This is the third of a limited series about reproductive healthcare options and care for women in the Toledo area. 

The pro-life/pro-choice debate goes back as far as most of us can remember. As political polarization increases in the U.S., so does the gap between members of these conflicting ideologies.

In his book, Persuasive Pro-Life, pro-life advocate Trent Horn explains why the stakes are so high for people on either side.

“If pro-choicers are correct, and abortion is a routine medical procedure, then pro-lifers oppress women and falsely accuse them of homicide. But if pro-lifers are correct, and abortion ends the life of a human being, then pro-choicers are guilty of defending the killing of millions of people.”

While this debate is certainly a hot topic, for many of the pro-life facilities in Toledo, the issue is less about partisan politics and more about caring for a pregnant woman in need and safeguarding a life.

Heartbeat of Toledo

Executive director of Heartbeat of Toledo Gina Borino said the nonprofit has brought together employees and patients of all different backgrounds, religions and political ideologies.

Heartbeat is a pro-life organization in Toledo that provides free, confidential services to those who are pregnant, think they may be pregnant or have a child under the age of two.

Heartbeat has three programs: Your First Look, Heart to Heart and Catalyst.

• Your First Look provides free and confidential pregnancy testing, ultrasounds and STI testing
• Heart to Heart offers prenatal and parenting education, including free classes that can be taken in-person or online, and can explain changes to the body during pregnancy, the delivery process, self-care postpartum and childcare postpartum  
• Catalyst is a program that targets younger demographics and teaches individuals how to build self-worth and cultivate healthy relationships.

These various programs all have a different focus, whether medical or personal.

“Some women will come in and say, ‘I want this baby, but it’s the finances, the relationship, housing, childcare.’ Those reasons keep her from feeling like she can go through the choice that she really wants to make. So, it’s not about changing her mind. It’s about meeting the resources that allow her to have that choice,” Bonino said.

Heartbeat provides free clothing and other resources for clients, such as formula, baby bottles, nursing pumps, blankets, shampoos, toys and more.

Bonino said clients who come to Your First Look can choose to see their ultrasound photos and hear the fetal heartbeat, or to decline both.

In addition to these services, Heartbeat also offers counseling, which presents their clients with all three options once a positive pregnancy is confirmed: parenting, adoption and abortion.

“We have a very come-as-you-are, non-judgmental, non-coercive space,” Bonino said.

She emphasized that, unlike other pro-life pregnancy centers, Heartbeat is not affiliated with a religious group.

“That does not mean that we don’t have faith-filled people here, or that we don’t view it as important,” Bonino said. “I kind of view this [Heartbeat] as the safety net that catches those women that may fall through the cracks, that won’t go to an organization because they know they’re religious.”

Clients are welcome regardless of income or relationship status and can come at any point from suspected pregnancy to having a child up to two years of age.

Heartbeat also recently opened a location in Maumee, which they rent from St. Joseph Catholic Church, where the Heart to Heart program offers classes (like cooking classes), and there is an extension of Heartbeat’s store, which has free supplies for clients.

With so many women feeling challenged and alone in their pregnancy, Bonino hopes Toledo can continue to grow in support for women in need.

“One day, we can get the childcare covered, we can get housing covered. What other ways can we, as Toledo, come together to help these moms and support them when they are in these situations?”

Laurie’s Place

Laurie’s Place is another pro-life resource center in Toledo that helps fill one of those care gaps.

Laurie’s Place opened on May 9 with more than 500 people attending the grand opening. The facility is a collaboration between The Pregnancy Center and Mom’s House that helps provide free childcare for low-income women pursuing any level of school degree.

The goal of Laurie’s is to make keeping and raising a child easier for women with lower incomes, and to reduce their burden as they finish their schooling.

Programming for Laurie’s begins in August, with applications currently available for the start of the school year.

In addition to childcare, Laurie’s also offers pregnancy and parenting classes and mental health counseling.

Executive director of the Bella Vita Network, Savannah Marten, said Laurie’s Place was first conceptualized during a meeting between Marten and the director of Mom’s House.

“We kind of talked about it in the context of, ‘How do we make the path to parenthood sustainable?’” Marten said. “We [The Pregnancy Center] wanted to reach out and actually form partnerships with these other amazing agencies in our community and build a really great referral network so that we could easily help our moms navigate this.”

