I called a pro-life clinic to ask what they do

The abortion debate often puts abortion clinics and organizations like Planned Parenthood in a heated spotlight – from Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards testifying before the House of Representatives (one of the most entertaining things on C-SPAN) to TRAP laws that require abortion providers to meet unnecessary regulations that are not required of other medical facilities or otherwise be shut down. However, we don’t often talk about the anti-abortion clinics that populate the South (and our Google searches for abortion clinics).

Crisis pregnancy centers (and other anti-abortion clinics) have a reputation for providing false information about abortions, such as saying that abortion can cause breast cancer or infertility, in order to keep women from having abortions. They are not subject to the same regulations or scrutiny as abortion providers. Sometimes they don’t even have the proper medical staff.

I called Hope Clinic for Women, a pro-life women’s clinic in Nashville, to find out more. A woman answered the phone and I asked her a few questions.

What are your qualifications?

I’m not a nurse or medical personnel. My background is in social work.

If a woman came to you seeking an abortion, what would you say to her?

Here at our clinic, when people are calling in, we let them know what we provide. So we let them know that we offer a free pregnancy test, that we have ultrasounds for the first trimester, and then we, in conjunction with that, we do options counseling. Within that appointment we would discuss all of the options – we will discuss parenting, we discuss adoption, we discuss abortion and provide information about all of those options, but we don’t perform abortions here at the clinic. And that’s not a referral that we are able to give either, but we will definitely sit and talk with someone about their situation, and what they’re going for, and kind of what they’re thinking and how we can support them through that.

If you can’t perform abortions, then why does your website appear when someone does a Google search for abortion clinics?

I’m not on the marketing side of things. I don’t know how our website is set-up exactly in relation to Google. I do know that because it says on our page that we don’t – like it actually lists that – like it says “we do not perform or refer for abortion” – so all I know is that the word is there and I don’t know if that pulls it into the search. We don’t call ourselves an abortion clinic, but because it’s listed on the website, that may have pulled it into the search. I’m not really sure about that.

Your mission statement says you’re “faith-based.” What religion or church are you affiliated with?

We are a Christian faith-based organization. We don’t consider ourselves affiliated with just one church in particular, so it’s not as if just one church provides our funding. We partner with a lot of churches in the area. But we are not directly affiliated with just one church. We partner with a variety of nondenominational churches, a number of Catholic churches, a number of Protestant – just a variety of Christian churches in the area we work with. But there is not just one in particular that we are associated with.

Do you have a doctor on staff?

We have two nurse practitioners, and we have a full time nurse manager, and then we have have some other medical assistants and nurses, and then we have two supervising physicians who aren’t here on site, but that oversee all of the medical that we do.

The facts on your “Services for Men” page do not include any sources. What sources did you use to get those facts from?

I’m not the one who did all that. I’m sorry. I’d have to talk with our marketing and clinical director and neither one of them are available today. I’m really sorry.

How do you help women after their pregnancy if they are struggling with childcare? 

We have a Bridge Program – that’s what it’s called – it’s a free program. It has three components to it. It has some counseling, mentoring, and education classes in groups. And so they can participate in this program all throughout their pregnancy and even throughout the first year of the child’s life. So in that program, the mentoring specifically, focuses on helping clients access resources. For example, if childcare was one of their concerns, or something that they were in need of, we just connect them with resources in the community. There are some programs that may have funding to help provide vouchers to have reduced fees for childcare or different programs. So we would just help connect them with resources through that Bridge Program that we have. And then if someone is not able to participate in that program, let’s say they call in, we can send them the list of what we have in our resource manual that’s about childcare.

Around the end of our conversation, the woman at the front desk said that, “We don’t consider ourselves a crisis pregnancy center. We’re not here to persuade people, or coerce them, or try and trick them. We’re very upfront. We tell people right off the bat when they call in that we don’t perform abortions but we’re also not here to tell you what to do. We do believe in the sanctity of life and that’s our belief and part of our values, but the life of the woman as well, and we want to treat her with love and respect with no judgment. We just always try to let people know that Hope Clinic is very different than what may be portrayed in the media or what people may think of when they hear ‘crisis pregnancy center.’ So we really consider ourselves a comprehensive women’s clinic and we’re here to support people no matter their decision, and people are always welcome to come back to us if at any time they need support.”

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This discussion was comforting in some ways and disconcerting in others. While Hope Clinic was very upfront about being anti-abortion and supportive of women after they had children, I was concerned that they didn’t have a physician practicing in the center (from what I could gather) and some of the facts they present are left without sources. I was pleasantly surprised that they weren’t using tricks or scare tactics, which crisis pregnancy centers have a reputation for.

I do know this though: I could only find two actual abortion clinics in Nashville. According to the Guttmacher Institute, there were 14 abortion clinics in Tennessee in 2011. The number of crisis pregnancy centers is far higher.

While there may be people out there who sincerely seek out and appreciate the work of crisis pregnancy centers and pro-life clinics, there are still people who desperately want to do what is best for their situation and have an abortion, but are consistently denied or confused about where to go. Crisis pregnancy centers have a right to exist, but women have a right to be fully informed about what clinics actually provide abortion services in the first place.