After one of its locales was defaced and damaged by pro-abortion vandals this last weekend Houston Pregnancy Help Centers staff and supporters immediately assembled to clean up the delinquents’ mess, and the center did not miss a beat in serving clients.
Following the attack, Executive Director and CEO Sylvia Johnson was straightforward on social media about not backing down in the mission of serving women and families in need in the Fifth Ward. And members of Johnson’s staff are confident that God is with them and their life-affirming ministry despite the attack.
Pro-abortion radicals spraypainted “Abortion For All” and damaged the center’s lock early in the morning of Sunday, Jan. 29.
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Security footage captured views of the assailants conducting the attack between 3 and 4 a.m.
Houston Pregnancy Help Centers’ cleaning staff encountered the damage Sunday morning and notified Johnson.
After hearing from the cleaning company Johnson texted Fifth Ward staff, among whom were Ingrid and Liz.
“We all sprang into action,” Liz told Pregnancy Help News.
The group included Ingrid and Liz, Liz’s husband, longtime volunteer Miss Rowena, and the center’s Operations Director Sandra.
“We all came out and cleaned things up,” Liz said.
“When you’re on assignment from the Lord,” she said, you do what it takes so that women are still going to be able get in and be served.
“We’re still going to be about saving lives,” said Liz
“Nothing can stop that trend when God’s in it,” she added.
The job was complete within a few hours.
Houston Pregnancy Help Centers’ (HPHC) Fifth Ward center is one of three HPHC locations in the Houston area, along with two mobile medical vans.
The pregnancy help organization is a powerhouse of service for Houston women.
From January through December 2022 throughout all HPHC’s locations there were 22,327 total client visits (a 21% increase over 2021), 3,836 abortion-vulnerable women given the resources to choose life for their unborn children, and the pregnancy help team performed 5,082 free pregnancy tests and 5,391 free ultrasounds.
Johnson, the venerable director of Houston Pregnancy Help Centers, has gone to great lengths over the years to serve women and girls in need of pregnancy help. She is also unafraid to call out the ugly racist underbelly of abortion, especially when the Fifth Ward location that serves a heavily minority population is targeted.
After the center was vandalized over the weekend, Johnson posted the following:
Pro Abortion Racist (The New Klu Klux Klan) liberals vandalized our Fifth Ward location last night. They want ABORTION ONLY for the minority women we serve. They want black babies to die! Cameras in use. We will press charges.
Johnson also lauded her employees and others who stepped up to clean up the damage.
Johnson and her staff have stood ready to serve women whether they are from the local community or not, having been tapped in the last few years by government authorities to serve hundreds of minor migrant girls who were temporarily housed on Houston. Johnson has worked to make abortion pill reversal services available for clients 24-hours a day.
She has been vocal about the racism component of abortion before, and she is also up front about the danger faced by her centers on a regular basis.
“We’ve been shot at, our windows have been shot out, there was a robbery across the street and bullets came through the wall,” Johnson said in March 2022 article in Decision magazine. “But we’re trusting God to send us as missionaries into a community that needs to hear the truth about Jesus Christ and the truth about how God created human beings in His image. How precious the life inside them is.”
This latest attack on the Fifth Ward site of Houston Pregnancy Help Centers is one among more than a hundred by pro-abortion zealots ranging including vandalism, violence, threats, and intimidation toward pregnancy centers, pro-life groups, and churches, since the May 2022 leak of the draft majority opinion in the Dobbs case signaled the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
Pro-life advocates remain skeptical about federal authorities’ willingness to investigate and prosecute the pro-abortion assaults, with the first two indictments out of so many incidents having only just occurred earlier this month, and the federal government’s pre-occupation instead with prosecuting pro-life advocates who pray outside abortion facilities.
After the attacks first arose last year Johnson had placed emphasis on security for the Houston Pregnancy Help Centers, Liz told Pregnancy Help News.
She reiterated what Johnson has always said - that the most important asset is the pregnancy center staff and volunteers, and that their safety and that of the clients is of utmost concern.
“It’s so great that Sylvia does think that,” said Ingrid. “It’s something that we don’t have to worry about. And it’s good for staff, volunteers, and clients to know that.”
It’s a big investment, Liz said, adding, “We’re grateful that Sylvia does make that sacrifice.”
The pro-abortion vandals did not succeed in derailing the Fifth Ward center’s life-saving ministry.
There were 30 appointments on the books for Monday, most, if not all of which were kept, and walk-ins were added to that as well.
“We had those appointments and more,” Ingrid said. “We were pretty busy.”
On the question of backing the sentiment of Johnson’s social media comments, the two answer in the affirmative.
“Absolutely,” Ingrid said.
“We’re here in a low-income area where there are Hispanic and Black minorities,” she said. “We’re a light in this neighborhood. We’re here to help the community and to empower women.”
The center is a bright and clean presence, said Ingrid, “We’re very proud of that.”
Liz said there will be continued focus on security.
“We will be placing that emphasis on security and making sure our centers are protected,” she said.
Prayer is a crucial component; prayer for protection for the center, its staff and volunteers, and its clients - but also prayer for the attackers.
Houston Pregnancy Help Center staff prayed for the perpetrators after the attack, and they will continue to do so as well.
Integral in the empowerment the centers offer women includes an invitation to know Christ, and those PHCH 2022 stats also include more than 5,000 gospel presentations and 400-plus professions of faith.
Ingrid and Liz said they can empathize with the attackers’ passion because there are those among the center personnel who are post-abortive, and also those who supported abortion at one time, including public demonstration of such.
Since they too were there once, they consider the opposition fertile ground for repentance and conversion.
And this is part of why they feel God’s protection even amid attacks on the center.
“No matter what, God’s favor was on us,” Ingrid said. “It could have been worse.”
“In the middle of tragedy God was with us,” she continued. “More (damage) could have been done, but there were angels stationed here.”