The heart of the movement

“In a polarized world over a polarized topic like abortion, we are led to believe that it is impossible for us to cross religious boundaries, political boundaries. And we saw at the grand opening that people of different faiths, different denominations, different political associations, all came together.

“And we believe that’s actually what brings change in the community, is when we’re willing to say there’s more that we agree on together. We live in a world that wants to pit us and leave us in separate corners. And I think Laurie’s Place proves that our community is better when we work together,” Marten said.

In 2023, there was a 26 percent decrease in the number of abortions performed in Lucas County compared to the previous year, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Lucas was also the only county in Ohio that decreased its abortion numbers from 2022, compared to other counties that also regularly perform abortions.

For 40 Days For Life sidewalk counselor Joan Stowell, this means the pro-life movement in Toledo is doing its job.

“I believe that all life has value and it’s a gift that our creator gave us. The decision of abortion, I’m sure, is one of the hardest decisions any mother made,” Stowell said. “It’s a very painful process and very difficult. And we just want them to know that they are loved and there’s help out there, and if they want it, we will be there for them.”

Stowell has been a sidewalk counselor for the past seven years and is present at the Toledo Women’s Center about 90 percent of the time it’s open.

“[We] pray and offer love and hope and assistance to people that are contemplating abortion. We feel that they are our neighbors, our brothers and sisters that need help and so we offer a loving presence out there for those that want our assistance,” Stowell said.

She’s not the only one who prays outside, however. 40 Days For Life has a group of about 80 other volunteers who come to pray outside the clinic and counsel clients entering, whenever the Toledo Women’s Center is open, rain or shine.

“We want to make sure that people that need assistance, whether it’s financially or emotionally or spiritually, they have somebody to talk to. We like to slow them down enough to know that there is a free ultrasound and a free consultation at our pregnancy resource centers, and that there are plenty of people that want to help; they don’t have to do this alone,” Stowell said.

To mothers without vehicles, parents who can’t pay rent and families struggling to get by on food stamps, Stowell said the pro-life volunteers help in any way they can to make supporting a child easier.

“The world would be a different place if we learn to help each other instead of judge them or accuse them. And a lot of people have a false perspective of what we do out there. We’re not there to judge them,” Stowell said. “We’re there to offer help and love and prayer and assistance if they need it. And if they don’t want it, ultimately that’s their choice.”

A testimony

“I hope resources like this don’t go away under the current administration,” said Heartbeat of Toledo client Brittnay.

Despite being personally pro-choice, Brittnay emphasized the benefits of local life-affirming pregnancy centers.

“Heartbeat is a really good program with people who really care,” Brittnay said. “They’re dedicated.”

When she first discovered she was pregnant, Brittnay called pregnancy centers in the area, hoping to be set up with resources and connected to an obstetrics nurse (OB).

“Everything was really quick paced,” Brittnay said.

From her first appointment to the approach of her daughter’s first birthday next month, Brittnay said Heartbeat has been there to provide her with the resources she needs.

“When I run out of diapers, my Heartbeat appointment comes up,” Brittnay said.

Not only have free pregnancy and parenting resources benefited her financially, but she said these services have also helped her be a better parent and increase the quality of her daughter’s childhood.

“Heartbeat cares, and it’s really kind of them to do so,” Brittnay said.

Though many think of pregnancy resource centers as political in nature, for the staff and clients, they are community resources that exceed partisan politics.

Abortion Fact Sheet

• In 2024, there were more than 1 million abortions in the U.S., according to the Guttmacher Institute.
• There are four types of abortion procedures: Medical/chemical abortions, vacuum aspiration, dilation and evacuation (D&E) and labor induction abortions. Information about all four types, including advantages and disadvantages, can be found on the Medical News Today website.
• The 2022, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court case ruled that abortion is not a constitutional right, leaving the decision to legalize abortion up to the states. Click here for more information.
• According to the National Library of Medicine:
  • [abortion] Complication rates depend on the procedure type, gestational age, patient comorbidities, clinician experience and, most importantly, whether the abortion was performed in a safe or unsafe manner.
  • The majority of complications associated with abortion are minor, but major complications can occur including severe hemorrhage, endometritis, non-uterine organ injury, and disseminated intravascular coagulation. A study evaluating 54,911 abortions found an overall complication rate of 2.1 percent. Medication abortions had a 5.2 percent complication rate (4.9 percent minor, 0.3 percent major), with rates of 1.3 percent in the first trimester and 1.5 percent for the second trimester. First-trimester aspiration had a complication rate of 2.3 percent.