Ultrasound technology proves to be wondrous
- Apr 20, 2009
COLUMBIA, Mo. – “When I saw the heartbeat, I thought that was the most beautiful thing I ever saw.”
This was the response of one young woman when she saw ultrasound images of her baby at a My Life Clinic in central Missouri. She had been considering an abortion.
Ultrasound technology is proving to be the most convincing piece of evidence the pro-life community has to offer young women who think their unborn children aren’t babies.
Every week, several abortion-minded women and girls enter the My Life Clinics (formerly known as Open Arms) operated by Life Network of Central Missouri. Life Network has My Life Clinics at Columbia, Jefferson City, Fulton, Moberly and Mexico. The one at Columbia is licensed as a medical clinic.
Medical Director Brian Green, M.D., who is a member of Concord Baptist Church in Jefferson City, said women change their minds about abortion because they fall in love with their babies when they see them on the ultrasound. Proposed legislation in the Missouri House and Senate this year would require that women be allowed to see ultrasound images of their babies at least 24 hours before an abortion.
The My Life Clinic at Columbia is the only one of the five equipped with ultrasound, so the other four clinics refer clients to that facility. Beth Wiederanders, R.N., is the nurse manager who administers the ultrasound tests.
The equipment was installed in January and was used 19 times during that month alone. In February, seven women intent on abortion made the choice to give birth.
Green, who has served as medical director since October, said the clinics have not only been effective in protecting the lives of babies but in providing for the welfare of the mothers as well.
“The organization does a good job of hooking up, of making sure people have the resources they need for the baby,” he said. “We care for their physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental health.”
Green is also pleased with the medical professionalism that has been established in the clinics. He has a passion for excellence.
“Part of being medical and being a responsible resource center is to be sure the information we put out is factual and accurate, that it is upstanding and couldn’t be argued against in any way,” he explained.
He said the Columbia clinic has been getting referrals from area physicians since instituting the medical model. “And we are making referrals to them. They know we’re professional,” he added.
His first involvement with Life Network was when he and his wife, Lori, donated all their infant paraphernalia to the My Life Clinic in Columbia. They didn’t think they would have more than four children, so when the fifth arrived, they had to buy all new things.
Green believes that his involvement at the clinics is no accident.
Growing up in Memphis, Tenn., he attended Ridgeway Baptist Church and, after his marriage, Bellevue Baptist Church.
With plans for a musical career, he earned his bachelor’s degree in music at Furman University, Greenville, S.C., but God had other plans.
Green graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine and did his residency in radiology at the University of Missouri. This was followed by a fellowship in pediatric radiology at Missouri.
He accepted a position in another state, but God again had other plans, and he and Lori decided to stay in Missouri. Green now serves as Director of Pediatric Radiology at University Hospital in Columbia.
At Concord Baptist, Green put his music training to good use by serving for more than a year as interim worship leader during the time of his fellowship at Missouri.
One day last year, he received an e-mail “out of the blue” from a physician with whom he works but has little personal interaction. A pastor had contacted her to see if she would be interested in becoming medical director of Life Network. She didn’t have the qualifications to do so, and she wanted to see if he would be interested.
“I have always had a desire to be involved with the centers,” he said. “I was interested.”
Since becoming medical director, he has been blessed by what he sees accomplished on a daily basis by the Life Network staff and its programs.
His biggest satisfaction, though, is the response he sees from the ultrasounds.
“A young lady came in who was unsure of the dates of her pregnancy,” Green said. “She was 15 years old. If she was less than 20 weeks, she was going to have an abortion in St. Louis. If (she was) more than 20 weeks, she would have to go out of state.
“It was clear in the ultrasound that she was just over 20 weeks. She decided not to have an abortion. She gave two reasons on her exit form. First, she said she couldn’t afford to go out of state. Her second reason was ‘I could never hurt my baby.’”
This article is reprinted from the April 14, 2009, issue of The Pathway, the newspaper of the Missouri Baptist Convention.
The Psalm 139 Project, administered by the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, purchases and places sonogram machines in crisis pregnancy centers in an effort to decrease abortions and teenage pregnancies. If you would like to help us continue our efforts, please click here.