Abortion is such a polarizing issue in our culture. How do you approach this type of ministry when tensions run so high?

In this world of pregnancy care, our greatest joy is that we get to focus on what we are for, who we are for, rather than what we are against.

We get to focus on helping women. Giving them hope. Helping them realize that so many women choose abortion because they think it is their only option. They feel hopeless. And when they walk into this place, many women say they no longer feel alone. They see that there are people here who want to help and support them. Women who have a faith background, or who maybe don’t have any faith background at all—they are very open to our mentors and our nurses praying for them.

So many people in the pregnancy care world talk about the power of the ultrasound. I believe in that wholeheartedly. I think that helps a woman face truth and face reality that there is a precious life within their womb. And I do know that hearts and minds are changed.

How early in the pregnancy do you do ultrasounds?

While we prefer to perform ultrasounds around seven weeks, we will if there is a positive pregnancy test as early as five weeks. At around five weeks and five days, nurses can typically capture a heartbeat. If a nurse cannot capture the images and the heartbeat, we offer them to come back in for a repeat ultrasound, and many of them will. 

And women can receive much more than an ultrasound, right?

When a woman comes here, she sees the educational support that we have to offer, the material resources that we can provide and community resources that we can help connect her to. When she feels like, I can’t do this. I am alone. I don’t have any support, we can tell her, “We’re here for you. There is a community.”

We are very open and transparent. We are a Christian organization. Churches and individual donors care about you and they support the work in the ministry that we do. And that’s why all of our services are offered at no cost to you. So you may feel alone, but there is literally a community of people in the Rockford area. You may never know who they are or meet them. But there are people here for you and wanting to help you in any way they can.

When we show women the the mental, emotional and spiritual support that we can also offer through the mentoring, through the educational programs, the parenting education programs, suddenly in that room, they realize, My circumstances have changed. I’m not alone. There is support, and there are people here who will help me.

Maybe a woman needs to get her GED. We can connect her to a community resource to help with that. Maybe she doesn’t even know where to begin to find prenatal care. Well, our nurses can give them a list of doctors and help them with that.

Have you noticed differences in clientele or outside pressure since the Supreme Court decision two years ago?

We say this a lot: Regardless of what’s going on legislatively in our state or our country, our mission is unchanging. We are always here to offer help and hope. Because the fact is, no matter what’s going on politically, there’s always going to be women facing unplanned pregnancies. I think if we lived in a state where there wasn’t access to abortion, perhaps things would have changed more.

Perhaps for us here, we have maybe a greater sense of urgency. Our heart’s desire is for women be able to find us first, so they can slow down and just be able to get the information they need. For so many women, with the chemical abortion pill they have no idea what they’re doing. You still have to have a prescription, but you don’t have to have any type of initial (doctor) visit. A woman can just say, “I think I’m this many weeks along.” And there’s such a great risk if they’re further along in their pregnancy than they thought.

When the abortion facility opens around the corner from you on Maray Drive, do you have plans for how you’ll respond?

As an organization, we sign an agreement that we won’t protest outside an abortion facility. But … if people want to be sidewalk advocates for life, we want them to be trained in methods that we know through decades of research are more effective in reaching a woman. Maybe their signs say, “Do you want help?” “Can I help you?” instead of “Don’t murder your baby.”

And that idea extends to the education you offer?

Right. First, we follow what’s called permission-based care. So if you are considering abortion, would you like information on what to expect if you do the chemical abortion pill? Or, maybe you’re17 weeks and that would require a surgical procedure. Would you like information? We have this lovely magazine called Before You Decide that we can show them. And if they say “No, thank you,” then that’s their decision and we don’t show them that information. But even in that, it’s not graphic, gruesome images.

So, our hope is that the Lord will provide gentle and compassionate individuals who do want to maybe have a prayerful presence outside of the abortion facility. And if in some way, he can direct women to us, we’ll be open to that. We do have a mobile medical unit. If anything, it’s just this big billboard of free ultrasound and pregnancy test.

So it’s kind of a wait-and-see approach?

For myself and our mobile medical team, until it opens, until we make some observations, we’re not spending a great deal of time on strategic planning right now because we just believe – I’ve really been praying Proverbs 16:9. I can make all the plans I want, but it’s the Lord that will direct our steps. And so we’re just waiting, and we’re trusting and we’re praying.

For the benefit of the First Free audience who will read this article, do you have the $50,000 earmarked for anything yet?

Well, for one thing, we budget every year to bring in $57,000 through Baby Bottle Boomerang. And First Free almost met that budget. So as we lay this before the Lord – there are 22 other churches doing Baby Bottles right now.

And I’m like, OK, Lord, is there is there a need that we’re not even aware of yet? What do you have in store for us? Ephesians 3:20-21 has been a Scripture that the Lord laid on my heart as we started preparing for our banquet, that he can do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. And he has done that. I don’t know. Do we need to hire more staff because we’re going to be reaching more women who are considering abortion?

I wish I could say something like, “This is so amazing because we’re going to be able to do this.” But it’s just this waiting and expectation of God showing us a need. And what a peace and a powerful reminder that he is a God who knows and he is a God who sees, and he has already provided for us in advance.

I mean, it’s just an incredible outpouring of generosity. Sometimes here you can get bogged down in what’s going on around the corner. You can get bogged down in the heaviness of the stories of the women and families that we serve. And then God gives us these glimpses of his power and might, through his people rising up. We’re a staff of 15, plus the board and the volunteers. But we’re not alone. I wish the women we serve could see this huge village of people who love and care for them.

What are some ways our church family can pray for all of you?

In our staff retreat back in the fall, we talked a lot about abiding in Christ and how important it is for us. We pour out so much, and how important it is for us to stay connected to the vine and to abide. And that as a staff, we would love and encourage and pray for one another well.

Just knowing that there are churches out there, praying for and supporting us as a staff, to keep our eyes on Jesus. To be his hands and feet here in this place. And that the Lord would direct more abortion-minded women to come and to sit in this place and to really slow down and think through her pregnancy options so that she can see the truth of the life within her, and that there is help and hope in this place.

Is there anything you wish more Christians in our community knew?

I think it is so easy for us in the church to think, How could anyone ever consider abortion? And then you sit in the room and you hear some of the stories that we hear. You think: I totally understand why this woman wants an abortion. I remember the first time it happened to me, and then the immense guilt that came over me.

But that’s just empathy.

It is. I guess I just wish the church understood that poverty, unhealthy relationships, people truly not knowing the Lord and having a relationship with him, even just the lack of a good education—all these things, all of these circumstances that pile on most of the women and families that we serve, are immensely challenging.

So I pray that we would be quick to be moved by compassion and empathy, and not be so quick to judge.

That’s so helpful to be able to sit and listen and empathize. I mean, otherwise you’re an angry person on a street holding an ugly sign, right?

Right. And then to be able to use that compassion and empathy and to help. Like the sign (in our lobby) says, “Just breathe.” Because none of us make good decisions when we are stressed, when we are anxious, when we’re overwhelmed. So let’s acknowledge all the feelings that we’re experiencing. But let’s take a breath and let’s be able to coach and mentor these clients to a place where they can make a decision based on facts and truth, instead of their out-of-control emotions.