Religious anti-abortion center finds opportunity in town without OB-GYNs

HealthWatch Religious anti-abortion center finds opportunity in town without OB-GYNs .chip { background-image: url('/fly/bundles/cbsnewscore/images/chip-bgd/chip-bgd-healthwatch.jpg'); } By Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez May 18, 2026 / 5:00 AM EDT / KFF Health News Add CBS News on Google Sandpoint, Idaho — An anti-abortion pregnancy center on the outskirts of this Idaho Panhandle town greets visitors with an abridged Bible verse painted on the wall of its waiting area: "Come to me & I will give you rest."7B Care Clinic has been operating in Sandpoint since 2001 and was previously called Life Choices Pregnancy Center and Sandpoint Crisis Pregnancy Center. It is an affiliate of a nationwide network of Christian evangelical centers called Care Net. 7B, one of about 1,200 pregnancy centers affiliated with Care Net, offers pregnancy tests, limited ultrasounds, parenting and life skills classes, community support groups, and other free resources, such as children's clothing. Donations from people, businesses, and more than 40 churches keep 7B's operations running, Executive Director Janine Shepard said.Such centers are known as crisis pregnancy centers or pregnancy resource centers. They offer limited resources and medical services to pregnant women and aim to dissuade them from having abortions. Healthcare groups including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have said many crisis pregnancy centers use unethical and deceptive practices to bring women into their organizations.Traffic at 7B has picked up since the local hospital shuttered its labor and delivery unit and its OB-GYNs moved out of state three years ago. The closure left a hole in reproductive health services in this town of more than 10,000 on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille and surrounding rural areas."We are seeing a lot more people," Shepard said. 7B Care Clinic, a faith-based organization, shares a message from Christian Scripture in the lobby. Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez/KFF Health News...