Sylvia Johnson, CEO of Downtown Pregnancy Center and Fifth Ward Pregnancy Center in Houston, talked candidly to Texas Right to Life yesterday about what happens in a pregnancy resource center, and how President Obama did not have his daughters’ best interest at heart when he said that he wouldn’t want them to be “punished with a baby.”
“We cry with these women every day,” said Sylvia of the 500 clients her centers serve every month. “I know what’s in the mind of these young women when they walk through our doors … They are at a point of crisis that is unbelievable. Every day we try to offer them a solution to their dilemma. A solution that is not terminating their unborn child. I can tell you that it’s really intense today in our society.”
Part of that intensity is due to the influence of President Obama, who in 2008 said that if his girls made a mistake that he wouldn’t want them “punished with a baby.”
“If my daddy said that or took me to an abortion clinic, I would not be safe,” said Sylvia. “I need the unconditional love of my daddy, who will say to me, ‘Honey, this isn’t how we planned it, but I’m going to love you through this.’”
Because so many of the women Sylvia serves lack strong support, her centers must make up for that deficiency. Sylvia and her counselors take extraordinary steps in serving their clients, staying late at night at the center for a single patient, and even going with a young woman to an abortion center to demand a refund, a story which Sylvia discusses in her filmed interview.
And the pregnancy centers, in turn, need support from the Pro-Life community.
Sylvia said, “The support that Texas Right to Life provides me is a comfort in knowing that somebody has the back of pregnancy centers like this one. [Somebody] that’s lobbying in Austin … and making sure that we have resources like the Sonogram Law, Woman’s Right to Know, and informed consent.”
Measures like that, said Sylvia, make her load lighter.
Sylvia asked that Pro-Life Texans support Texas Right to Life by attending the Celebration of Life, so that her center’s good work may continue.
The Celebration of Life will be held on September 28, at the Westin Galleria in Houston. To learn more about the event and purchase tickets, follow this link.
