Welcome to Family Policy Matters, a weekly podcast and radio show produced by the North Carolina Family Policy Council. Hi, I'm John Rust and president of NC Family, and each week on Family Policy Matters, we welcome experts and policy leaders to discuss topics that impact faith and family here in North Carolina. Our prayer is that this program will help encourage and equip you to be a voice of persuasion for family values in your community, state, and nation. And now here's the host of Family Policy Matters, Tracy DeVett-Griggs. Welcome to Family Policy Matters.
While it's long been common to hear criticism of pregnancy care centers from pro-abortion activists, at times the fallacies are so outrageously untrue and repeated so often that they need to be addressed. Pregnancy care centers, formerly called crisis pregnancy centers, are a cornerstone of the pro-life movement in many communities all across the country. The U.S. government estimates there are more than 2,400 pro-life pregnancy centers across the U.S., many of them privately funded and operating in a variety of different ways.
Well, one of those centers that has been targeted especially over the past few years is Gateway Women's Care, which operates offices in Raleigh and Durham. I thought it would be helpful to get Wendy Bonano, the president of Gateway, to come and address these fallacies. Wendy, thank you for joining us on Family Policy Matters. Hi, Tracy. Thanks for having me here.
And to be fully transparent, I served on the board of Gateway many years ago and my husband and I have been monthly donors for a long time, so we do have a vested interest here. All right, so first question. One of the most common attacks that you've received is that crisis pregnancy centers like Gateway Women's Care hold themselves out to be medical clinics when they're not.
Well, Tracy, in the pregnancy world, a pregnancy medical clinic, by definition, is one who has a medical director to bring oversight, has an ultrasound machine, does pregnancy testing, has a nurse that's trained in limited ultrasound to perform those ultrasounds.
So that's the lowest definition in the pregnancy world of a pregnancy medical clinic. And so I think the differentiation there is what to the world is a medical clinic and what in the pregnancy world is a medical clinic.
Now, Gateway Women's Care has been what you would say a pregnancy medical clinic since 2002 when we were gifted our first ultrasound machine. But Gateway Women's Care has gone way beyond the basic pregnancy medical clinic. You know, with an OBGYN on staff, certified nurse midwife, you know, these mid to high level providers, we are certainly... focusing all of our work around pregnancy and we call ourselves a pregnancy medical clinic and we know what that means to us.
So I don't know if that's a clear enough definition. It may just be the definition of what it is in the pregnancy world versus the accusations that we're trying to claim that we're a full-fledged medical clinic, which is not what we ever aim to claim. Right.
Okay, so let's go to another statement that I recently heard is that Gateway spreads misinformation about abortion and abortion pill reversal. Would you address that? This one, you know, I must want to laugh at it because, you know, the short answer is no and no. As far as abortion misinformation, our medical team, our OBGYN, certified nurse, midwife, and our other nurses who have their BSN and master's in nursing, they deliver accurate medical information on all forms of abortion. They use correct medical terms.
Terminology in a way that women will understand it. They're not telling lies, they're not spreading misinformation. But I think it's helpful to understand that there's an opposing body of thought at work here. On the side of Gateway Women's Care, we believe that every woman should be fully informed before she makes a decision to have an abortion.
So she needs to be informed of her rights as an abortion patient, her rights that she has to view an ultrasound, her rights to understand the procedure as she would in any elective surgical procedure that she might undergo. Then on the other side, there are those who want to soften all the terminology. And these are, this is the abortion industry. And we've got to remember that the abortion industry benefits monetarily from women having abortions. And so their school of thought is: let's soften it down, let's dumb it down, let's use phrases that really remove a woman from what actually an abortion is.
And so Their goal is to diminish the downside of abortion and to frame abortion as a standard of essential health care rather than what it is. It's an elected choice to end the life of an unborn child.
So I think that's probably my answer to misinformation.
Now, the abortion pill reversal. This is treatment that's been around for 70 to 80 years. It is not new. There is nothing magical about abortion pill reversal. And to help listeners understand, when a woman takes the chemical abortion, she takes that first dose, which is called mifopristone.
What mifopristone does is it blocks the progesterone to a developing baby. That's the food that feeds the pregnancy, so to speak, in layman's terms. And so mifopristone blocks the progesterone and the baby dies.
Now, if we can replenish that natural hormone by progesterone medication and get to a woman early enough, Within 24 to 48 hours, that pregnancy can be saved. And my understanding is that if a woman receives abortion pill reversal, which again is simply progesterone medication that has been used to maintain pregnancies for decades, if she can get that treatment within 24 to 48 hours, there's a 68% chance that that baby's life will be saved. Nothing magical, nothing new, but it is just that the opposition wants to scare women and they spread the false misinformation. You can only speak for Gateway Centers, of course, but you do know about thousands of other pregnancy care centers and communities all around the country. You've been doing this a long time.
And most of these fall under the purview of an umbrella organization.
So they have a group that's kind of advising them.
So if you see these and hear these fallacies day in and day out, and I know you've had protesters outside your office, why do you all not confront the protesters more often?
Well, one time I did, and we've had protesters outside our Raleigh clinic, and we have ongoing protesters outside of our Durham clinic. And I did walk out to the group one time that was at 1306 Hillsborough Street and asked them what they were believing and, you know, saw their posters and their signs. This is a fake clinic. You know, there's no medical personnel here. And I said, well, would you like to come inside?
