The fire department estimates the damage at over $ 250,000
By Emily Wood, Christian Post Reporter | Friday May 7th 2021 A pregnancy center in Peoria, Illinois was burned in the early hours of May 3, 2021. | Screenshot: WMBD
A pregnancy center in Illinois was set on fire in the wee hours of May 3 and caused an estimated $ 250,000 damage when the pro-life center searched for a permanent location.
The Peoria Fire Department responded to the fire at the Peoria Women’s Care Center at around 2:40 a.m. Monday, saying that most of the fire was in the front room, but the entire building had been damaged.
Fire investigators believe the fire was started on purpose but was under control by 3 a.m., a local news channel reported. Nobody was injured in the fire.
The center’s contents, including diapers and baby items, were lost in the fire and the center is in need of material assistance.
“If we are called beyond prayer, we need financial support to rebuild,” said the center’s founder and vice president Christine Dennis in an interview with Peoria-based diocesan newspaper The Catholic Post.
“And we have 500 women on our customer list whose babies are expected in the coming months.”
The Women’s Care Center is a pro-life chain that was founded in 1984 and now has 33 centers in 12 states. The aim is to help pregnant women choose life for their babies, have healthy pregnancies, and become self-sufficient.
The women’s care center in Peoria cares for around 13 women a day, performs 1,000 ultrasound scans a year, and saved 596 babies from abortions last year, according to its website. The center in Peoria was established in 2013.
Despite their losses in the fire, the Peoria Women’s Care Center continues its mission to help pregnant women.
“Our doors are open. We just don’t have any doors, ”Connie McClure, director of customer care at the burned center, told the official Peoria Diocese newspaper.
The center looks for a temporary location that can operate until the original location is restored. The headquarters in South Bend, Indiana, has initially sent a mobile unit to care for patients in a nearby parking lot.
“It may look a little different, but we promised we would be there to support them,” said McClure.
Dennis said that, according to The Catholic Post, goodwill results from the tragedy of rebuilding. She stated that they are “sad” but not dejected.
“We take care of our # 1 women. And when we take care of them, it all fits together,” she said.
McClure said the advisors spoke to some of the center’s 500 clients as early as the morning of the fire, pledging them that their care would continue when their due dates approached.
According to WMBD, fire investigators announced Monday that the cause of the fire was arson, and the investigation is being supported by both the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s office and the Peoria Police Department.
At the scene of the fire, Peoria fire chief Tony Ardis told the media that places like the Women’s Care Center are often attacked for arson.
Pregnancy Resource Centers offer pregnancy tests, STD tests, ultrasound, parenting classes, baby equipment, pregnancy-related items, job help, maternity accommodation, and referrals. In the past, other pro-life pregnancy centers have been attacked for their pro-life beliefs.
The abortion industry often claims that pregnancy resource centers provide services that deceive and harm women, ”the pro-life group told Live Action.
A pro-life women’s health center in Texas was destroyed in 2019 when words like “liar” and “fake clinic” were sprayed on the side of the building.
In a report released by the US Department of Homeland Security this year, both extremists for life and abortion were placed on a list of violent extremist groups domestically, “motivated by a range of ideologies and by the most recent political and social events in the United States ”. which “pose an increased threat to the homeland in 2021.”
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