Four generations of the Wright family have given their time, talent, and treasure to the pregnancy help movement.
Growing up in Corpus Christi, Texas, Sherry Wright was immersed in Christianity in her small church.
Singing in the church choir, Sunday school, having fun with a youth group, Sherry knew nothing of the abortion issue looming on the horizon.
The start of her journey to pregnancy help ministry began in 1970 in college.
Sherry understood from her child development classes that the unborn baby is a separate body, and she was shocked and disappointed when the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling was released.
But the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion throughout the U.S. hadn't impacted Sherry's life directly at first and it remained a remote issue.
"I was busy getting married and having children and I didn't know anyone who'd had an abortion,” she said.
In high school she knew one girl who'd chosen adoption for her child, but it wasn't until later when she was teaching sociology at Cisco College that she learned of some girls who’d had an abortion.
Meanwhile the rhetoric of “choice” and "feminists" pushed by the media insisted that Planned Parenthood's work was to help women, give them "options.
“That message was very convincing," Sherry recalled.
One day she heard a Black pastor on TV accusing abortionists of targeting young Black women, and his words pierced her heart. She turned off the television to think.
“Lord, I know what Gloria Steinem thinks about abortion,” Sherry prayed aloud. “I know what Planned Parenthood is saying, and I know what that TV pastor thinks, but I don’t know what you think about abortion.”
She looked down at the open Bible in her lap and her eyes fell upon Psalms 94:5-10, with a passage concerning “nations who kill their orphans."
She made the connection with the lost orphans and abortion, and this moved her. Sherry wanted a better nation for her two daughters than one that accepted abortion.
“It was a total download in my spirit,” she said. “I promised the Lord right then and there I would do anything I could to end abortion."
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Sherry was blessed to have the support of her husband Billy, whose parents had helped unwed mothers when he was growing up.
Bill and Polly Wright had a good friend who was a doctor that assisted young mothers in unwed pregnancies, and at times the Wrights brought home a baby to stay with them until Bill, a lawyer, could finalize a private adoption.
Sherry spoke to small groups here and there, but it wasn’t until she was invited to a local prayer group that the Lord revealed what she was to do in the pro-life movement. She agreed reluctantly to chair a new group and that proved to be providential.
The group decided to open a pregnancy center, something only one member of the group had any experience with.
In 2007, Sherry attended her first Heartbeat International Pregnancy Help Conference.
"They really knew what they were doing," she said. “They had the policies and procedures, training, everything, it was such a relief!”
Her group started looking for a building for the new pregnancy center, and when the right one wasn't coming along, a local pro-life family called and said they would build one.
"I have been involved in church ministry all my life, and I have never seen the hand of God move so mightily as He does in the pro-life movement,” Sherry said. “My faith has grown so much stronger because I know it's His will to save these mothers and fathers and babies from abortion."
In 2008 Open Door Pregnancy and Family Resource Center in Cisco, Texas, was up and running.
"We were the county-wide pregnancy center,” Sherry said.
By 2010 they had raised enough money to become offer ultrasound services and become a medical clinic.
The pro-life donor family doubled the size of their building, and in 2012, they opened another pregnancy help center in Breckenridge, Texas.
Then in 2016, a foundation contacted the center wanting to provide a mobile ultrasound unit, enabling them to reach small towns in surrounding counties.
“We partner with pregnancy centers that don’t have ultrasound or have more appointments than they can provide for,” Sherry said. “We go there and do the ultrasounds. It continues to bring blessings beyond our borders!”
The mobile unit has been invited to youth groups and camps, and even biology classes to show live ultrasounds to students who can see that the baby is a separate life, Sherry said, “Revealing the fact that this is a separate human life to youth is vital in promoting life decisions for their future.”
In addition to pregnancy tests, ultrasound, and counseling, the Open Door ministry provides classes where parents, grandparents and clients can earn boutique bucks to buy children's items clothes, cribs, highchairs, baby monitors, anything a mother needs we try our best to provide.
The ministry just had the grand opening of a resale shop where clients are trained in retail skills, so they have some store experience.
Now grown and married, Sherry’s daughters Annie and Becca are both involved in pregnancy help ministry.
“Mom’s passion for the pro-life movement has definitely been inspiring,” Annie said. “Growing up I heard her share her story of how she became pro-life many times. I remember her counseling on the phone for hours. I carried a baby model in my Bible all through my pre-teen and teen years.”
“She’s always been a prayer warrior and when she was called to help start the Open Door Pregnancy Center you could see God’s blessing over it every step of the way,” Annie said. “That center has helped so many young women and men and families that I knew it would be amazing if a pregnancy help center could open in my area.”
Annie lives near the border of New Mexico, where state abortion laws are very permissive and has been happy to help with the banquet at the pro-life center in Clovis, N.M.
Annie is currently the vice president of Created with Purpose Pregnancy Center in Bovina, Texas, which is part of Heartbeat International’s Life Launch Grant Program. Her husband Ryan was involved with the start of the center and promotes and participates in golf fundraisers and banquets.
Sherry Wright was also instrumental in helping Created with Purpose of West Texas to get up and running, and she serves on the board for Heartbeat International.
Created with Purpose Pregnancy Center
“My mom prayed for the center and met with the founding board and was a tremendous help with the opening of the center,” Annie said. “Mom even spoke at our first banquet.”
“God is definitely in the pro-life movement and keeps making exciting things happen for our center and community to bless others,” she said.
Annie said it was a blessing for her and sister Becca and to go with their mom to Washington D.C. to pray for an end to abortion on the Supreme Court steps.
“We’ve also attended some Open Door banquets,” Annie said. “Her (mom’s) involvement in the Heartbeat organization has encouraged me to keep praying for the end of abortion and striving to help anyone choose life.”
Now the fourth generation of the Wright family is continuing the pregnancy help legacy.
“My daughter, Erica Grace, is very active in her church and shares her pro-life stance on social media,” said Annie. “My youngest son, Casen, 11, prays for the end of abortion and shared about how the Texas abortion laws have changed in a 5th-grade school paper.”
Annie’s children have helped serve at fundraiser dinners, and even mowed the lawn at the center.
Sherry says it's been a family effort all along, from experiencing the loving support and adoption assistance for pregnant women by her in-laws, the compassion and financial generosity of her husband, her daughters and their husbands, and now her own grandchildren understanding the need to protect the sanctity of unborn life.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
