IN THE CORNER OF A CONFERENCE ROOM AT WATERLEAF WOMEN’S CENTER IN Aurora sits a statue of the Virgin Mary, painted brightly in the Latin American style. Like most such facilities that bill themselves as crisis pregnancy centers and seek to discourage women from having abortions, Waterleaf is a faith-based organization, affiliated with the Catholic Church. Last year, Waterleaf’s seven registered nurses saw more than 1,200 women. Some knew they were pregnant when they went in, others didn’t. Some pregnancies were planned, others weren’t. All the women were given ultrasounds to determine the gestational age of their fetuses, followed by “options counseling.”
“There are three
