‘Compassion leads the way’

MOSES LAKE — Crossroads Resource Center’s work is all about compassion, attendees at the center’s fundraising banquet heard Saturday night.

“This is the pregnancy health movement,” guest speaker Kirk Walden told attendees. This is who we are. We lay out compassion. And our compassion gives someone the opportunity to make that one decision that will change everything.”

Crossroads, a non-denominational Christian organization with locations in Moses Lake and Ephrata, aims to provide a viable alternative to abortion for women in unplanned pregnancies. The center offers STI and pregnancy testing, ultrasounds and counseling, according to Carol Knopp, the center’s executive director, all at no cost to the client. For new mothers, Crossroads offers parenting support programs in which clients can earn points toward free baby clothes, furniture and other necessities. For women who choose to have an abortion, Crossroads offers post-abortion support and healing, Knopp said.

The banquet was held in the Commercial Building at the Grant County Fairgrounds and emceed by Chuck Yarbro Jr. Top Gun Concessions & Catering supplied dinner. Youth from Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church and the Grant County Home School Cooperative served the tables. At the end of the evening, there were two prime rib roasts left over, which Yarbro sold in an impromptu auction for $1,000 apiece.

A figure for how much was raised wasn’t available Monday, Knopp said. Last year’s event raised enough money to purchase a three-dimensional ultrasound machine, which offers a much better-defined image than a two-dimensional ultrasound. Crossroads sonographer Cristie Bingham spoke about how the improved technology had affected client care.

“I can tell you story after story,” Bingham said. “One of the things that was really interesting when I joined Crossroads is that I had to take the word ‘baby’ out of my vocabulary when somebody was abortion-minded. … I could not say ‘Here is your baby,’ because it would be seen as coercive or misleading to them. (With the ultrasound) I don't have to call it a baby, I can just let the images just speak for themselves. We had a gal come in, abortion-determined at that meeting. I was doing the ultrasound, and she was a little farther along than she expected to be. And so with having so many years of experience, I am able to share what I am seeing without calling it a baby. So I just decided to start at the top and just work my way down. ‘Here's the forehead. Here's the nose. Here's the mouth, here's the lips, here's the chest, here's the heart beating. Here's the stomach. Here's the spine.’ And when it got to the spine, she looks at me, and she said ‘It has all its parts?’"

“That really, really is so impactful on women,” Knopp said. “I would say that this year, so far, about 65% of the positive pregnancy tests, the women chose to carry to term.”

Knopp also said Crossroads is in the process of becoming accredited as a medical clinic.

“Pregnancy centers get a lot of flack for being ‘fake clinics,’” she said. “So being accredited by a third-party agency really adds some legitimacy that we're meeting all the same medical standards as other clinics.”

Crossroads has medical professionals on its staff, but the official accreditation will offer the center some protection from laws targeting pregnancy support facilities that don’t perform or give referrals for abortions, Knopp said. To become accredited, Crossroads mostly has to make sure its administrative practices meet the standards of the American Association for Ambulatory Health Care.

“We already give a really good standard of care for our patient care,” she said. “So I don't think there's anything really significant we have to change there.”

Walden, in his address, spoke of his experiences as a single father of three, as well as remarrying and starting a second family in middle age. He drew on the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan as an example of what Crossroads does.

“Compassion is what Jesus had,” Walden said. “And that compassion is able to see somebody with different eyes than anybody else … A woman who comes to Crossroads, the world out there says ‘She's got a problem, let's solve it in 15 minutes and send her on her way … We see differently. And that is why more are beginning to come to us than come to them. Compassion leads the way and it changes cultures. We're not going to win this because we're more right than everybody else. We're going to win this because we're more compassionate.”

Joel Martin may be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.