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FROM BLOOD ON THE FLOOR TO A PLACE OF HOPE, HEALING

PRO-LIFERS TURN AN EX-ABORTION MILL INTO A PREGNANCY CLINIC

When Pamela Palumbo first walked into the empty lab room at the former Gynecare abortion mill on Ritchie Highway, she saw, still taped to the wall, a dingy, yellowed scrap of paper with this message:

Things to check before you leave when you scrub:

1. Floor is bld free.
2. No specs in sink in sono room.
3. Lights are out.

Presumably, the Gynecare staff emptied the sink and turned out the lights when they left for the last time.

But, said Palumbo, pointing to pale pink stains on the lab’s tile floor, “the blood stains are still there.

“You can see they had used bleach to try to get them out.  But they didn’t get the blood out.”

On December 30 the Bowie Crofton Pregnancy Clinic, of which Palumbo is executive director, signed the lease for the suite of offices that once housed a busy abortion mill.

And on January 22, the thirty-third anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the pregnancy clinic hosted a dedication and “prayer gathering” in what will soon be the Severna Park Pregnancy Clinic.

Both Protestant and Catholic clergy offered prayers, the Catholic priests sprinkled holy water, and guests wrote scripture verses on the yet-to-be-painted walls.

“It was ecumenical,” said Palumbo, who is Presbyterian; “we wanted to cover all the bases!”

The new pregnancy clinic, scheduled to open in March, will be the realization of a long-held dream.

“Five years ago, part of our board’s strategic planning was to expand into Anne Arundel County, because there were no pregnancy centers there,” Pam explained.

The board members started looking at the three-story brick office building in Severna Park that housed Gynecare as a possible location.

The thought of being in the same building as the abortion mill was intriguing.

They looked at an empty first floor office suite, whose entrance door was adjacent to the elevators.

“We thought, we could put a sign on our door, ‘Free Pregnancy Tests,’ and catch the girls going up to the abortion clinic” on the third floor, said Palumbo.

But last spring they learned that the building’s owners had refused to renew Gynecare’s lease.

Palumbo isn’t sure why, but thinks the owners “got tired of all the trouble.”

Other tenants in the building that she talked to painted an unsavory picture:  girls crying in the hallways and vomiting in the elevator, their boyfriends hanging around for hours in the parking lot, waiting for them to come out, the frequent, disturbing presence of prayer groups and picketers.

The owners offered to show Palumbo the old Gynecare offices.

She was taken aback when she saw the size of the former abortion mill’s space.

“We had been looking to rent what we had in Bowie – 1,500 square feet,” she said.  “But Gynecare had the whole back of the building – 4,100 square feet.”

Besides a multitude of administrative and other office rooms, there were three large surgical rooms, where abortions had been done six days a week.

But after thinking it over, said Pam, they decided to take it.

“We felt we should redeem it for the Lord, and make this place a place of healing and hope.”

Instead of an anticipated $2,000 a month, the rent would be $6,000.  And the space needed a complete overhaul.

Many of the rooms were dark, dirty and depressing, with walls and flooring that looked like they hadn’t been cleaned for decades.

The small, windowless room used by the abortionist as his office, with its incredibly stained and filthy carpet, was “just disgusting,” said Palumbo.

“The maintenance man told me that the abortionist would always sneak out the back way from there to leave.”

But, trusting in God and the generosity of their donors and the contractors, by mid-January major reconstruction was well underway.

Walls have come down, new walls have been erected, and new ceilings are being installed.

“We’ve turned the layout around,” said Pam.  “The waiting rooms will be our administrative area, and vice-versa.”

Construction contractors, plumbers, electricians and cabinet makers are all donating a large portion of their work.

The new pregnancy clinic will have three counseling rooms, two clinic rooms, an educational room for classes, a kitchen, conference rooms, six staff offices and four bathrooms.

“It’s huge!” Pam exclaimed cheerfully.

The largest surgical room, which Pam believes was used for late-term abortions, will be reserved for a prayer room.

“We’ll be open a few days a week in the beginning,” she said, “but I think we’ll be busy, being right on Ritchie Highway.”

A donor has promised to pay for a 2-by-14-foot sign on the front of the building.

The Bowie Crofton Clinic has a volunteer training program scheduled for March.

“We’re praying that God provides the volunteers quickly,” said Palumbo.

The new clinic will offer identical services to those at Bowie Crofton, which include pregnancy testing, education on fetal development and abortion, pre-natal vitamins, parenting support, educational classes, and material assistance, all provided free of charge.

The clinic also offers sonograms to determine pregnancy viability, using a state-of-the-art 3-D/4-D ultrasound machine that, said Pam, “shoots up the baby’s picture on the TV screen on the wall.  It gets pictures in real time so the client can see her baby moving!”

With the use of the ultrasound, the number of abortion-minded women who change their minds doubles, she said.

When the New York Times did a story last February on the use of ultrasound at pregnancy centers, they featured the Bowie Crofton clinic, calling it a “pioneer” in the growing phenomenon.

Both the Bowie Crofton and Severna Park clinics have recently been approved by the State of Maryland to conduct testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

“The state will give us the supplies and we will gather the specimens,” Pam explained.

“They will do the tests.  But instead of handing out condoms, we will do abstinence counseling.

“It will allow us to reach women who are sexually active before they have a crisis pregnancy.  We hope to shift them on their sexual activity.”

The Bowie Crofton clinic, founded in 1982 by members of Bowie’s Grace Lutheran Church, receives no government funding, relying completely on donations from churches and individuals.

They are thus free to make the Gospel an integral part of their efforts to help young women.

As the clinic’s office manager, Marsha Pasewark, says, “God is the one who can change their lives.”

Pam agrees.  “The spiritual aspect is a primary component of why we’re here,” she said.