Last December, Care Net\u2014the nation\u2019s largest network of evangelical Christian crisis pregnancy centers\u2014featured a birth announcement of sorts on the website of its 10-year-old Urban Initiative. Under the headline, \u201cPlans Underway for Care Net\u2019s Newest Center in Kansas City, Mo.!\u201d a block of upbeat text described how a predominantly white, suburban nonprofit called Rachel House had \u201cmade contact\u201d with \u201cvarious African American pastors and community leaders,\u201d who helped them \u201cplant\u201d a \u201cpregnancy resource center\u201d in a predominantly black, poor section of downtown Kansas City.<\/p>\n
Rachel House\u2019s mission is clear: It is an evangelical ministry with the primary goal of \u201cprotecting the unborn.\u201d But the nonprofit doesn\u2019t do picket signs and bloody-fetus images. Instead, it draws in young women facing unintended pregnancies with things like free pregnancy testing, first-trimester ultrasounds and baby supplies. The Rachel House team proudly emphasizes the quality of its care. \u201cWe tell all of our clients, \u2018Even though you\u2019ve done a pregnancy test at home, we\u2019re going to do another one here,\u2019 \u201d explains Rachel House client services director Susanne Hanley. \u201cWe buy the hospital-strength pregnancy tests. We don\u2019t know what they used; they could have used one from the dollar store, or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n
In some ways, Care Net\u2019s Kansas City operation is neither unique nor new. For nearly 20 years, the evangelical anti-abortion movement has used standalone crisis pregnancy centers to dissuade girls and women from ending unintended pregnancies. These mostly volunteer-staffed centers posit themselves as neutral, nonjudgmental sources of information about abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, adoption and abstinence. As Americans United for Life\u2019s Jeanneane Maxon told the New York Times in January, \u201cThey\u2019re really the darlings of the pro-life movement\u201d due to their \u201cground level, one-on-one, reaching-the-woman-where-she\u2019s-at approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since 2004, Rachel House has run centers in two Kansas City suburbs\u2014one in Lee\u2019s Summit, across the street from a high school, and one in the Northland, next door to Planned Parenthood. Both areas are about 85 percent white and solidly middle class. Rachel House raises most of its funds through events like golf tournaments and \u201cbaby bottle drives\u201d that challenge congregants to fill up empty bottles with cash and checks and return them to church on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The new Rachel House, however, is on 46th St. and Paseo, in the heart of the city. It sits across the street from J\u2019s Pawn & Fine Jewelry, where patrons can cash checks and get payday loans. This area is mostly black, up to 36 percent of its residents are poor and it has one of the highest infant mortality rates in town.<\/p>\n
\u201cA couple of years ago we revisited our mission statement,\u201d says Rachel House president Kathy Edwards, a middle-aged, married mother who eerily resembles \u201cBig Love\u201d star Mary Kay Place. \u201cWhen you\u2019re passionate about doing something, you want to do it well. We asked ourselves if we were where women were more apt to get abortions, because there\u2019s not a pregnancy center for them to go to. And we thought, \u2018No. We\u2019re not in the urban core.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Evangelicals have long approached their anti-abortion work with missionary zeal. But over the past four years, national anti-abortion strategists have designated \u201curban\u201d and \u201cunderserved\u201d women and babies as a priority for saving. In practice, these terms tend to be euphemisms for \u201cblack\u201d and, to a lesser extent, \u201cLatina.\u201d <\/p>\n