Pro-lifers in El Paso, Texas spent two decades praying peacefully outside the Reproductive Services abortion facility.
Now, their prayers have been answered.
KTSM News reports the abortion facility quietly closed about two months ago after it did not renew its license with the Texas Department of Health and Human Services. It was cited for numerous health and safety violations in the past several years.
Gabriela Avila, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of El Paso’s Reverence for Life, told KTSM that they have been praying for the protection of unborn babies and mothers for a long time.
She said one abortion facility in Las Cruces closed after five 40 Days for Life campaigns, and now this one has closed, too. Avila emphasized that they were there to pray peacefully, not protest.
“Down the line — a few weeks later, maybe a couple years later, many years later — the regret and the pain from an abortion will come up,” Avila said about their 20 years of public prayer.
Two other abortion facilities remain in El Paso, and Avila said they will focus their peaceful prayer efforts on them.
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According to the local news, the Lileth Fund, a pro-abortion group, blamed the “political climate in Washington, D.C.” for the closing.
Reproductive Services had a lengthy record of health and safety violations from the state.
The abortion facility closed temporarily in 2014 for failing to comply with state abortion clinic regulations, the Texas Observer reported at the time. However, the U.S. Supreme Court later struck down those regulations, and the facility re-opened.
In 2017, the state health department fined the abortion facility $1,165 for health violations. A 2016 inspection report found multiple violations, including improper sterilization, a failure to provide patients with hospital contact information for emergencies, a failure to comply with the state 24-hour waiting period and other problems that were redacted from the report.
