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Pro-life group Save the Storks uses vans to bring ultrasounds right to the women who need them
Pro-life group Save the Storks gave tours at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 24, 2017 of a van they use to offer pregnant women ultrasounds. (Kate Scanlon/TheBlaze)

Pro-life group Save the Storks uses vans to bring ultrasounds right to the women who need them

WASHINGTON — The pro-life group Save the Storks attended the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday to give tours of vans they use to bring ultrasounds to women facing crisis pregnancies.

The group uses custom-made vans equipped with ultrasounds and exam tables to provide women with ultrasounds — sometimes right outside an abortion clinic.

Julie Rosati, who sits on Save the Storks’ board, told TheBlaze in an interview that the group’s mission is to equip crisis pregnancy centers with the mobility they need to “reach the women that need us.”

“We park outside places where vulnerable women are,” Rosati said, including outside of abortion clinics, fairs and festivals, college campuses and even high schools. She said they are sometimes invited to events at churches.

She argued that it is important for a pregnant woman considering abortion to see an ultrasound because often it “helps her embrace her pregnancy.”

“When you’re dealing with morning sickness, pressure from the outside like the baby’s father, parents, fear, you have so much going against you, and you feel bad on top of it… it’s just a lot easier the thought of having an abortion than choosing life," she said.

Rosati said the opportunity for a woman to see and hear her baby’s heartbeat often encourages her to choose life instead.

She said ultrasounds are performed by trained, certified medical professionals while counselors take the opportunity to speak to a woman about her baby’s well being — and her own.

Rosati added that the group connects women with the resources their individual circumstances warrant — including domestic violence hotlines and shelters, maternity homes and drug rehabilitation.

“We look at the woman as a person that needs just as much care and love as her baby,” Rosati said.

The vans, which are each custom-made in Indianapolis, are driven to their new homes by partners of the organization who make many stops along the way in order to increase awareness about their cause.

Phil Brinks, a driver for Save the Storks, said the extra stops help “to expand our brand on the road.”

He said he recently spent six weeks driving a new van to San Antonio, stopping along the way to show it to various churches and pregnancy centers.

The vans, he said, are all top-quality.

“They’re designed with the idea that a woman needs to feel as special as she is when she steps on board,” Brinks said.

The group drove the van into the exhibit hall at CPAC — which was complicated by the presence of President Donald Trump at the conservative gathering.

Brinks said due to Secret Service requirements, the van was not permitted to have a full tank of gas, so he had to make sure to leave it running when he took breaks on his way to the venue.

“It was a little bit of a finagle,” he said.

Rosati said the organization currently has 33 vans that they use to partner with local pregnancy centers. They hope to have over 50 by the end of the year.

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