A pro-life pregnancy center is the answer to more than 20 years of prayer by pro-life advocates in the Bettendorf, Iowa community.
Since the 1990s when news of a Planned Parenthood opening rocked their community, pro-life advocates have been praying for the lives of unborn babies and mothers, The Catholic Messenger reports.
Over the past few years, their prayers have been answered, first, when the abortion business closed the Bettendorf facility and, second, when the building was converted into a pregnancy resource center.
The Women’s Choices Center offers material and emotional support to women and their families inside the former Planned Parenthood building. It opened in the spring.
Soon, a Catholic-based medical facility for low-income individuals also will open in the 8,500 square-foot building, according to the report. The Life & Family Medical Clinic will provide primary medical care to people regardless of their ability to pay; it is slated to open in 2019, the report states.
Here’s more from the report:
The building “is bathed in prayer. It’s being used for God’s glory. We’re seeing lives transformed,” said Pam Galanius, clinical director/nurse manager of the Women’s Choice Center. She witnessed a glimmer of that transformation during an emotional encounter with a mom who had an abortion 14 years ago at the Planned Parenthood clinic.
The mom arrived at the Women’s Choice Center needing diapers for a young child she gave birth to about a year ago. But when she walked into the center’s old location across the street, she learned it has been converted into a child care center. She was directed to the new center but became physically and emotionally overwhelmed with painful memories.
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“She started to break down and cry loudly,” Galanius said. “All of the memories came flooding back.”
Galanius took the mom into a private room and talked with her about God’s forgiveness, healing and support and then prayed with her.
The mom said, “I know God forgave me, but I can’t forgive myself.” Galanius said she looked the mom in the eye and said, “God loves you and he forgives you and he loves you just the way you are and knows the pain you carry and he wants to help you.”
Pregnancy Help News previously reported how pro-lifers worked hard to keep the abortion business out of their community in the 1990s, but a federal judge ruling eventually allowed Planned Parenthood to open. Refusing to give up hope, pro-life advocates began praying regularly outside the abortion facility and eventually purchased property across the street to open a pro-life pregnancy center.
“The Women’s Choice Center was named out of that birthing because we knew as women come down this street, which happens to be a dead end—literally a dead end—they could, either turn right for death or turn left for life,” said Vicki Tyler, the center’s executive director. “Our name really signifies that women do have a choice and there are other choices besides abortion.”
Before moving into the old Planned Parenthood, local pro-life advocates said they invited a Catholic priest to conduct an exorcism of the building. They said people who have since helped to renovate the building have told them about feeling a sense of peace while working there.
Planned Parenthood closed the facility in 2017 after Iowa leaders cut taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood. The Planned Parenthood abortion affiliate in Iowa received about $2.7 million in tax dollars per year. Now, the money is going to real health care facilities that do not perform abortions.
