Logan’s Center for Pregnancy Choices is "not Planned Parenthood"

Valerie Byrnes is Director of the Center for Pregnancy Choices in Logan. “We are not Planned Parenthood,” she said.

“At our Center, it is about what we are for, not about what we are against,” she said. “We are for life, we are for the sanctity of human life, we are for walking with women, and men, with compassion. We are not judgmental. We are here to let them know they have choices and that there are options to abortion.”

Byrnes said while the Center does not advocate for abortion, latest statistics from 2015 indicate Planned Parenthood did 327,653 abortions compared to 1,880 adoption referrals.

Byrnes said those who come to the Center are shown what she calls an evidence-based app.

“We have an ObGyn over our entire group. When they watch the abortion part of the app, a lot of the comments are ‘My goodness, I had no idea that is what happens in an abortion’.

“We want to educate them. Of course, it is their choice what they do when they walk out the door. Abortion is legal and has been for 45 years. We want them to be informed, because it is life-altering decision.”

Byrnes said the Center is not a medical clinic. There is a family nurse practitioner on their board; Byrnes is a registered dietician.

“One of our volunteers is a wonderful retired mother-baby nurse who does some of the parenting education classes and we have volunteers who are RNs.”

Byrnes said when a woman comes to the Center she is in a crisis situation, she doesn’t know what to do.

“We want to help her know what the options are, then she makes the choice. If she makes the choice for parenting, we offer wonderful parenting classes which go through everything from pre-natal to toddler age.”

A client who attends the classes and does the homework earns Baby Bucks to spend in a store at the Center which is stocked with donated items.

Byrnes said of those who visit the Clinic more will choose to parent than will choose adoption. The 2015 numbers indicate 74 women listing Cache County as a place of residence had abortions in Salt Lake City.

“We didn’t see every one of those by any means,” said Byrnes. “We would really love to have many more abortion-minded women come through our doors.”

She said there is no way to know if someone they have seen might go get a Plan B pill which can prevent pregnancy if taken not later than 72 hours after unprotected sex.

“Our Healthy Realtionship Education effort is too help them not to get pregnant, to wait until marriage. We also offer date rape drug detection cards. They are free.”

Logan’s Center for Pregnancy Choices does not get government funding although Byrnes said in the last year they received a Workforce Services grant to help reduce out of wedlock births in Cache County. Most of their support comes from the community, businesses and fundraisers.

The Center’s services are free. They are found at <a href=”http://www.centerforpregnancychoices.com” target=”_blank”>centerforpregnancychoices.com</a>.

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