A pregnancy resource center in Las Vegas, Nevada, was recently vandalized by abortion advocates — the latest in an ongoing assault against pregnancy centers by abortion advocates.
Deborah Costello, the executive director for First Choice Pregnancy Services, spoke to Live Action News about the vandalism. “Last Sunday night [July 23], at 10:39, a couple of people were caught on film across the street from us,” she said. “They graffitied First Choice, with stuff like the anarchist sign in it, like Jane’s Revenge.”
Footage showed two people in black hoodies. First Choice Pregnancy Services provided a photo of to Live Action News (below).
Previously, the center had installed a high-definition camera, but with the recent excessive heat in Las Vegas, the cameras shut down and weren’t able to catch the entire act of vandalism. But according to Costello, the camera became necessary after the fall of Roe v. Wade, when pregnancy centers became even more of a target for pro-abortion activists.
“We had people that were harassing us by phone and on social media,” Costello said. “Earlier this year, we had an attack online. Somebody went to Twitter and posted some stuff about First Choice, and it got shared all over, and then they started coming to our scheduling system and scheduling a whole bunch of fictitious names on it. They bombed our Google reviews, with like 30 reviews over a few day period. And they were just calling on everyone to take us down in the ratings. Thankfully, we submitted to Google and they shockingly took them all down. But they kept just bombing our phones. They would call for a couple of days in a row, and say a lot of crazy stuff and ask crazy questions.”
They also believe someone may have been conducting other cyber-attacks, within the same period of time that the graffiti took place. “Friday and Saturday before the attack, we had just finished filming for our banquet video,” Jessica Ancell, the center’s patient services director and events manager, said. “We had clients, we had our patients and some family members in, and I find it way too coincidental that, the day we got attacked, our surveillance system drops.”
The center was also reportedly attacked on New Year’s Day of 2022.
“Somebody had come and got a pickaxe,” Costello recalled. “They pickaxed three of our doors. They didn’t get access to First Choice; on one of the doors, that’s wooden, they got a little hole all the way through it. The front door, they hit it with a pickaxe and made a little hole into it next to the key. And then we have a metal door on the outer side; they put a pretty good size hole through the front part of it that we replaced.”
The facility takes security seriously, especially making sure to take action when the abortion lobby began attacking pro-life offices and centers around the country. “Last year, when Roe v. Wade [was overturned], I was extremely worried with what people could do, because we watched what people did do,” she said. “So we took a lot of preventative measures to really update and secure [the building].”
Photo provided to Live Action News by First Choice Pregnancy Services.
In addition to free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, First Choice will help arrange referrals for physicians, attorneys, job-skills training, Medicare, and other resources. They will help clients get baby clothes and other needed supplies as well. Because they are dealing with a vulnerable group — pregnant women — safety is paramount.
“We have noticed that since Roe v. Wade [was overturned], people are much more on edge,” she explained. “We have armed security, and the amount of times we’ve had to get them involved in getting guys out, or we had a guy that tried to get in. Maybe six, eight months ago, that had tracked his girl on his phone to our center when she was down there. And she had a restraining order against him for having tried to kill her before.”
Because many of their patients might have sensitive situations like that, in addition to the security issues presented by the fall of Roe v. Wade, they have worked to be proactive and make sure the clinic is a safe, welcoming place for their patients.
“When they’re in those counseling rooms intervening on behalf of those babies, they’re not distracted by their safety,” she said. “Their families aren’t worried about people not being down there to keep an eye on things.”
For now, the police have been contacted and are investigating the vandalism. Meanwhile, the center has reportedly received support from the Las Vegas community.
“They’re extremely happy for us to be there,” Ancell said. “We see women from all walks of life, so that can include women who are being led into a forced abortion. Sometimes they’re being taken in by family members, especially in Las Vegas, where sex trafficking is a huge issue. So they’re brought in by their pimps. They can be brought in by their madams. You name it, we see it.”
In the 18 years they’ve been open, Costello said the center has saved over 42,000 babies.
“Our numbers, internally, say that if they come to First Choice seeking an abortion, 81% of them will change their mind and choose life,” she added.
