No matter where women are in their pregnancy journey, the staff and volunteers at Pregnancy Center East (PCE) have their doors open and are ready to help. For 40 years, PCE has provided services to women. In 2021, according to the organization’s executive director, Laura Curran, 2,600 services were provided to women from 98 zip codes throughout the Tri-State.

“We are here to help families cope with an untimely pregnancy, to help women and men lower their fear and increase their hope,” said Curran. “After that, we are there for them with all kinds of support—emotional, spiritual, physical—for many years. Sometimes, many assume a pro-life organization is only interested in saving the baby, but what we’re interested in is rescuing the entire family.”

Curran said PCE accomplishes this by eliminating barriers for women, and their partners if they are in the picture. This includes prenatal visits coordinated with TriHealth, an independent adoption agency on campus, a maternity room with clothes for pregnant women and additional material, health and emotional services.

“One aspect that makes us different is our male mentoring program,” continued Curran. “So often the man is ostracized in this decision [to carry a child to term], but we found that the father of the baby can be one of the most significant influences on whether a woman chooses life for her baby or not. When a man comes in, we’ll have him talk with a male mentor and then unite them with the woman in the ultrasound room. That has been really successful for us.”

Curran added that one purpose for the services provided by PCE is to focus on the positives even when it may seem like there are few or none.

“We are the mercy side of the pro-life movement in that we are there to look at that woman, who is terrified, in the eye and call forth her gifts,” said Curran. “So often, women come in here, no matter their age, and have been told they’re too poor, they’re too uneducated, they don’t have enough money—they have been told all these things and not one positive thing has been said to them. So what we do, we are the first ones to actually say to them, ‘See this baby as a blessing.’”

The mindset is consistent throughout PCE’s services, including its Chastity Education Program. This August the program is hosting “CREATED: A Theology of the Body Teen Retreat,” to ignite a passion and confidence within teens to talk about their faith life and encourage others to do the same. It has two tracks, one for rising seventh and eighth grade students and one for rising high school students, and its organizer and PCE’s Chastity Education Manager, Elizabeth McKinney, noted the program is for students anywhere on their faith journey.

“With the Chastity office, our mindset is going from a place of, ‘This is why God is good and this is why Theology of the Body is good,’” said McKinney. “People know why things are bad, not as many people talk about why what is good is good.”

Curran agreed that in everything PCE provides, “We go forth in confidence, not in fear.”

LEARN MORE

CREATED: A Theology of the Body Teen Retreat
• August 3-5
• 7th-8th grade students: 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
• 9th-12th grade students: 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
• Free
• Sacraments, food, live music, designed to inspire and encourage a teen.
• supportpce.com/created-a-theology-of-the-body-teen-retreat/

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This article appeared in the July 2022 edition of The Catholic Telegraph Magazine. For your complimentary subscription, click here.