I'll introduce you to our medical director and you can have a conversation with her. And you can see that, you know, we are not a fake clinic and then you don't have to protest anymore.
So that was one little attempt at pushing back. But I think there's something at work here, Tracy, where haters will always hate. There has been a sitting legislator who has made defamatory false statements, like very obviously disprovable statements about Gateway Women's Care. And so other opportunities that we have to describe what it is that Gateway Does, we take those opportunities. You know, it's supporters who speak out on behalf of us, but we are also a non-political entity.
And so we don't want to get drawn into that realm of existence when we want to focus on the work of doing what we are doing, of reaching women, serving them, saving these unborn babies, and not spiritualizing, but really I am spiritualizing that we fully trust that God will protect this ministry. And that gives us the confidence to speak the truth in love and to continue doing what we're doing and just to put those naysayers out of our minds and continue our work. Such a good answer. And I know that I did a little investigating myself. It is interesting to note that non-profits such as Gateway are generally not considered public entities.
And I think sometimes we get used to that, used to this idea that we can criticize public officials, but you guys don't actually fall under that category, which means people that say false things about you. you can be sued for slander or defamation.
So I think it's interesting to see your stance. And of course, we understand you have some very important stories that you can be sharing instead of that. And let's talk about one of those. You mentioned the abortion pill reversal. Do you have people that have come into your centers and who have taken the abortion pill reversal?
And what happened? Yes, we do, Tracy. And already this year, we have had six women who have reached out to us. And there's also an abortion pill reversal hotline.
So women can contact that hotline and then they get directed to the pregnancy center closest to them. And so we have already had six women who so far this year have reached out to us and oftentimes they're in after hours over the weekend and our OBGYN has met with them. They do an ultrasound to confirm if the pregnancy is still viable and we get that progesterone treatment going ASAP. That's the important thing to get the progesterone. Progesterone into the hands of that woman so that she can start that medical reversal process.
So, six women, praise God, have saved the lives of their unborn babies because they had that change of heart and because abortion pill reversal, progesterone, was available to them and they found Gateway Women's Care. Our team will answer those calls 24-7. That's a life right at the precipice of death that we have been able to save through this age-old remedy of supporting pregnancies and saving these babies that way. Wow. You know, we've heard so many stories about women who have gone to abortion clinics feeling like they had no other choice and coming away with lifelong regrets.
This is a question that's always kind of bothered me, and I don't expect you to have the definitive answer. But for people who call themselves pro-choice, why oppose organizations who are working to help women examine all of their choices, especially this amazing gift? of giving life to an unborn child? You know, this is a really interesting question, Tracy, because they're not really pro-choice. They're pro-abortion, but, you know, pro-choice sounds lovely.
But by definition, choice means there's, you know, more than one option that a person can choose. They have the choice to choose one or another or multiple options. And I really think that for some of these most ardent abortion supporters, that if they were to give an inch, if they were to even acknowledge that there are women who don't want abortion and need support to continue that pregnancy, become a mother, I think in their minds, they are betraying the cause and it's just a bridge too far for them.
So that's your most extreme abortion supporters that if they admitted that a woman who doesn't want an abortion is a woman who needs care and support, that they are relinquishing their commitment to abortion. And so sadly, that makes them look like they're. Don't care about women who are having abortions. And so, therefore, how do we care for the women who think an abortion is their only option, but they don't really want it? And all they need is ongoing care and support.
And that is where pregnancy ministries step in. The woman who thinks she can only have an abortion because she doesn't know what support is out there. And that's why our marketing wants to reach those women before they decide to have an abortion. In that small window of time, as she's looking for abortion clinics online, we want to find her first so that she can come to us and realize, I can have this child, and there is support for me to have this child. I know you've done this a long time.
You've been associated in a lot of different ways with Gateway, and now, of course, your president. And you guys continue to grow, and you seem always encouraged and upbeat despite all the opposition.
So, why is that? Why is there hope here? You really see the hand of God at work here, and an unborn child is his perfect. Creation. That's how he designed for his son to come into the world.
And we see God step in in an amazing, incredible ways that pull women back from that precipice of death in those moments when they're having doubts and second thoughts. And so I think that is the encouragement of this ministry. And the Holy Spirit just turns up in amazingly miraculous ways, changing the minds of these women, giving our staff the right words to say at the right moment. And a sense of, you know, we rely on the Holy Spirit to help us know what to say, to speak the truth in love, to never waver just for the sake of a woman's comfort, but to speak the truth in love. And these women respond.
They respond to accurate information. They respond to genuine love and care, and they respond to the opportunities of support so that they can have their babies. And so that's what encourages our team day in and day out. There are rough days, but The Lord has blessed us and the Lord guides us and the Lord will keep us. Thank you so much for that testimony.
And of course, if our listeners want to get involved in this, there are pregnancy resource centers in so many towns all across the state and, of course, all across the country. And just do a little Google search, and I'm sure those will pop right up for you. But Wendy Bonano, president of Gateway Women's Care in Raleigh and Durham, thank you so much for your good work and for joining us today on family policy matters. Thank you for listening to Family Policy Matters. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and leave us a review.
To learn more about NC Family and the work we do to promote and preserve faith and family in North Carolina, visit our website at ncfamily.org. That's ncfamily.org. And check us out on social media at NC Family Policy. Thanks and may God bless you and your family.
