Today, tens of thousands of people are descending upon our nation's capital to participate in the 51st annual March for Life, showcasing this year's theme: "with every woman, for every child." The march's yearly turnout is a testimony to the heart of the pro-life movement and a reminder that expecting mothers have a wide range of resources, comfort, and support at their disposal.
As a board-certified OB/GYN with 25 years of experience handling crisis pregnancies, I can attest to the pro-life movement's devotion to caring for both mother and child at every step of pregnancy in conjunction with a vast network of pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) around the country.
It's a tragedy that so many deny the presence of life in the womb, as I learned during residency when I was asked to participate in a selective abortion for an unborn child diagnosed with Down Syndrome. I told my supervisor I wasn't comfortable taking the life of one of my patients. Afterwards, I prayed for strength to remain committed to my convictions.
Only moments later, I bumped into an attending physician in my hospital. "Are you the resident with the pro-life pin on your coat?" he asked, telling me I was not alone in my beliefs about life. His words reinvigorated me to support both patients, born and unborn, in my work as an OBGYN.
Fourteen years later, I became the medical director of a local PRC in North Carolina. That experience opened my eyes to the enormous impact of the network of nearly 3,000 PRCs across the nation, which offer an estimated $358 million in resources and services annually. Unlike Planned Parenthood, which charges women to terminate their unborn children, PRCs take a life-affirming approach to medicine and offer services at little to no cost to patients.
Sadly, some organizations, such as the American College of Obstetricians and Genecologists, dismiss the services that I and many of their members provide at PRCs. But our work is crucial to helping women navigate unexpected pregnancies and provide counseling to those who regret their decision to abort. Attacks on these centers only serve to raise barriers between women and their access to health care.
PRCs offer support in the form of medical care, as well as counseling; parenting classes; after-birth care; and free material resources like diapers, formula, and baby clothes. In 2022 alone, these organizations met with clients over 16 million times and provided services to nearly 975,000 new clients. PRCs have saved women from living behind dumpsters, helped them break crippling addictions, and freed them from abusive relationships—all while empowering them to build healthy families and pursue once-unthinkable educational or career goals.
PRCs could help even more women if doctors were fully integrated into the everyday life of PRCs, as I am in three Eastern North Carolina centers. Volunteer doctors who already perform vital work approving policies and reading ultrasounds could be employed to see patients under a regional medical director model where resources are shared and services expanded.
This model allows doctors to engage in direct patient care more often, and has helped us increase training for nurses and staff, especially for first-trimester ultrasounds. This is vital in ensuring that ectopic pregnancies, a leading cause of death for pregnant women in the first trimester, are diagnosed.
This week, tens of thousands of pro-life advocates are filling the streets of Washington, D.C., to remind our nation—and the world—that the pro-life movement truly stands with every woman, for every child. Our witness will serve as a powerful reminder that expecting mothers deserve compassionate care—not only for themselves, but also for the second patient they carry in their wombs.
In the meantime, those of us in the medical community who still adhere to the truth will continue championing our patients and expanding access to the resources that they need to thrive.
Susan Bane, M.D., Ph.D., is a board-certified OB/GYN and holds a certificate in Theology and Health Care from the Duke Divinity School. She is the medical director of three pregnancy centers in North Carolina.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
