Terry Ianora’s long anticipated book
“Crisis Pregnancy Centers” has finally been released.

“Here is a compilation of testimonies of pioneers who have founded and sustained their centers through four decades. The author examines the milieu of the culture of death and speaks about the Crisis Pregnancy Centers as an idea that had to come into existence.”

Available Now at: AuthorHouse.com/bookstore
Also available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble

For more information call 541.485.8021
or email firstway1@juno.com


Book Review
Pro-Life Counselors: A Singular Group of People
by Peggy Moen The Wanderer

The media often carry features about abortion promoters in the pre-Roe v. Wade days such as the “Army of Three,” which arranged for women to obtain abortions in Mexico. Their point, of course, is that these abortion “pioneers” cleared the way for the legalization of the procedure, and they are therefore heroes.

It’s easy even for pro-lifers to forget—or younger ones not even to know—that these pro-aborts had their pre-Roe pro-life counterparts.

As Terry Ianora recounts in her recent book, Crisis Pregnancy Centers: The Birth of a Grassroots Movement, pro-life counselors have been assisting pregnant women in need for over 40 years.

“The year 1973 was marked by horrendous sorrow and a shocking wakeup call to many, because of Roe,” she notes. But the years prior to the Supreme Court decisions “were not sleepy nor indolent years for everyone. Abortion on demand and its effects were known to some. They sought to motivate the public to support pro-life efforts.”

Her book has value chiefly on two levels: It recounts much of the early pro-life movement in general, something that could easily be lost to history; it shows that involvement in crisis pregnancy counseling—like any apostolate—is far from easy, but rewarding all the same.

Mrs. Ianora says in her conclusion that “I have committed myself to writing this book in order to honor the singular group of people who gave birth to this movement and tended to its needs in its early years.”

Some of the key, early figures Ianora mentions include the still well-known and still active, such as Dr. John Wilke, Joe Scheidler, Nellie Gray, and Judie Brown. But she also pays tribute to others that might be somewhat forgotten, like women exploited by abortion founder Nancyjo Mann, who suffered intense sorrow and guilt following her 1974 saline abortion. Also noted are heroes from the beginning who have gone to their reward, such as Cong. Henry Hyde.

Her own inspiration to work as a counselor came when she read about a new organization in Portland, Oregon, dedicated to aiding women facing untimely pregnancies.

“In 1972 I read an article in the Catholic Sentinel describing a new service whose purpose was to help women distressed by an untimely pregnancy,” she writes. “The group was in Portland. One photo of a woman seated opposite another woman with her back to the camera held my attention. The look of obvious tenderness and focused attention on the women’s face was unique.”

Ianora, with others, started up a Birthright program in Eugene, Oregon. She recalls that there were at first two unsuccessful attempts to interest people there in Birthright. But then the Supreme Court delivered Roe v. Wade, serving as a catalyst. Ianora became director after the first director’s husband was transferred.

Her fledgling group faced challenges, such as finding a suitable location and learning how to manage an office.

Crisis Pregnancy Centers tells something about the history of pro-life counseling throughout the country and internationally. Ianora details the controversies that have beset the crisis pregnancy movement from the outset: Should these centers be involved in direct evangelization? Should they be staffed by professionals or by volunteers?

Also, a split occurred within Birthright in the early 1990s. This led to the founding of 1st Way, which Ianora now serves. Ianora also comments on the personal dilemmas many volunteers face, especially in deciding whether they were still devoting enough time to their families.

For all this, the work offers its unique rewards, she says. Volunteers have often attended their clients’ births, seeing the fruits of their pro-life counseling in newborn babies.

A final advantage to the book is its bibliography, with sources familiar and not so familiar.

This, also, will be an aid to anyone interested in the history of the pro-life movement.