Voices for Life Is a blog dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues.
Our focus is to protect the sanctity of all human life from conception until natural death. This includes protecting babies from abortion, fetal tissue experimentation, and embryonic research; and the general population from euthanasia, cloning, population control and human genetic engineering.
In a remarkable turn of events, a building that was once a Planned Parenthood facility is now home to a pro-life family clinic which provides support for pregnant women, new parents, and their families.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which committed abortions in the Bettendorf, Iowa building for nearly two decades, is gone, and the space has been taken over by Life & Family Medical Clinic and the Women's Choice Center.
The infamous abortion center was forced to close last year after the Iowa legislature moved to cut off state funding.
“Republicans who won control of the Statehouse after the 2016 election forfeited Medicaid funding for its family planning network, substituting state funds,” explained a report in the Quad City Times at the time of the real estate transaction last April.
“The move allowed Iowa to prohibit funding from going to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. About a week after the budget that included the change was signed, Planned Parenthood said it would close four clinics, including the Bettendorf location.”
Two decades of persistent prayer
Twenty years ago, “Pro-life advocates prayed fervently against construction of the facility and dropped religious medals into the earth on which it would be built,” according to an Our Sunday Visitor (OSV) report.
“For the next two decades, they prayed unceasingly for closure of the clinic where abortions were performed.”
The prayers of the pro-life advocates have been answered.
After purchasing the facility, the new owners requested that a priest conduct an exorcism there because of its past use.
“What better way to salvage a building than to exorcise it and fill it completely with pro-life ministries?” asked one of the Life & Family board members, according to OSV. Following the exorcism, another board member said she “felt that God was in this place.”
Planned Parenthood claims to care about women’s health. In their rhetoric, Planned Parenthood officials say abortion empowers women. Planned Parenthood presents itself as being a healthcare provider serving the community and helping women. But the testimony of one former Planned Parenthood worker, Catherine Adair, refutes these claims.
Adair worked in the biggest Planned Parenthood facility in Boston. She shares her testimony in a 2017 book called “Shockwaves: Abortion’s Wider Circle of Victims.” This book focuses on the emotional impact of abortion on women, men, siblings, and others. Adair says:
Working at the clinic I discovered that there was nothing pro-woman about abortion. Women were not counseled about their options. They weren’t given any information about fetal development and if they asked any questions, we lied to them. We spent very little time with them as we were told to get them into the abortion room quickly.
We were told not to say the words abortion, fetus, baby or embryo. We told women the doctor would gently extract the contents of their uterus.
In reality, a preborn baby is remarkably developed, even in the first trimester. As early as 16 days after conception, a preborn baby’s heart begins to beat. At just six weeks and two days, brain waves can be measured. By 7 ½ weeks, the baby has distinct fingers and toes. By eight weeks, the baby shows preference for either her right or left hand, indicating whether she will be right-handed or left-handed after birth.
Women have written about how workers at abortion facilities lied to them about fetal development. In the court case Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the Supreme Court struck down a law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. 3,348 post-abortive women submitted an amicus brief in this case, in which many of them told their stories. Many of these women wrote about how the abortion facility lied to them or gave them no information about their preborn babies.
For example, Kathryn Bretz wrote: I specifically asked if this was a baby and was told ‘No, it’s a formless blob of tissue.’ No one told me that this was a tiny baby who would be ripped apart. I was not informed of potential negative physical, psychological and spiritual consequences. The brochure stated that many women experience relief, without any consequences and it also stated ‘there may be a BRIEF period of sadness’. .
The abortion has impacted my life negatively the day it happened and every day since for almost 30 years with unmanageable and powerful emotions of guilt, sorrow and raw pain. I developed a migraine disorder that has consumed my life, destroyed my career and finances.
My inconsolable crying over the loss of my child, and knowing I was complicit in his death has caused deep, traumatic and overwhelming pain that can trigger a migraine. I’ve ended up at the ER with runaway migraine pain, with no painkilling drug that exists in medical science to assuage my misery. For a month after, my body was wracked in pain and it seemed like continuous labor. I expelled large chunks of endometrium and what looked like fetal tissue.
I was told that my baby was not really a live baby, but that it was only a blob of flesh, and since it really wasn’t alive, I wouldn’t be killing anything. Later, when I saw the sonogram of my second living child, I saw that he was VERY ALIVE . . . and the guilt overwhelmed me.
Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link. Follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest. Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks. Pregnant, need help or know someone who does? National Hotline: Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131. In Southeast Penna: Call the Community Women's Center at 215-826-8090 If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available. Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org.
