How Birth Choice of Dallas empowers women to ‘be the hero of their own story’

Southwestern Women’s Surgery Center, the abortion facility in Dallas that committed approximately 20% of abortions in Texas, closed its doors in March of this year — while Birth Choice, the pregnancy resource center that neighbors the former abortion facility, continues operating in full force. The number of women entering the doors of the life-affirming center has remained stable since the Texas Heartbeat Bill (S.B. 8) was passed in March of 2021, and Roe was overturned last June. 

Birth Choice of Dallas partners with over 50 other pregnancy resource centers and organizations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to provide free services – from pregnancy testing and ultrasounds to services like counseling, parenting classes, and providing material needs. The Catholic center partners with organizations as diverse as the Diocese of Dallas, the maternity home In My Shoes, Heroic Media, and a diaper company. The three counselors and two advocates working at Birth Choice are trained medical professionals and the space is both professional and mission-based.

Live Action News recently interviewed Aaron Fowler, executive director of Birth Choice. Fowler is a former Deep Ellum rock musician, a Franciscan, and corporate businessman. The husband and father of four children took on the role of executive director of the clinic in 2020.

Fowler is obviously passionate about helping women choose life, but beyond that, he and his staff work to educate women and motivate them to make their own decisions. Fowler explained that most, if not all, pregnant women seeking help and considering abortion have a crisis mindset. 

“Any woman seriously considering abortion… is operating in the arena of crisis-induced decision making,” Fowler said.

Fowler explained that women with compromised unexpected pregnancies are frequently impaired in their ability to make decisions due to the shock of the pregnancy compounded by emotional and physical abuse. According to Fowler, emotional and physical abuse are the leading motivations for women to seek abortion. Women may mention financial difficulties, including the cost of childcare, but the issue is deeper than the level of finances.

“When we sit down and actually digest with the client what’s happening, it’s not a financial problem. It’s ‘I don’t feel safe. I don’t feel secure. I don’t have the stability. I don’t have the resources.’”

Often, women’s poor decisions in the past blind them to the truth and the decisions available to them in the present. “[A] series of bad behavior has been compounded over time, and [it] diminishes the decision-making capabilities of the person, diminishes reason [and] the understanding of what the baby is.”

Fowler pointed out that a row of models in the facility hallway shows the baby in the womb at each major stage of gestational development. “We’ve had clients… [that] don’t even know that’s what’s happening in their bod[ies],” he said.

Many women are ignorant about biology, but also about how to order their lives for their own wellbeing and happiness. “We had a client completely baffled that she could say ‘no’ to the sexual advances of men. She was 17. She didn’t know that – you could see it in her eyes.”

In order to assist their clients, the counselors first listen to the women carefully and then reflect back to the women in such a way that the women are able to outline their own problems and solutions.

“The way we operate is we use a special technique called ‘motivational interviewing’… a communication model where we’re engaging them in such a way that we do not propose problems or solutions ourselves, but allow the client to discover them, which in turn encourages their empowerment and an environment of freedom,” Fowler explained.

Why is it important for the women and not the counselors to identify problems and possible solutions? Fowler explained:

“If someone is going to make a well-informed personal decision and commitment that’s going to impact their life, it’s going to be more productive when it comes from them… that’s very empowering, inspiring. To be heard – truly listened to – and to be oriented [towards] the opportunities… they can choose for themselves.”

Fowler explained that if women are counseled using pressure, this unconsciously mimicks the people in the toxic environments the women are coming from. Even when the women choose life in these situations, the decision doesn’t truly come from themselves.

“Imagine, you’re really struggling,” Fowler said. “You wrecked your car. You need to get a new car. You’re already just a little shaken just by having your car wrecked. You go to the dealership and the dealer… is actually preying on your lack of decision-making process. You’re in a bad situation. You really need something today. It’s a lot of telling… trying to get [you] to do something, so [they’re] actually requesting compliance over empowering [your] decision-making.”

Fowler explained that many pregnant women have the same mindset as someone who has just wrecked a car. They face an unexpected situation that to them is problematic, and they are looking for a quick solution. This makes them vulnerable to coercion. Fowler stressed the importance of helping women to recognize their freedom to choose the good over requesting compliance from women.

“We don’t go into counseling rooms and tell women: ‘Don’t have an abortion. It’s bad for you. What we do is find a landscape of opportunities so they can be the hero of their story because that’s exactly the way God deals with us. He doesn’t come and fix and stop us. He will provide opportunities for us to participate with his grace. So that’s the model we believe is most impactful.”

Looking to the future, Fowler believes the facility may expand as temporary funding for abortions out-of-state diminishes. For now, Fowler hopes to deepen prayer life and sense of mission with his staff and continue empowering women to make personal decisions with the “motivational interviewing technique.”