Gulfcrest Street curves sharply and rises slowly as what had been the nation’s largest Planned Parenthood facilities comes into view.
The blue-windowed building stairsteps into the sky, looming over Houston’s Gulf Freeway as a bastion to abortion rights advocates and an abomination to pro-life supporters, many of whom prayed for the center to close.
Soon their prayers will be answered, with the clinic set to shutter at the end of September, part of a restructuring plan due to funding cuts.
When Planned Parenthood Prevention Park opened in Houston in May 2010, more than a dozen protesters demonstrated outside the 78,000-square-foot edifice, picketing, singing, and even weeping. This location gained widespread attention in 2015 when the Center for Medical Progress published clandestine videos from the clinic.
Many of the city’s pro-life organizations sprouted within a 15-mile radius of Prevention Park. Demand for their services has been on the rise since the Texas abortion ban took effect in 2022, and pro-life expect the trend to accelerate.
The closure “still feels a bit surreal,” said Mary Whitehurst, CEO of The Source, a pro-life, “Christ-centered” women’s health care clinic. Rivaling Planned Parenthood always felt “a bit like David and Goliath,” she said.
But by offering medical care beyond pregnancy tests and counseling—including well-woman exams and contraception—The Source hopes to fill in the gaps left by Planned Parenthood shutdowns.
In October, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast’s operations will be taken over by Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, per local media reports. With the consolidation comes the closures of Prevention Park and a clinic in southwest Houston, leaving four remaining facilities on the outskirts of the city.
In neighboring Louisiana, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast announced it will cease operations entirely, shuttering both the Baton Rouge and New Orleans clinics. Planned Parenthood confirmed the closures but did not respond to requests for further comment.
Pressure on Planned Parenthood has been intensifying for years, with Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin stripping away state dollars, mostly by removing Planned Parenthood’s eligibility for programs like Medicaid or Title X.
“This is definitely something for pro-lifers to celebrate,” said John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life. “This is a symbolic victory that Planned Parenthood has really lost its prominence and its power. That building specifically, the largest Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion clinic before Dobbs, it really represented the height of Planned Parenthood’s impact on our culture and politics.”
On the federal level, Planned Parenthood was essentially cut off from federal funding via the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress last month. Legal challenges claiming the move amounts to legislative “punishment without a trial” are making their way through the courts, but if the cuts stand, Planned Parenthood estimates a third of its facilities, about 200 clinics, would be at risk of closing.
In addition to national defunding efforts, abortion restrictions have stymied the organization’s operations in 41 states, per reproductive health policy group the Guttmacher Institute. As a result, Planned Parenthood pivoted to facilitating out-of-state abortions.
With clinics in Houston and Austin, Texas, The Source aims to serve as an alternative to Planned Parenthood, focusing on holistic and preventative care for women.
Patients can receive medical services like well-woman exams, tests and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, contraception, and professional counseling and case management, all for free. They provide spiritual care too, with 203 women making “decisions for Christ” through its ministry last year.
“Our philosophy and how we are approaching care is that if we can help women have access to excellent health care, be equipped with education and resources to prevent unplanned pregnancy, then we’ll be able to have, ultimately, the long-term impact that we want: fewer women needing abortions,” Whitehurst explained.
Whitehurst doesn’t shy away from using the term reproductive health care, saying it refers not just to abortion but to a range of services women need.
Last year, The Source served 6,215 patients in-person and virtually. Already this month, its clinics have seen an uptick in appointments thanks to the launch of a new TikTok account.
The Houston Coalition for Life’s Blue Blossom Pregnancy Centers has also seen traffic increase each year since the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. In 2024, a record 5,051 women visited the organization’s headquarters and four mobile centers.
Like many pro-life ministries, Blue Blossom offers free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, counseling, parenting classes, and material help like diapers and wipes. Its biggest mobile center is permanently stationed outside Prevention Park. (For now, the ministry doesn’t plan to move the 44-foot-long “Big Blue” bus.)
“We’re just going to continue doing everything we’re doing, because nothing has really changed except the law,” said Christine Melchor, executive director of the Houston Coalition for Life.
In Texas, abortions now take place at home behind closed bathroom doors rather than in a clinic operating room.
“We want people to realize abortions have not ended. There’s still a lot of work to do,” Melchor said. “Our numbers have increased since Roe was overturned. We’re still here, and we’re not going anywhere.”
Texas ministries report more women seeking aftercare following medication abortions—they offer emotional support and if needed, refer to medical providers for follow-up.
Darlene Kearney has found, regardless of the law, there will always be pregnant women who need help. Kearney runs God’s Lovely Butterflies Maternity Home, serving expectant moms coming out of incarceration or experiencing homelessness.
For these women, she becomes their village of one, providing housing, teaching parenting and life-skill classes, driving moms to prenatal appointments, throwing baby showers, and helping women sign up for public assistance.
A former teen mother herself, Kearney guides women through motherhood in the trenches. Her ministry has served 30 moms and their kids since 2021 and stands to double its capacity after opening its second location in Houston’s north side this August. She said it’s the city’s only Black-owned maternity home.
“I will give what I have, my all in all, to believe in and to help these young ladies,” said Kearney, who shared that God gave her the vision for the ministry in a dream 15 years ago. “I’m not rich. I do what I need to do to make sure these ladies keep their babies, they’re safe, and have the proper support they need. Everybody needs support.”
The need for more robust community support for mothers with unplanned pregnancies will only increase as Planned Parenthood loses ground, Kearney predicts. As it is, the demand for housing outpaces Kearney’s capacity to help. She hopes to one day launch a 20-unit apartment complex to serve even more mothers in crisis.
Local congregations also have a role to play in meeting community needs. Church-based support groups, organized through the national ministry Embrace Grace, offer both material help and a sense of community for women experiencing unplanned pregnancies.
With around 183 groups in Texas, including 19 in Houston, “the church can play a big role in helping save lives through loving people,” said cofounder and president Amy Ford.
“Now more than ever, these moms are pregnant, and they are going to need support,” Ford emphasized. “We can’t just say, ‘Good luck, I hope it works out for you.’ We need to walk alongside them, to be in the trenches and help get them back on their feet.”
In the midst of the policy shuffles and the evolving abortion landscape, the reality on the ground for pro-life groups like the Houston Coalition for Life and Texas Right to Life is that much of the fervor for advocacy and volunteerism has waned.
For instance, the Houston Coalition for Life has found it more challenging to enlist prayer and sidewalk volunteers. These volunteers serve on the frontlines of the pro-life effort, praying for women as they walk into abortion clinics.
Fifteen years ago, Melchor stood outside Prevention Park as the former bank building was converted into a Planned Parenthood facility, and she and other pro-lifers will be present in full force the day it closes—both to celebrate what the closure represents and to mourn the lives lost.
