Respect Life Month: Women’s Care Center helps with crisis pregnancies

I would sum up my experience on the board of the Women’s Care Center (WCC) of Columbus with the words “impactful,” “rewarding” and, most important, “growth.”

The story of the WCC is one of amazing growth. A professor at the University of Notre Dame founded the first WCC in a tiny house in Indiana in 1984. The first year, staff members served 300 women. Now they serve more than 30,000 women annually at 34 centers in 12 states: Ohio, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

It has become the largest pregnancy center in the United States, serving more women and saving more babies than any other.

In Columbus, the WCC was founded in 2008 on Broad Street, down the road from an abortion clinic that opened in 1973, the year of the Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision. Just a few months later, a second center opened next to the largest abortion clinic in the region.

In 2011, I had just finished my service on the board of directors of Ohio Right to Life and was asked to join the board of the WCC. I found that my work with the Women’s Care Center was more impactful and rewarding because it involved giving immediate and direct help to women in need. 

And I have seen results. Since the WCC opened, the number of abortions performed in Columbus has declined 47%. Talk about impactful. The center sees an average of 51 women a day, 90% of whom choose life. In Columbus in 2021, 3,307 women made 14,467 visits to the Women’s Care Center, were given 2,850 ultrasounds, resulting in 2,037 babies saved. And that is so rewarding. 

And speaking again of growth, currently 1 in 8 babies born in Franklin County starts with Women’s Care Center.

WCC services start with free, confidential counseling, support and education for pregnant women. Counselors give women the information they need about pregnancy and abortion so they can make decisions that are right for them. 

Also, free pregnancy testing and ultrasounds are available. The highly skilled client care team meets each woman with unconditional love and offers genuine assistance before and after her baby is born. After a choice for life, women need  help to have healthy babies and build nurturing families. But the work doesn’t end with the birth of a baby.

Women earn coupons from using WCC services, including initial visits, pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, follow-up visits, and taking in-person parenting classes. These coupons can be redeemed at the WCC Crib Club for clothes, car seats and other baby supplies.

There is a variety of parenting classes to choose from, including Strong Fathers, Mommy and Me, Sibling Rivalry, Movement for Moms, Crockpot Cooking, Pediatric Hygiene, Budgeting Basics, Stress Management and more. 

With these classes and the Crib Club, the WCC helps moms have healthier babies, learn parenting skills and build strong families.

A long-serving couple on the WCC board is Roger and Sally Baughman. They first heard of the WCC at Luxury Bingo,the center’s annual fundraising dinner. 

Being so impressed with the WCC mission, they expanded their role and serve on the board to offer the center their experience in not-for-profit governance and development. 

“We have always been pro-life,” Roger said, “but hearing the stories and seeing what the WCC does we became interested in doing more. Since joining the board, we are amazed at the accomplishments being done every day to save babies.”  

Sally said, “One thing we have learned that, in many cases, these gals have difficult decisions to make in regards to keeping their babies. We believe the love and support given to them at the center is the main reason they do so.” 

The word “growth” is going to take on a much larger role. With the  U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion will, I hope, be banned across much of the United States. Crisis pregnancy centers will need to expand dramatically to help women who would have aborted their babies in the past. This will mean more client visits. It will mean huge growth in the need for pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, Crib Club visits and parenting classes.

The board of the Women’s Care Center sees this as an opportunity to help women in need, to help their babies and to help the world through building strong families. An unexpected pregnancy can be difficult to face alone, and the Women’s Care Center is here to help.