The February 26 issue of Time Magazine has one of the most interesting covers you will ever see on a secular publication, and a cover story that is somewhat startling, to say the least.
Time Magazine Highlights CPCs
The Time article by Nancy Gibbs is entitled, “The Abortion Campaign You Never Hear About”; the subtitle, “Crisis pregnancy centers are working to win over one woman at a time. But are they playing fair?”
While the “playing fair” nonsense is typical of such articles, the fact that the good these centers are doing is honest enough, and the very well kept secrets are out.
The story centers around a Crisis Pregnancy Center in Ashville NC, “Pregnancy Support Services,” one of more than 2,000 Crisis pregnancy centers in the United States, and some say; including me, closer to 3,000.
Gibbs’ story makes it is clear that the women who run these centers, and work at them, are attempting to end abortion by being at all times kind, calm and nonjudgmental. And these women are winning the abortion battle by helping pregnant women navigate the social-service bureaucracy, get Medicaid, and begin prenatal care. They help pregnant girls find housing and get an ultrasound picture of their baby to help them get to know their unborn child.
The article says about half he women in America face an unplanned pregnancy at one time or another in their lives, and that more than one-third of American women will have an abortion by the time they are 45.
Converting Hearts and Minds
While there is not a total agreement even among the centers as to what method is best to convince a woman that she should not have an abortion, their emphasis is almost always on the positive approach of hope, life, forgiveness and support. The important thing is to change the hearts and minds of abortion bound women, not just change the laws and tighten up on restrictions.
The article says that these Crisis Pregnancy Centers are usually Christian, such as Care Net, Heartbeat International and National Institute of Family and Life Advocates. They also admit to many centers not affiliated with these three giants.
The article says unplanned pregnancies have jumped nearly 30% in the past ten years, while public funding for family planning is down. But many Crisis Pregnancies Centers try to supply the help pregnant women need to prevent them from choosing abortion. The article shows maps of the states indicating the number of crisis pregnancy centers in each state, as well as a map of the annual number of abortions that are performed annually in each state.
Pro-Life Compassion Shines Through
The maps appear to be accurate, but where the controversy in the article comes in is the ongoing argument between abortion providers and CPC’s, where the abortionists say that those who work in CPC’s don’t really care about the women but only in their ideology, while pro-lifers insist it is the abortion providers who do not care about women, but only their determination to keep abortion legal.
Other arguments are alluded to and examples given, but all in all the story comes out favoring the crisis pregnancy centers—and that is a good thing. Simply presenting to the public this vitally important, life-saving activity going on in the pro-life movement, all over the country, for the past almost 40 years, and getting a ten-page cover story in Time Magazine, is a break-through.
We suggest you read it. You may not see the likes of this story again in many a moon.
If you don’t have time to read it, then at least take a look at the cover at your corner drugs store or news stand. A picture is worth ten thousand words, they say, and the picture of a hand holding those four little fetal models on the cover of the February 26 Time Magazine are worth their weight in gold, and then some.
