MANASSAS, Virginia, February 8, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Inquiries to a former Virginia abortion facility purchased in recent months by new owners are being referred to an adjacent pregnancy center.
The AAA Women for Choice pregnancy center in Manassas, VA had been operating for more than two decades alongside the Amethyst Health Center for Women abortion facility, until Amethyst closed in September of last year.
The pregnancy center had been doing what many centers do: offer services in close proximity to abortion providers in hopes of providing pregnant mothers the opportunity to choose life.
But since the Amethyst abortion facility's closing, AAA Women for Choice has had some stepped up assistance in providing alternatives to abortion.
Amethyst closed last year when the abortion facility's owner retired, according to a report from the Washington Post, and at that time the property was purchased by the Indiana-based BVM (Blessed Virgin Mary) Foundation. Ever since, calls to the Amethyst phone number have been forwarded to the AAA Women for Choice pregnancy center, apparently immediately upon completion of the property sale.
“Yes, they are forwarding calls to us,” the pregnancy center's Pat Lohman stated, saying also of the building's new owners. “They want to get a doctor in there who believes like we do.”
LifeSiteNews's attempts to contact the BVM Foundation were not successful.
The Amethyst abortion facility also continues to appear in internet searches. However, by clicking on its URL, amethysthealthcenterforwomen.com, the user reaches the AAA website.
The Amethyst abortion business had performed abortions in Manassas since 1989, with several black marks in its history.
In the course of two separate 2012 investigations, inspectors documented some 48 pages' worth of violations involving infection prevention protocols at the abortion facility.
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An abortionist from the Amethyst business had been sued for “wrongful death” in 1997, with the case apparently dismissed following mediation, suggesting that an agreement was reached with the plaintiffs.
Another Amethyst abortionist had been reprimanded in 2013 for permitting an unqualified worker to administer drugs to abortion clients and was also sued 20 years prior in for a botched abortion resulting in an emergency hysterectomy.
More recently, the Amethyst abortion site was the subject of a pro-life conversion, as one of its abortion providers, Charles Akoda, left the abortion industry, declaring his exit to a priest in the spring of 2014.
Pregnancy centers operating near abortion sites are fairly common, with significant success.
RealOptions Pregnancy Medical Clinics saw dramatic success since changing to medical clinics in 2010 and relocating next to or across from Planned Parenthood abortion locations.
But it's also becoming more frequent for them to take over shuttered abortion facilities for the purpose of offering pregnancy services from the very sites of the former abortion mills.
A previous Planned Parenthood location in Bryan, Texas was purchased in 2014 by CareNet pregnancy center network affiliate Hope Pregnancy Center, along with 40 Days for Life, and opened late last year as a pregnancy center.
A Miami abortion facility shut down in October of last year, reopening immediately as Heartbeat of Miami's fourth location – the pregnancy center's second takeover of a shuttered abortion facility in the previous three years.
