Many church-goers in Jackson and Gibson County know about Birth Choice. And since you are reading this, I’m guessing you know a little about us too. But did you know that there are 2,752 places like Birth Choice all around the United States?
Pregnancy Resource Centers (PRCs) or Pregnancy Medical Clinics (PMC’s) began in the 1960s in the U.S., according to Heartbeat International. Often called Crisis Pregnancy Centers, they offered free pregnancy testing, counseling, and hotlines. The movement grew rapidly in all 50 states after the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Decision in 1973 that legalized abortion on the federal level.
During the 1990s, some centers started becoming medical clinics and offering free ultrasounds and STD testing (in 2001, we were one of the first 100 to go medical). The movement has been growing ever since!
In fact, pregnancy centers now outnumber the 808 abortion clinics in the U.S. according to Guttmacher.
Here are some other things I bet you didn’t know about the pregnancy help movement:
I bet you didn’t know that our mission isn’t to save babies. Shocker! At Birth Choice, we seek to empower women and men not just to choose life for their babies, but eternal life in Christ. Our mission is to expand God’s Kingdom.
Did you know that 70.6% of U.S. pregnancy help centers give free ultrasounds – and that 0% of abortion clinics do? While the services at places like Birth Choice are all free, abortion clinics like Planned Parenthood charge for all their services. In fact, most pregnancy centers, including Birth Choice, are completely funded by donations from churches, individuals and nonprofit grants. Birth Choice does not receive any government funding or grants. God has blessed our movement with generous donors who allow us to provide these free services and reach abortion-minded women.
Many pro-life people are unaware of how women-focused pregnancy center ministry really is. They hear the pro-choice complaints that the pro-life movement doesn’t try to help women. Well, all I have to say is this: if a movement with 2,752 pregnancy centers around the nation that support women throughout their pregnancies isn’t helping women, I don’t know what is.
Did you know that we are here to serve life-minded clients as well as abortion-minded? Whether they want their babies or not, we show them Christ’s love and our clinic is a valuable community resource.
Another thing you may not know – pregnancy centers aren’t political. While we encourage pro-life laws and voting for pro-life candidates, we fight in the ditches of the pro-life movement.
There are several important aspects of the pro-life movement. Some organizations focus on educating people about abortion and mobilizing people to take action (e.g. The Radiance Foundation). Then there’s the lobbying arm that encourages pro-life legislation (e.g. National Right to Life and Tennessee Right to Life), and the legislative arm that includes pro-life politicians.
And then there’s the pregnancy help arm! That’s us. While many groups seek to protect future generations of babies, we are saving individual children who are already alive and in danger of being killed.
I hope you learned some interesting things about the pregnancy help movement and have grown to love it as much as I do.
Keep calm and support your local PRC!
Tiffany Dawson loves her job as Director of Development at Birth Choice. Basically, she is the fundriaser and plans the events and manages social meda. Tiffany graduated from Union University in 2018 with a B.A. in Media Communications and was a member of Life 139, Union’s student pro-life organization. She has always had a heart for the pro-life cause but developed an interest in pregnancy help ministry in college as a marketing and communications intern at Care Net’s headquarters in Virginia.