to go to
have an abortion, I would be confused.
When you allow that message to be in our
door, there is no end to what we then
have to communicate down the road.
It's a real privilege to be partnering with NIFLA
on this, and by extension the entire
pregnancy center movement, because we're
all standing together shoulder to
shoulder in the Supreme Court.
NIFLA helps with legal information and
other kinds of practical best practices
information so that these centers are
extraordinarily effective in reaching
women with the idea that life is a great
choice for them. We're about defending
the freedom of speech and the free
exercise of religion. And this case is a
direct assault,
not only on free speech in the pro-life
context, but all free speech. If the
government can force you to give a
message that's contrary to what you
believe, there's no limit to that
principle and it's extraordinarily dangerous.
A government should not force
another American, or an organization
that's formed on specific beliefs, to
compromise those beliefs because the
government thinks that we should.
When free speech is protected, we get to
remain authentic to who we are and we
have the incredible privilege of helping
a woman welcome that little one into her
family and into our community.
I mean, my heart was racing and pounding so fast
and I was like... it was all going to
become so much more real to see a baby
on that screen.
That was... that was an overly
overwhelming moment but I knew after
that ultrasound and after the whole
experience that, without a shadow of a
doubt, I was going to have this baby. And
I knew, you know, even if all my all my
deepest fears came true, I knew I would
still have support and encouragement
from even just the people at the clinic.
And I had this beautiful baby boy,
six pounds seven ounces, and that has
totally changed my life.
