Alpha pregnancy clinic offers alternatives to abortion

VACAVILLE -- The faint flickering seen in the middle of the screen was a strong heartbeat, a sign that the baby inside the womb is healthy and that the pregnancy is viable.

It was the first time for Llanira Andrade to see the baby growing inside her, which is nine weeks now and will be born sometime in August.

"It's amazing," she said. "It's such a tiny little thing that grows so rapidly."

Andrade is one of many young women seeking assistance at Alpha Pregnancy Resource Center.

The 26-year-old and her husband were "a little shocked and excited," Andrade said about finding out that she was pregnant. "I didn't know how we were going to pay for things. That's when my sister told me about Alpha."

Although Andrade never doubted that she would keep her baby, she and the staff at Alpha know some people who turn to Alpha are thinking about other options.

"Babies come into this world in all different circumstances," said Karen Longino, nurse manager at Alpha. "We want them (the women) to come to a place where they can get support. The most important thing we offer is a relationship."

The center recently celebrated its grand opening as a medical clinic that now offers ultrasounds.

Executive Director Diedre Eckle said Alpha hopes to help inform women about abortion and alternatives so that the mothers can make an informed decision about the future of their babies, she said.

Dr. Jerry Cline, the clinic's volunteer medical director, explained that before the ultrasound capabilities, about 40 percent of the mothers were choosing to have their babies. Now that Alpha has the ultrasound, that has jumped to 90 percent.

"We're able to present information and offer ultrasounds," Cline said. "That way they're able to judge for themselves. It's an honor to help them do that. Regardless of their decision, we're going to love them."

The ultrasound equipment was paid for entirely by donations and the cost of training the nurses was paid for by a grant from Focus on the Family.

"It's been so exciting," said Nancy Vigil, a Alpha board member, about the renovation of the clinic and the new equipment. "The women are able to see that it's not just a blob of cells. A blob of cells doesn't have a heartbeat."

Still, even if a mother chooses not to keep the baby, Alpha provides counseling.

Eckle said she started volunteering at Alpha because the services the clinic provides weren't around when a family member of hers chose abortion. "If I can help a girl like her make a choice for life, then it's worth it," she said.

There are almost 4,000 abortions each day in the United States, said Eckle but she said there are still more requests than that for adoption.

The center and several volunteers literally stopped traffic just a few weeks ago while they planted some 3,000 crosses on property along Interstate 80 to call attention to the abortion issue.

"I was very surprised we stopped traffic," Eckle said. "I believe people on both sides of the issue would agree there are too many abortions."

Oddly enough, I find the current climate around abortion and other issues to be exciting—it’s a very polarizing time! I do hope we see more and more private organizations and individual people stepping up to form low-cost maternity clinics like this one, and give actual *options* to women. It’s exciting to see people acting positively in pursuit of their beliefs, and ultimately, I feel confident we will see more change for the positive by backing off from the contention with those who seek death, while going forward with promoting life wide and far.

Refusing to work with the government’s help is a grand start to reinstituting personal responsibility and personal acheivement in this nation. We should never have grown complacent enough to let the government take over education and health and moral training of our kids. These polarizing situations give us a chance to step back and make changes, and do so outside of the government’s umbrella.

The pro-death people will be confused at the sudden lack of targets. :)

it’s nice to see a group who understands that the right to choose is not limited to choosing abortion or else. a woman’s choice is not limited to abortion. one can choose to be a mother to that child, allow someone else to be the mother of that child, or sadly, eradicate the child. abortion should be the choice of last resort in cases of rape, incest, or endangering the mothers life and it should be the mothers choice (with the fathers consent where appropriate). why do so many groups think that the word choice automatically means killing a child? pro-life groups hear “choice” and figure you will murder an innocent immediately if you get a chance. pro-abortion groups hear “choice” and figure you should murder the innocent asap. why do people forget that there really are other choices in this argument? i chose to be a mother when i had my son, and chose to be the mother when someone else could not be that for my daughter. i thank that anonomous lady for the priveledge of having my daughter. i wish other people would understand that choice does exist.

I am in agreement with you on this.

Those abortions are connected to the dollars so each abortion is paving the way to the next vacation in the Cayman Islands, the next luxury car and the bigger mansion. Just ask George Tiller, Alberto Hodari and even the ex-abortionists like Carol Everett (story at the bottom). It’s ALL about the greed. However, you can see where this industry would attract the evil who don’t have a problem with infant dismemberment and mutilation or taking advantage of a woman sexually while she’s on the abortion table.

I do wonder though if William Wilberforce would have had the same goal as Obama (the claim at Saddleback) that slavery should be “legal, safe and rare”.

Check out these stories about Rebecca Kiessling

http://www.rebeccakiessling.com/
Her story is so uplifting.

and Lee Ezell’s www.leeezell.com

Carol Everett’s story:
http://prolifeaction.org/providers/everett.htm

The word “choice” is just a euphemism for murder. I highly recommend the book Lime 5 by Mark Crutcher. Now there’s a book that clarifies an abortion clinic’s definition of “choice”.

If a pro-lifer thinks that “pro-choice” means to kill an innocent at the first possible chance, it’s because of the pattern of behavior of those abortion mills. They don’t advocate adoption or other options. If they do, it’s very rare. They are in THE business to make money and that is their number one goal. They may have a guise of “health” attached to them but they are into the abortions. Once they have the money in hand, that’s all they care about and the girl is nothing once it’s over. Many ex-abortionists will tell you how they sell the abortions. It’s manipulative in how they pretend to be the “caring friend” until the deal is done.

My friend (who was happily married) went to a Planned Parenthood to just get a pregnancy test. The test was positive and she was excited but also understandably shocked. The look of shock on my friend’s face generated the question....Do you need “help”? My friend equated “help” with prenatal support and possible network to find future baby items. Once they established that she actually wanted to KEEP her baby, they displayed to her a disgusted tone and said, “Well we can’t help you anymore. Goodbye.” Once they realized they weren’t going to get her to abort, they were no longer interested in her. She was shocked by their immediate callousness. Yes, this case may be anecdotal but unfortunately, this is not an isolated case.

The wonderful thing about a crisis pregnancy center is that they are TRULY pro-life with the intention of helping the woman even after she has the baby (Planned Parenthoods don’t give out diapers, formula and maternity clothes). The real choices are carry and parent or carry the child and adopt and I can see we are in agreement there! :) My own mother is adopted so my indebted kudos goes to the biological grandmother selfless enough to recognize her baby needed a home, not mutilation nor dismemberment.

It’s true that the cpc’s don’t handcuff a woman for the next 7 months to make her have the baby. If the woman chooses to still abort even after all the education she has received, the pro-life clinic will still love her, support her and help her heal from the pain of her decision. That’s not the case of the abortion mills.

We SHOULD advocate for choice. The choice is keeping the pants zipped until marriage. That way, STD’s, unplanned pregnancies and abortions never have to be an issue.

The crisis pregnancy centers should definitely be supported!!!! :D

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