Pregnancy centers all across the country welcome women needing prenatal care and those who are struggling to make decisions regarding the future of their unborn children. Pregnancy tests and sonograms are conducted at these locations, and women receive counseling to help them through difficult times. While these pregnancy centers are a vital part of the pro-life movement, a new variation on the theme has emerged – a mobile center allowing the concept of a pregnancy center to be brought to the very doorsteps of low-income mothers, who may not otherwise seek help.
The Morning Center is a non-profit organization “founded to provide free full-service maternity care to women in urban and under-served areas where quality care is limited and scarce. [They] will provide Christ-centered maternity care through mobile care units and full service maternity hospitals.”
To start this project, the Morning Center is sending mobile care units to Indianapolis, Memphis, and Charlotte. These care units will park at a church or community center in low-income neighborhoods. The units will operate at times that work best for mothers, such as in the afternoon or evening.
Why will these mobile units be an important extension of the work already done at pregnancy centers? The Morning Center explains:
Low income mothers desperately need quality prenatal care to learn how to care for themselves and their growing babies. And yet this is the group of mothers most likely to not get prenatal care, sometimes even showing up in labor in the hospital ER never having seen a doctor. In these sad circumstances, many premature, low birth weight babies struggle to survive. These babies are 5 times more likely to lose that battle for life.
The most common reasons women give for getting little or no prenatal care are: transportation problems; no insurance; and poor treatment by clinic staff. The Morning Center wants to meet these needy women where they are with Morning Center Mobile Care Units.
The Morning Center hospital and mobile care unit project is the next step in the pro-life movement. Together, we can bring a new day in maternity care and lavish the love of Jesus Christ on women and unborn children who desperately need it.
