An iconic Toledo abortion clinic that was forced to close after 30 years of operation has been purchased by a local Christian ministry that plans to turn the property into a memorial for the unborn.
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Center for Choice, closed in 2013, was purchased by a group of pro-life organizations with plans to turn the property into a memorial. Photo by David Yonke/Toledo Faith & Values
Center for Choice, the Uptown Toledo facility where 50,000 abortions were performed between 1983 and 2013, was purchased Tuesday (Oct. 7) by Agora, a Christian prayer organization that is working with local pro-life organizations including the Northwest Ohio Foundation for Life, Heartbeat of Toledo, the Pregnancy Center of Greater Toledo, the Bowling Green Pregnancy Center, Catholic Charities of Northwest Ohio, according to Ed Sitter, executive director of Foundation for Life and Greater Toledo Right to Life.
The new owners bought the center at 328 22nd St. at a real estate auction for $61,000, and plan to demolish the building and turn the grounds into a greenspace with benches and possibly a waterfall or fountain, according to Sitter.
He envisions it as a sedate memorial where people can gather to remember and pray for the victims of abortion as well as for the men and women who went to the clinic for the procedure.
Carol Dunn, the founder of Center for Choice, said razing the building would be “a wasteful use of money.”
“It seems to me, since it was an abortion clinic, they could capitalize on women going to the door seeking an abortion and try to talk them into not having one,” she said. “They have no taste. It’s a lovely building. The floors in there are terrazzo. And outside, when it was cared for, it was a good-looking building.”
Sitter announced the plans for a memorial during a Foundation for Life benefit Tuesday evening featuring keynote speaker Chris Spielman, the former Ohio State and NFL football star.
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Ed Sitter announced plans to turn an abortion clinic into a memorial for the unborn at a Foundation for Life benefit on Tuesday. Photo by David Yonke/Toledo Faith & Values
The pro-life groups had been meeting “in hopes of devising a way to acquire the property and make it a memorial to the unborn and a place of healing, forgiveness and closure for those women and, yes, men who have come to regret their abortion decision,” Sitter said at the event. “The Lord orchestrated circumstances that enabled Agora to secure the winning big for that property. In fact, the property closing took place this afternoon at 3 o’clock.”
He said 10 percent of the money raised at Tuesday’s Foundation for Life fund-raiser would be earmarked for the memorial project.
Center for Choice had been the site of numerous protests during the 1980s and ongoing prayer vigils through the decades. In 1986, the building was damaged by a bomb and in 1989, more than 50 protesters were arrested after forming a blockade outside the clinic’s doors.
“So much happened there, it’s just overwhelming,” Dunn said. “After the clinic [closed for the day], sometimes the staff got together and laughed up some of the comedy the pickets provided.”
Center for Choice closed on June 7, 2013, after it failed to acquire a written transfer agreement with a local full-service hospital as required by Ohio law.
Clik here to view.
Main entrance to the former Center for Choice. Photo by David Yonke/Toledo Faith & Values
The lone abortion clinic operating in Toledo today may face the same fate. The Capital Care Network, on Sylvania Avenue in West Toledo, has been seeking an administrative variance from the state that would allow it to remain open without a hospital transfer pact.
Dunn, 72, said she marched for abortion rights in Washington, D.C., before the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision made abortion legal.
“I did whatever I could and I put my money where my mouth is,” she said.
She said she is concerned that abortion clinics are being forced to close nationwide and is disappointed that more women have not stood up for abortion rights.
“I’m terribly disappointed with the women of northwest Ohio who haven’t had the courage to stand up and speak on the issue. They are quiet as mice,” Dunn said. “And this is going on all over the country. … I’m resigned to the fact that this is going to continue and I’m sitting on the sidelines watching what goes on.”