From a Liquor Store to Saving Lives

A brand new 4,200-square-foot pregnancy center just east of Colorado Springs has opened in a building that once featured a liquor store.

Rich Bennett, Life Network’s president and CEO, the non-profit organization behind the expansion, called the occasion “the culmination of many months of planning, preparation and prayers.”

Bennett, a former Focus on the Family vice president, has spearheaded a remarkable season of growth and service for the pro-life ministry.

Joining Life Network in 2017, the organization now provides four Colorado Springs pregnancy center locations, full-service sites that are literally saving innocent lives and providing practical and compassionate care for both men and women.

It’s estimated this newest facility will serve over 500 women and administer over 250 ultrasounds each year.

The new location in Falcon, Colorado will feature a clinic offering pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, STD testing and treatment, as well as parenting classes. Volunteer mentors for mothers and fathers will also be offered, as well as basic pregnancy care.

Life Network will also have their administrative offices on site. A second Life Network thrift store, a retail establishment whose proceeds are then funneled back into the care and treatment of moms and dads will also open soon.

Pregnancy centers provide critical help to abortion-minded women. Often shoestring operations forced to operate with limited financial assistance, they’re staffed by enthusiastic and dedicated individuals who see themselves on nothing short of a rescue mission.

Led by Catholic physicians, nurses and pro-life advocates, pregnancy centers began to open in the 1960s as the legalization of abortion began to spread. In many ways, the same services offered now were provided back then – with the exception of ultrasound technology.

Research shows that abortion-minded women who see their preborn babies on an ultrasound scan are up to 85% more likely to carry their child to term.

Since 1984, Focus on the Family’s Option Ultrasound Program has aimed to serve these critical centers by providing ultrasound machines and training to the organization’s team. We estimate over 500,000 babies have been saved since the effort’s inception, including children whose mothers visited and were served at the Colorado Springs Pregnancy Centers.

The effort is more effective than ever before – but the hill remains treacherous and steep.

“We continue to see an escalating need for the no-cost services we provide,” Bennett said. “In the last 24 months, our centers have been busier than ever before.”

That Life Network was able to purchase, reclaim, and renovate a former liquor store adds additional sweetness to the story. With more than 20,000 square feet of total space available for a ministry dedicated to the preservation and promotion of life, Focus on the Family raises a (non-alcoholic) glass of bubbly to toast Rich and his tremendous team at Life Network – and all of the selfless leaders and volunteers at pregnancy resource centers around the nation.

Image from Shutterstock.

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