In McAllen, Texas, a pro-life organization has turned a former abortion facility into a life-affirming pregnancy center.
The Pillar, a Catholic news outlet, reported that the once-infamous McAllen abortion business is now a place women can come for pregnancy tests, which also offers a “baby boutique” for supplies parents need, counseling programs, parenting classes, and numerous other services. Shattering the stereotype that pro-lifers only “want the baby to be born,” this new center is a reminder that the pro-life movement cares deeply about the parents, their baby, and their whole lives.
Yolanda Chapa, founder of the McAllen Pregnancy Center, told the Pillar that it seemed a “miracle” when the McAllen Whole Woman’s Health abortion facility closed. Chapa had dubbed it “the mill,” and noted it was the only place where abortions were committed along the Rio Grande Valley, which is comprised of four counties along South Texas’ border with Mexico — which also comprises one of the poorest regions of the United States.
“I was on that sidewalk for 17 years,” Chapa told the Pillar, adding, “I was there in the rain, or heat — sometimes it was 105 degrees and we were there — from 7 in the morning until like 1. That’s when the abortionist would leave, on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.”
Whole Woman’s Health, operating in six states, moved its Texas operations to New Mexico after Texas passed legislation protecting most preborn children from abortion after the fall of Roe v. Wade.
Chapa served those women, and thousands of others, at the McAllen Pregnancy Center, which she opened in May 2008, after she’d already been praying and sidewalk counseling for years outside Whole Woman’s Health.
Chapa noted that the center offers some medical services. “Our medical director is an OB/GYN, and we do have medical staff, but the services we provide are very limited,” she said. “So we do not diagnose, but we can refer, and we have pro-life OB/GYNs who help. So every client, if they want, will leave with a doctor’s appointment, and the doctors can help them apply for Medicaid.”
The Texas Tribune reported on the initial sale of Whole Woman’s Health to a pregnancy center, and the response of its CEO Amy Hagstrom Miller. “To say we were duped is an understatement,” Miller told the news outlet. The Tribune labeled it “real estate chicanery.”
But according to the Pillar, in October 2022, Whole Woman’s Health was contacted by a group of doctors, operating under the name Peruvian Alliance. The contact regarded a cash sale of the building. “The group was led by Dr. Luis Alberto Rosas, a local infectious disease specialist — who is publicly listed in tax filings as a board member of McAllen Pregnancy Center,” the Pillar reported (emphasis added). Thus, while Miller may say they were “duped,” and the Tribune may label it “chicanery,” it does seem that public records would have shown the pro-life connection.
Nonetheless, the Pillar reported that the Peruvian Alliance bought the building on October 17, 2022, and later the same month, sold the building to McAllen Pregnancy Center.
Chapa’s take on whether or not Miller and her abortion center organization were “duped” or not is a different perspective altogether. She told The Pillar that God provided for her center’s needs, in a most unexpected way.
“This is a huge victory for the Lord,” she said. “Because we did nothing. He did it all. It will be a place of resurrection, right?”
