CONWAY — St. Joseph Church parishioner Mary Louise Simon has the same pro-life goal in her heart she had 34 years ago: End abortion by giving young girls a place to go to choose life for their baby — a very new endeavor back in 1980.
Now 93, her work is being continued by others at what is now called Life Choices, a pregnancy crisis center in Conway.
“That’s what I’ve been living for — to get the world to know it’s so wrong to do abortion,” Simon said.
Life Choices Executive Director Maria Edwards, 34, has been at the helm for nine years.
“Since ‘her’ birth, Life Choice’s mission has been basically to bring light and truth to the area, this particular area of crisis pregnancy,” Edwards said. “We offer a safe, nonjudgmental environment where girls can come in and talk and be very honest and know everything they say is confidential.”
In 1980 at 60 years old, Simon, a mother of six, had just retired from working with Boy and Girl Scouts of America and was ready for some time to herself. But a spiritual fire was lit inside after her older brother, Ted Hiegel, contacted a man named Ben Pierson, who shared his story with St. Joseph parishioners about his pregnancy care work in Hawaii. Roe v. Wade, the case which legalized abortion in the United States, was passed seven years earlier.
“I told my brother Ted that I just had to do something about it,” Simon said. “We had a meeting that very night at church.”
Simon, her brother and a host of volunteers started the Conway Pregnancy Problem Center within just a few weeks with continuous help from churches of various denominations in the community.
“I was so pleased we had other churches come right in with us,” Simon said. “Even from the very beginning we told people we needed clothes,” for expectant mothers and babies. “It was amazing how everyone responded to it,” Simon added.
At first, girls were leery to come to the center, especially after so many had been told not to tell anyone about their pregnancy and just get an abortion, Simon said.
“Those girls really needed so much help … it was time we started to do something,” Simon said. “They really did not want to have an abortion. Their classmates knew they were pregnant, but they were bold enough to say they’ve been to the center. … Years later they’d come back,” with their children to say thank you.
While the location, leadership and name has changed, the work is the same, Edwards said.
She still gets teary-eyed recalling a young woman who came to Life Choices, confused and scared about what to do with her unborn child.
“Sometimes they just hit you differently, there’s a connection. I would say for me, probably it was a young woman who had a career, she was working here in town and she found herself pregnant with a married man’s baby and he was threatening her and it was bad,” Edwards said. “She came to see us, and she was considering an abortion but wanted an ultrasound first … when she saw that screen, she said, ‘I can’t do that.’ She chose, come what may, she was going to have her baby.”
Edwards said the woman lost her job, moved back home with her family and is now married with a sibling for the baby she chose to keep.
This is what Life Choices continues to be about — educating young girls and women that they do indeed have a choice and that God is with them, Edwards said.
Life Choices offers free pregnancy tests and dialogue about the concerns of clients. They also offer a free ultrasound by a certified nurse up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy.
“We talk about how they are thinking and feeling about being pregnant, their support system, basically feeling them out on their situation, where they are. We ask if anyone is pressuring them about abortion,” Edwards said. “You love them, show them compassion and give them truth.”
With a staff of just six and Edwards the only full-time staff member, the organization still relies on volunteers and donations for the women who decide to keep their babies. The center currently is fully staffed with about eight to 10 volunteers, including Beth Boucher, liaison to St. Joseph Church.
“I have nothing but praise for the organization, they give women great support,” said Boucher, who is involved in several pro-life activities at St. Joseph. “We also have a spiritual adoption program during the school year in the fall. You spiritually adopt an unborn baby and pray every day (for them). We have a baby shower on Mother’s Day and bring the gifts to the … (Little Rock) Arkansas Pregnancy Resource Center,” and Life Choices.
What is most important to Edwards, the staff and volunteers, is not to stray from their spiritual roots. Edwards said the center is run solely on donations, not through any government assistance because that would force them to take a more secular approach.
“We’re not willing to make that sacrifice. Taking the Lord out of it just makes it pointless,” Edwards said. “We talk to them about their spirituality, the side effects of what an abortion can have on their relationship with the Lord. Yes, he is forgiving but can you forgive yourself? We do share the Gospel with them if it’s an open door for that. Typically it doesn’t happen in the first visit.”
While the center started with roots in the Catholic Church, it reaches out to all Christian denominations and is now an ecumenical outreach. Notable fundraisers include an annual fall banquet and the “Change for Life” baby bottle program, which reaches 40 area churches and Christian schools, including St. Joseph School.
“That’s one of the things I love about Life Choices — it gives us the opportunity to minister in ways the church can’t,” Edwards said. “We get to share the love of Jesus this way.”
For Edwards, who attends Fellowship Bible Church in Conway, the Christian faiths coming together for a common cause is just as much a blessing as getting to see the faces of the newborn babies she helped save.
“It totally blesses me. For me, it is a picture of what we could do if we would all unite together because I think that’s the power of Life Choices,” Edwards said.
