The Truth about Pregnancy Resource Centers

T here is no doubt about it: Many pregnant women believe that abortion is their best or only choice. And it’s no wonder they feel this way, because they are bombarded with the false narrative that abortion is a solution to an unplanned pregnancy.

Pro-life pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) can offer expecting mothers a better solution, as well as tremendous support in whatever choice they make. Just recently, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to reaffirm the important role of PRCs by condemning the widespread violence inflicted on them since Roe v. Wade’s overturn.

As a practicing OB/GYN and the medical director of a PRC, I regularly see how the caring staff at PRCs offer women in difficult circumstances services that they often can’t get anywhere else. They can provide pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, counseling, material support, adoption counseling, referrals to other agencies, pregnancy-related classes, parenting classes, after-birth care and, most importantly, a supportive community and empathic empowerment. They don’t provide abortions and don’t claim to, but the services they do offer are free to any woman who walks in the door.

Many of my patients who have had abortions tell me that they deeply regret terminating their pregnancies for years afterward. My experience also tells me that most women who choose abortion do so because they believe that the timing of their pregnancy is problematic and not because they view motherhood itself as undesirable. Often, they feel pressured by others or by a lack of support and resources. But no woman should ever feel forced to choose abortion.

Many women who choose abortion are also unaware of the long-term physical and mental-health consequences it carries. After a surgical abortion, a woman is at increased risk for preterm birth in subsequent pregnancies. Premature delivery, in turn, increases the chances of neonatal death or lifelong disabilities.

A full-term pregnancy before the age of 30 will decrease a woman’s risk of getting breast cancer for the rest of her life. If that pregnancy is aborted, this natural long-term health benefit is lost.

Women also face higher rates of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicidal behavior after having an abortion. One study found that women’s suicide rate after an abortion is more than seven times higher than after childbirth.

Is it surprising that a woman might experience mental distress after an abortion? When she is pregnant, she is a mother, and abortion takes the life of her child. Science, not religion, tells us that we human beings begin our lives at fertilization and then go through the embryonic, fetal, infant, child, adolescent, and adult stages of life. Each one of us used to be an embryo, growing in the protective womb of our mother. An unborn human being is not “just a clump of cells.” The baby’s heartbeat can typically be observed on an ultrasound at six weeks of pregnancy. All of the organs are detectable by ten weeks. The child needs time to grow, nurtured by the mother, before and after birth.

Women in difficult circumstances often need help, and PRCs can provide it to all who seek it. Nationwide, a network of nearly 3,000 PRCs serves millions of women and their babies with compassion and care, often when they have nowhere else to turn.

My patients have told me, and I have seen firsthand, that offering alternatives to abortion helps women. Through an ultrasound, a woman can see the humanity of her child in the womb. When offered support that they couldn’t get anywhere else, many women who might otherwise have felt forced into having an abortion — and risking the long-term physical and psychological harm that that decision might bring — come to see that there is a better way.

The devoted staff, volunteers, and benefactors of pregnancy resource centers are truly pro-woman, pro-child, and pro-life. They deserve our thanks, our protection, and, most importantly, our continued support.