One network of pregnancy centers is seeing that it won’t be underestimated in the most pro-life state in the United States.
A resolution was made by the Arkansas State House of Representatives recently honoring the work of pregnancy centers in the state and across the U.S.
House Resolution 1010 aims “To Recognize the Importance of Pregnancy Help Organizations in Arkansas.”
Members of the Arkansas Pregnancy Network were present for the resolution’s recent signing.
Vikki Parker is CEO and founder of Options Pregnancy Center in Cabot, Ark. She is also part of Arkansas Pregnancy Network. The network, which includes pregnancy centers across the state, has existed for 23 years and has finally achieved 501c3 status. The group meets with government leaders about issues and concerns pertaining to pregnancy centers.
Parker has been working to get state legislators to recognize the horrors of the abortion industry over the last several years.
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The resolution came on Feb. 15 this year and states in part:
“The life-affirming impact of pregnancy help organizations on the women, men, children, and communities they serve is considerable and growing;
Pregnancy help organizations serve women in Arkansas and across the United States with integrity and compassion;
More than two thousand seven hundred (2,700) pregnancy help organizations across the United States provide comprehensive care to women and men facing unplanned pregnancies, including resources to meet their physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual needs … ”
The resolution continues in detail regarding the benefit of pregnancy help organizations.
This recognition, Parker said, came because of the efforts of state Representatives Cindy Crawford and Mary Bentley.
“They wanted to recognize the work and resources that centers provide,” she told Pregnancy Help News, listing the invaluable classes of education both on parenting and Sexual Risk Avoidance and more.
“Also,” Parker added, “that all our services we do at no cost for the clients we serve, and the referrals we make in the community that support our moms and babies long after they are born.”
Arkansas had a trigger law go into effect as of the overturning of Roe v. Wade last June that bans abortion in the state except to save the life of the mother.
The result is some pregnancy centers being “as busy as ever,” Parker said.
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There are no surgical abortions taking place in the state, prompting women to go into Illinois and other border locations for abortions.
The distribution of the abortion pill is also against the law in the state of Arkansas; however, it is still happening, Parker said.
Women are ordering online and having the pills shipped to their home. They are not getting a prescription for them and are at risk for serious complications, she said.
Parker said a goal of the Arkansas Pregnancy Network is to work with legislators to make possession of the drugs a felony, much like fentanyl and other life-threatening drugs sold on the black market.
To illustrate the seriousness of the misuse of the abortion pill, Parker said a lay person with the Network ordered the pills online and had them shipped to her home.
The pills were ordered from England but were manufactured in India. The package included one mifepristone and a dozen misoprostol pills.
Typically, the mother takes the mifepristone first. This blocks progesterone necessary to sustain the pregnancy. Twenty-four hours later she takes one tablet of misoprostol, which prompts her to go into labor and deliver her deceased child.
The package of pills from overseas had 12 of the second pill, presumably to ensure the pregnancy is completely removed, Parker said.
The Network member then sought information on the How to Use the Abortion Pill website, a pro-abortion tool to help circumvent abortion regulations.
The information in the mail order stated if the woman reaches 10 weeks and the pregnancy has not been passed then she needs to take more of the pills until everything is removed.
The website and the document urge women to go to the hospital with any complications but to not disclose information about taking the abortion pill.
It suggested females “push the pills as far up into the cervix as you can,” Parker said.
Some may argue that women would not be at risk for these dangers if the state kept abortion legal and “safe.”
However, Parker said, “When abortion was legal in our state women still did it.”
“This isn’t about legal or illegal,” she said. “It’s about making it unthinkable.”
Parker said women going to these lengths to get the abortion pill are not only taking a life, but they are also putting themselves at risk.
“I would tell them, whether you care about the baby or not, you are putting yourself in danger,” she said.
This is why pregnancy centers are still valuable in a state where abortion is illegal; desperate women are still searching.
“There are two groups of people who will see these women,” said Parker. “One is Planned Parenthood, and the other is a pregnancy center.”
The pregnancy center resolution in February “helps people understand the magnitude of what centers do,” she said.
This is important because the average citizen does not see the whole picture in terms of pregnancy centers, Parker said.
“Normally, pregnancy centers are not on anyone’s radar, except the abortion industry, because we really cramp their style,” she said. “So, they are bringing us up in a negative way calling us “fake” clinics as though we do harm to those precious women we serve and their unborn babies.”
Those in the general public who listen to so-called mainstream media only hear the inaccurate ‘fake clinic’ mantra.
“What they don’t hear,” Parker said, “is the work that we do for those women who are in those crisis moments of their lives, serving them with the love and compassion that Jesus calls us to do.”
