When Planned Parenthood of the Gulf Coast (PPGC – the result of a full merger of the Louisiana, Houston and Southeast Texas affiliates) moved into its new abortion facility on Gulf Freeway in Houston, it not only opened the largest abortion facility in the western hemisphere, it also situated itself in a place with no nearby available space for pro-lifers to rent, buy or build a crisis pregnancy center. Pro-lifers had to think creatively.
Houston Coalition for Life, an American Life League Associate group, decided that the solution had to be a mobile crisis pregnancy unit! After many months of planning, fundraising, and receiving an ultrasound machine from the Knights of Columbus through the Ultrasound Initiative, HCL held the grand unveiling of its new mobile crisis pregnancy center the weekend of January 8. During HCL’s annual banquet on March 3, patrons were treated to a virtual tour of the unit.
In this mobile center, free pregnancy tests and free ultrasounds are offered to abortion-minded women headed for Planned Parenthood. As you enter the mobile center, you find yourself in a beautifully furnished waiting room; a short hallway leads to a restroom, lab facilities, counseling area and an ultrasound room that houses a very large screen for viewing the ultrasound image.
Both sides of the mobile unit feature a silhouette of a pregnant mother – an image created with hundreds of photographs of babies that were submitted to the HCL by their volunteers! “Free Pregnancy Tests” and “Free Ultrasounds” are clearly written in both English and Spanish on three sides of the mobile center.
The mobile crisis pregnancy center is now in full operation and parked daily across the street from the Planned Parenthood entrance as Houston Coalition for Life joins 40 Days for Life Houston. Volunteers saw three women on Wednesday and seven on Thursday!
For more information on Houston Coalition for Life, visit www.houstoncoalition.com.
For more information on American Life League’s Associate program, click here.