The former longtime executive director of the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center – a high-profile target of Dobbs ruling-related abortion vandalism - invited other pregnancy help leaders to rely on God during the hard times they may face while serving women.
Janet Durig addressed a banquet for the inaugural Telling Our Story: The Keys to Unlocking Pregnancy Center Advocacy, hosted by Americans United for Life in partnership with Heartbeat International and others.
She told the pregnancy help providers to pay attention to the good things that are happening on a bad day as a reminder of the Lord’s providence in pregnancy help ministry.
Durig had spent twenty-plus years at the helm of Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center in Washington D.C. before retiring last August. She shared examples of God’s hand in the work of serving and supporting women throughout her tenure.
The center was tens of thousands of dollars in the red and most employees had quit when she took over, and the board president proposed they sell the building and close the center down.
Durig dove into what became major change for Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center with the help of the Lord.
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Located in proximity to Capitol Hill, a prime location for access, the center’s clientele are socio economically challenged inner city African Americans and others.
Durig answered honestly about the state of things with the center the day early on when she heard from a woman at the bank about the center’s loan and the need for refinancing. While things weren’t looking good, when the woman asked, Durig described the center’s services and mission, inviting bank staff for a tour.
When the loan officer came to the center and Durig gave a tour, explaining the services and ministry in more detail, the loan officer pledged to fight for them - disclosing that she had been pregnant as a teen and could have benefited from the center’s services.
The next challenge was to end the year in the black, and the bank would renew the center’s mortgage for another seven years.
Durig and the board got to work sending letters, calling people.
The first check received was from an elderly woman who regularly gave $10 and said this was all she could spare, and that after reading Durig’s letter, she wished she were rich so she could give more.
Durig called the two employees working with her at the time in and they prayed over the check, asking God to bless it by multiplying it.
“I tend to tell God what to do,” Durig joked. “I said, why don't you do 10 $1,000 checks? … or one big check is fine.”
She kept the check on her desk for the day.
The next day the phone rang with a man who belonged to the founding church of our Washington community fellowship, a block away. The man was very gruff with Durig, remarking he couldn’t believe the center was in that much trouble, wanting to know how it happened. Durig explained how the previous director had a tragic death in the family and much of the staff had left, imploring him that the center was still worth saving, and acknowledged it was between him and God whether to give. The man came down within the hour with a $10,000 check.
“This is part of my challenge to you,” Durig said. “It's to remember in the middle of everything you're doing, so much of it sometimes is negative, to focus on those kinds of positive moments, where God reminds us that He's still there, and He's still in charge, and you don't have to do it alone.”
Coming down to the last day of December, the center was one dollar in the black.
Durig remarked that normally when speaking she would share client impact stories but given the current focus of hostility toward pregnancy help she thought it necessary to take a different tack.
“Most of the time, I would focus on the clients and their stories,” she said. “But tonight, I feel like I want to focus on this part of saving the center, and how God did that.”
Durig then turned to what happened with Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center surrounding the Dobbs ruling.
The center was one of the organizations vandalized prior to the decision’s actual release. A pro-abortion vandal threw red paint on the door and painted graffiti on the wall.
Durig learned of the vandalism when a neighbor called.
“What it did to me, and I assume some of the staff, it let me know the hatred that's out there,” Durig shared.
The police on scene at first did not realize the full implication of the attack, assuming it was random vandalism. Durig had them call for leadership to give more assessment of the incident. More law enforcement personnel came, the center was roped off, and so began its time in the spotlight, with national news coverage.
The prospect of being attacked for offering women life-affirming alternatives to abortion stuck with Durig.
“I think the thing that hurt the most was the hatred I felt,” she said.
Durig acknowledged that Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center did not suffer the worst of the attacks, noting those who had their whole building burned to the ground or were firebombed.
“But at the same time, I think we all felt the same fear,” she said. “And we all felt the same hatred.”
“But you have to rise above that,” she said, “and continually rise above it.”
Durig offered the example of individual client testimonies or the women who give their babies life for reminder of why to be encouraged in the work of pregnancy help.
“You know, you have to focus on the good so God can continue to use you,” Durig stated. “And I challenge you for that.”
After the vandalism came another attack at the center’s banquet that fall.
More than a half-dozen pro-abortion activists infiltrated the banquet, seating themselves at different tables throughout, and during the event they randomly jumped up to yell profanity before each was removed by security.
Many people in attendance had their phones out and were recording, and word of what happened got out with the footage.
For weeks afterward the center received donations from around the world as a result, for which Durig kept a running tab in her head.
At the center’s next board meeting when new business came up on the agenda, Durig informed her board that the unexpected donations to the center due to what occurred at the banquet ended up being within a few cents of paying off their mortgage - which they decided to do.
“So, you can see that when you have the negative, how God turns the bad into good,” Durig told the pregnancy help gathering.
“And I know that is happening in your center,” she said. “And if you don't already look for that, I challenge you to look for that, because that is what keeps your heart going.”
Tweet This: When you have the negative, God turns the bad into good - Janet Durig, former executive director of Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center
“I realized that I have to stop and thank God for what's happening now,” Durig said.
It was God who brought the woman from the bank for her to then share that she had had an unexpected pregnancy as a teenager, she explained.
“That's just God,” Durig said.
“I just want to say thank you for what you do and encourage you,” she added. “And when you do feel down in the dumps, remember me, and say, ‘Okay, I need to think of the positive that happened to me recently or happened in the center recently.’ Just stay motivated in that.”
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
