MCALLEN, Texas (LifeSiteNews) – A former abortion mill in Texas has been converted into a pro-life parenting assistance thanks to the efforts of area pro-lifers.
The Pillar and Texas Right to Life detail the story of McAllen Pregnancy Center (MPC), which for years has operated near the McAllen location of the notorious Whole Woman’s Health (WWH) abortion chain. Now closed, the latter was previously the only place to procure abortions along the Rio Grande Valley.
In July 2022, a month after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed state abortion bans to take effect by overturning Roe v. Wade, WWH put the building up for sale. That October, a group of doctors called the Peruvian Alliance, led by infectious disease specialist and MPC board member Dr. Luis Alberto Rosas, purchased the site.
The alliance then sold the building to MPC. When the news got out, WWH chief Amy Hagstrom Miller said she thought the Peruvian Alliance was going to be opening a family practice center and felt “duped” upon learning of the pro-life use to which it would actually be put.
Now, under MPC founder Yolanda Chapa, the location offers pregnancy tests, parenting classes, counseling services, baby supplies, and even some medical services.
“Our medical director is an OB/GYN, and we do have medical staff, but the services we provide are very limited,” says Chapa. “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.”
“I was on that sidewalk for 17 years,” she went on. “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.”
“This is a huge victory for the Lord,” Chapa added. “Because we did nothing. He did it all. It will be a place of resurrection, right?”
Fourteen states currently ban all or most abortions, while abortion allies pursue a variety of tactics to preserve abortion “access,” such as easing distribution of abortion pills, legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, attempting to enshrine “rights” to the practice in state constitutions, constructing new abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, and making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors. President Joe Biden has called on Congress to codify a “right” to abortion in federal law, which would not only restore but expand the Roe status quo by making it illegal for states to pass virtually any pro-life laws.
As politicians and political activists continue to argue and speculate about the general public’s receptiveness to the new status quo, many pro-lifers argue that it is more important than ever for the movement to show communities it is willing and able to deliver alternatives to abortion.