NATCHEZ — A local pro-life advocacy group will soon be opening a pregnancy resource center in Natchez to provide counseling and support services for pregnant women.

Virginia O’Beirne, co-chair of Pro-Life Natchez-Adams County, said the group’s Caring Hearts Pregnancy Resource Center will be devoted entirely to saving the lives of unborn children. She said the center will provide counseling and referral services to support agencies, such as Catholic Charities, for women who need financial, child care, employment or other assistance.

“We want to help them utilize all the resources that are available so the mother will be able to focus on making the life affirming choice for herself and her child,” O’Beirne said.

Women who find themselves in desperate situations with unplanned pregnancies, O’Beirne said, sometimes feel that their options are limited.

“I believe so many young women, when faced with this, feel they don’t have any choice but to have an abortion,” she said. “This is to give them an opportunity to have a real choice.”

O’Beirne said the Miss-Lou has a number of pregnancy resources for women, and she said the center will help women find the assistance they need.

“The programs and charities are set up, it’s a matter of getting the person to that place,” she said.

O’Beirne said the center’s counseling services will be provided by volunteers at the center, who will complete a training program with a certified counselor. She said the volunteers will work in pairs to counsel clients.

The center, O’Beirne said, will also collect baby formula, diapers, furniture, maternity clothes and other supplies and distribute them to women based on need.

The center will also follow up on the mother and baby for one year after the birth to ensure the mother and child get any further assistance they need starting their new life, O’Beirne said.

“It’s not a matter of bringing them into the world and forgetting about them,” she said.

O’Beirne said Pro-Life Natchez-Adams County will work with Adams County and Concordia Parish agencies and churches for the center. She said she hopes the center can become a regional effort to benefit women and children on both sides of the river.

The center’s message, O’Beirne said, will not focus on any certain denomination, and people and churches from all denominations are welcome to help at the center.

The center is currently looking for volunteers for the center willing to work an afternoon or morning shift one day a week. Anyone interested in volunteering should call O’Beirne at 601-445-5783 or e-mail the group’s co-chair Ruth Powers at caringheartsprc@yahoo.com

New Covenant Presbyterian Church, O’Beirne said, has donated space for the center in its all-purpose building next to the church on Homochitto Street until the center finds a permanent location. The center is scheduled to open sometime after Easter.

O’Beirne said she hopes having the center in town will let women know they have a place to get help without judgment.

“This is assistance, not condemnation,” she said.