The wars between pro-lifers and pro-choicers may never cease, but there are some who devote their love, energy and time to the women affected by unwanted pregnancy.

Talk is cheap when a woman is faced with all the trappings of an unwanted pregnancy. There are heavy emotions, incredible fear and pressure from all sides.

These are the trenches of the abortion debate. Given all the rhetoric, blockades, shootings and shouting, there is no battle more fierce that calls for more compassion than the fight in the souls of unexpectedly pregnant women frightened far beyond anything one could scrawl on a picket sign.

Thank God there are some people behind the scenes who honestly care about these women. They’re not about to ask a frightened young woman to sign a form and get the pregnancy “taken care of.” Nor will they demand the woman have the child and raise it, using scare tactics to halt an abortion.

The people at DeKalb Crisis Pregnancy Center, and many other centers like it across the country, quite simply care.

Think about the situation a young woman, maybe an NIU student, is faced with if she becomes pregnant. She’s trying to get a college degree. She wants a career and probably a husband and kids down the road. She’s been dating a guy she likes, nice guy, but she’s understandably not sure she’s ready to run to Vegas and get hitched.

She knows there’s a child growing inside her, whatever medical term anyone wants to use she knows it’s a child—her child. Her family is generally supportive, but they may well flip, at least that’s her perception.

She knows she could get the cash to have a abortion and nobody will even have to know it ever happened—nobody but her. It looks like an easy way out, but there’s never an easy way out of a situation like this. Life’s just not that simple.

Yeah, she knows she should have never slept with this guy if she couldn’t bear the consequences, but it’s too late for second-guessing. The consequence is alive, and it won’t go away by itself.

This kind of thing happens everyday, and you could add any number of complications to the scenario. It is a crisis vexed by fear, anxiety and guilt.

Pregnancy is just not something you simply take care of as I’m sure women on both sides of the abortion debate would agree. In some way or another, it will seriously affect a woman’s life, whatever she decides.

The women at the center understand this. They’re not into pat answers or “think happy thoughts” philosophy. They understand that a young woman is truly in a crisis situation and they’re willing to give up their time and energy to lend a hand, and perhaps more importantly an ear.

It’s a not-for-profit organization that provides confidential counseling for women in crisis situations. They can also help women who choose to raise the child get started by providing donated cribs, baby clothes, etc. They also help women who choose to give their child up for adoption find parents—100 percent of the babies have been adopted, even those with disabilities. Many of the women who use the center are NIU students.

The center also provides counseling for women traumatized by abortion. You don’t read much in the newspapers about the feelings women carry around for years after getting an abortion, and you probably shouldn’t.

The women at the center are generally active in their churches, many churches around the DeKalb are. Many of them are mothers themselves. Some of them are college students. They are all people that can be trusted.

When I think of these women I think about Jesus. He wasn’t much for political causes, but he fed the poor, healed the sick, forgave the sinners and ministered to the broken-hearted. I think Jesus is pretty pleased with the DeKalb Crisis Pregnancy Center. I know I am.