A crisis pregnancy centre is fundraising to open a new location in Prince George, but they’re sending mixed messages on whether or not they are pro-life advocates.
According to a release from the Prince George Pregnancy Care Centre, the original location closed its doors in August of this year due to a lack of manpower. Advokate Life and Education Services, who have two similar centres in the lower mainland, stepped in to organize a fundraiser to reopen the centre.
“We tend not to use that term ‘pro-life,’ we’re ‘pro-information’, we’re ‘pro people,’ but I don’t think we’d fit into the box of pro-life or pro-choice,” said Jared White, executive director of Advokate.
While he said they don’t use the term and are not trying to end abortion, the keynote speaker for the fundraiser certainly does.
Shawn Carney is Executive Director of the Coalition for Life, which, according to their website, is a “pro-life organization in Texas made up of more than 60 churches,” and co-author of “The Beginning of the End of Abortion.”
In his own invitation to the fundraiser on the centre’s website, White writes:
“Shawn is the inspirational co-founder of 40 Days for Life. You won’t want to miss his amazing stories of success ending abortion worldwide!”
When asked if a crisis pregnancy centre is in opposition to the pro-choice movement, Hira Rashid, a social work student at UNBC and organizer of multiple pro-choice rallies in the city, said it’s a tough subject to tackle.
“I think when you’re opening up a centre that surrounds its ideology around pro-life, you’re not really there to help women.”
“I think if this clinic opens, that they are more inclined to listen to the actual facts about abortion, and that they can respect a woman’s body enough to know that it is her decision and her choice to make when it comes to abortion.”
White said he thinks the services the centre will offer are important for the Northern Capital.
“There’s a gap in services for women who are in a situation where it’s an unplanned or crisis pregnancy, and they have a lot of people in their lives who are trying to pressure them one way or the other.”
Besides providing informative services for women who have an unplanned pregnancy, White said the centre will also be offering resources to low-income women who need help with things like car seats, formula and other necessities.
He said it will be heavily focused on “peer to peer” counselling, and while they will not be referring anyone to a clinic that provides abortions, they will offer counseling services after the fact.
The fundraiser is on Thursday Nov. 29th