VALDOSTA —

VALDOSTA — For the past 20 years, the Pregnancy Support Clinic has educated not only the community of Valdosta, but the communities throughout South Georgia and North Florida about the sanctity of human life through empowering individuals to make life-affirming choices.

The Pregnancy Support Center first opened up in 1991 on 210 W. Gordon St. Originally the center offered pregnancy testing and options counseling. The center also gave baby items to mothers in need.

“As a volunteer during 1993, I fell in love with the ministry,” said Becky Deas, executive director of the Pregnancy Support Clinic. “God’s work in the women’s lives was so real and visible, that I kept hanging around to see what He would do next.”

The budget for the original clinic was very slim and they had very few workers.

“But God showed up every day to prove He loves life,” Deas said. “He is still showing up and continues to enlarge our territory.”

In June 1998, the center moved from its original location on 210 W. Gordon St. right up the road to 206 W. Gordon St. The move brought a much larger space that allowed for a greater client load. The original facility became a housing center and was opened with the goal of increasing options available to the small number of clients who faced homelessness due to their pregnancy or who faced the pressure to abort. But this facility was not as needed as anticipated. In 2005, the original building became the learning center that utilized the space as a classroom to help educate the clinic’s clients on matters pertaining to their pregnancy.

In January 2001, the Pregnancy Support Center became the Pregnancy Support Clinic. Dr. Charles Hobby became the medical director and was in charge of overseeing all the medical services. These medical services included pregnancy testing by a nurse as well as limited ultrasound services.

Being able to perform ultrasounds was a great thing for the clinic’s patients because in-house statistics for 2005 showed that more than 75 percent of women who have ultrasounds in the office carry their babies to term.

In 2006, the clinic was approved for a partial, 80 percent grant that allowed it to receive a new ultrasound machine through the Focus on the Family Ultrasound Program.

The Earn While You Learn incentive program, introduced in 2001, was an additional program that the clinic utilized to encourage clients not to have abortions. The program allows women and men to learn about their respective pregnancy and parenting skills while earning “Mommy Money” or “Daddy Dollars” that can be redeemed for items in the clinic’s Baby Mall. Churches and community members donate all items in the Baby Mall by holding baby showers or by donating gently used items.

The Pregnancy Support Clinic has plans of moving its center a third time to a location currently under construction at 214 W. Park Ave. The new facility is so large that the clinic will be able to double its current client capacity and will also allow the clinic to expand its medical services. The clinic anticipates offering STI (Sexually Transmitted Infection) testing in addition to the free pregnancy testing and limited obstetrical ultrasound.

The STI testing will be a significant development because women who have an abortion with an active STI are more like to have PID (pelvic inflammatory disease) as a complication of that abortion. PID can lead to scarring and, in some cases, infertility.

By having the ability to test clients for infections, the clinic hopes to spare those considering abortion from a life-time of regret. The STI testing will also give the clinic the opportunity to hold open dialogue regarding choosing abstinence as a lifestyle until marriage.

The clinic’s biggest ambition after moving to its new location is to serve as a regional training center for area pregnancy centers. Deas feels that the Pregnancy Support Clinic has been blessed with so much that staff wants to share their knowledge and blessings with others. The clinic plans to offer quarterly free or low-cost training seminars to the 10 centers within a 100-mile radius.

“We have a unique ministry in that Christians from different denominations and churches come together to serve our community,” said Deas. “We are ‘Building the Wall for Life’ together in our community and our region because we believe as the creator of life, this is important to God’s heart.”

The new building is expected to be completed by late first quarter or early second quarter of this year. The clinic will not begin to move until the new building is complete. Though the clinic has 20 years worth of files, furniture and equipment to move, limited closures are expected.

The current facility is so small that up to four people will share one office. Marilois Campa, director of community relations, even shares a desk with her assistant in an office shared with other people. Filing cabinets are scattered throughout the building, including in a bathtub inside of the building’s one bathroom and in the staff’s small kitchen.

Though the clinic does the best it can to maintain the confidentiality of its clients, the building’s small size poses a challenge. The new building will allow the clinic to separate its donor functions from its client functions in a way that will better protect clients’ anonymity.

The clinic receives no federal funding. It is entirely funded by generous churches, corporations, foundations, individuals and organizations within the community.

The Pregnancy Support Clinic, Inc. is a 501(c) 3 non-profit corporation. The clinic services of the Pregnancy Support Clinic are marketed under their d/b/a Options Now, A Life Choice Clinic.

The clinic also tries generating capital through the Repeat Boutique Thrift Store. Proceeds from the Repeat Boutique fund approximately 35 to 40 percent of the Pregnancy Support Clinic’s annual budget. The store is stocked entirely by donations. The Repeat Boutique Thrift Store will continue to remain at its location at 285 Norman Drive.

Aside from Options Now and The Repeat Boutique Thrift Store, the ministry has an additional component called Pure Love Valdosta. Pure Love Valdosta is the clinic’s abstinence component. Through all of these components of the Pregnancy Support Clinic, it functions with only 60 volunteers and employees.

“Serving women is what we do,” said Deas. “Why we serve is because God called us to love our neighbor.”

More information or to become involved with the Pregnancy Support Clinic, call (229) 333-0080; or visit www.pscvaldostapartners.org. Any donations given to the Pregnancy Support Clinic are greatly appreciated and tax deductible.