Answer to Prayer: Former Planned Parenthood Building is Now Pro-Life Pregnancy Center

By Doug Mainwaring
Life Site News

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.”

Website: Life Site News 

She Had an Abortion Scheduled, But One Call Changed Everything

By Jay Hobbs
National Right to Life

The phone rang at a call center in Columbus, Ohio, this Thanksgiving weekend. On the other end of the line, a woman and her young daughter were in tears, barely audible as the consultant at Option Line (www.OptionLine.org; 1-800-712-HELP) answered the phone.

Choking back tears, the mother, “Karen,” told the Option Line consultant the situation. Her daughter, “Beth,” was pregnant, and the baby’s father had intimidated Beth into making a decision she really had not intention of making.

At her lowest point, Beth felt she had no choice other than abortion, so she set an appointment at a nearby abortion business. The night before the appointment, Beth had second thoughts and finally told her mother what was going on.

That’s when Karen reached out to Option Line—a 24-7 pregnancy helpline that answers over 1,000 cries for help every day of the year. Time was of the essence. There was no time to wait around for an answering machine.

On the phone with Option Line, Karen struggled to gain her composure. With Beth by her side, Karen said she’d support her daughter no matter what decision she made, but with time winding down to her appointment, she couldn’t stand the thought of losing her first grandchild to abortion.

In the course of the conversation, the Option Line consultant asked to speak with Beth directly, and Karen handed the phone over to her daughter—praying silently her daughter would find the help she so desperately needed.

Terrified over the threats and bullying she’d received from the baby’s father, Beth felt her future was in the balance. If she canceled the appointment and chose life for her child, she’d be giving up a relationship with her boyfriend and—far worse—be forced to sacrifice her career goals all at once.

Those fears—which the abortion industry so commonly exploits—had compounded to effectively rob Beth’s ability to make a decision on her own.

All of that changed in just one phone call to Option Line.

By the time she and her mother hung up the phone, Beth had canceled the abortion and scheduled a new appointment: this time at a local pro-life pregnancy center, where she could get a free pregnancy test, free ultrasound, free material aid and the chance to connect woman-to-woman with staff and volunteers ready to help her through every point of pregnancy and well on into motherhood.

“We were so thrilled Beth called that night,” Nafisa Shamsher, the director of Option Line, said. “No woman should be so afraid or coerced that she feels she has no choice other than abortion. What a blessing it was to come alongside Beth in her journey.”

National Right to Life continues



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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.  

CBS Covered Planned Parenthood Arson, Ignores Arson at Pro-Life Pregnancy Center

Not one of the morning and evening news shows from the three broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) have reported on the story. 

But the greatest hypocrisy stems from CBS, a network that repeatedly reported on a Planned Parenthood arson last year.

By Katie Yoder, Guest Column
Live Action News

(Newsbusters.org) Two similar arsons happened recently, but CBS covered only one of them. The difference? One fire occurred at abortion giant Planned Parenthood, the other targeted a pro-life pregnancy center.

The day before Thanksgiving, an unidentified perpetrator committed arson at Project Defending Life, a Catholic pregnancy center located in New Mexico.

According to local news outlets, the arsonist started two fires: one in the center’s chapel, beneath an Our Lady of Fatima statue, and another in the pews. FBI spokesman Frank Fisher pointed to hate crime as a possible motivation.

As the Project Defending Life client services director, Dominique Davis also speculated intentions. “They might have thought because we’re pro-life we shame women and want to take away rights,” she told the Albuquerque Journal.

While the center currently assists 15 women with housing, job placement and parenting support, no one was hurt.

“That’s what makes me the most sad about it,” Davis added. “No matter where you stand on the issue (of abortion) we’re just trying to help families, and we’ve helped lots of families with housing, getting jobs and getting established.”

Continue reading story here