VERO BEACH | Catholics in Indian River County rejoiced Oct. 23, 2024, along with clients and supporters of A Caring Center for Women in Vero Beach as the pregnancy resource center officially embarked on its latest initiative, offering free medical services to women, most of whom are uninsured.
Now in its 11th year, the center at 1986 31st Ave. began by offering free ultrasounds to pregnant women, using 1,000 square feet of rented space in a shared building. About three years ago, the center bought the entire building. At its recent ribbon-cutting celebration, Gerri Rorick, executive and development director, spoke about the center’s work in its current 5,000 square feet.
“Our motto, our mission, is we love and serve women, period. That’s all we do. Whatever it takes,” she said, crediting her staff, board of directors and benefactors, many who have accompanied the organization since it opened.
As a member of St. Helen Parish, Rorick lives the pro-life mission of the Catholic Church. Her “whatever it takes” attitude includes working with other pro-life service organizations in the region, such as Catholic Charities. She detailed a recent referral she made to Birthline/Lifeline’s office in Fort Pierce, which has a similar mission to her center.
Rorick said she called Katherine Bowers, Birthline/Lifeline’s director, to ask for help. A Caring Center had paid for a taxi so a young woman in Fort Pierce with no car could get to Vero Beach, but that kind of help was expensive and not sustainable. Bowers told her, “Absolutely. Anytime we can do this.”
“Then I saw Katherine afterward at a luncheon, and she said, ‘I was so proud when you called and said, Will you help?’ And I said, ‘Well, of course, that’s what we’re here for.’ If we work together, we’re stronger,” Rorick said.
The Vero Beach center now offers a range of services in English and Spanish, including medical-grade pregnancy testing, pre-abortion screenings, testing for sexually transmitted infections, ultrasounds, women’s wellness exams, referrals for free mammograms, first-trimester care visits, workshops and support groups, DadUp! fatherhood program and a shopping boutique.
On the day of the ribbon-cutting, the center displayed a list showing how women in need came forward from January-September 2024: for 647 pregnancy tests, 892 ultrasounds, 285 prenatal visits, 190 wellness exams, 173 follow-ups, 3,939 screening services, 23 abnormal gynecological findings, 54 non-gyn referrals, 294 STI tests and 39 STI treatments.
“We’re one of the first pregnancy centers in the state to offer all the complete medical that we do here, and to have a complete credentialed medical team,” Rorick said. “Other centers are coming here for tours and for pointers and calling us all the time. Where did you get this? How did you set that up? Because it was a lot.
“But God cleared the way, and it was just like, boom, boom, boom. And that has happened since we opened up, honestly. That’s why I say the center belongs to God. It’s not my center. Things have happened here only because he wanted it to. And so, we just keep saying yes, and he paves the way,” she said.
The center’s principal goals are saving babies from abortion and helping women avoid a life of regret. Erin Refsland, operations team leader, said, “We know that there are two lives at stake here, the woman and the baby, because if she does decide to have an abortion, she’s going to live with that forever. We do see women who have had abortions, and they’re heartbroken, devastated, they’re depressed, and it’s just hard to get past it.”
Rorick said about 10 percent of the women they counsel still end up aborting their child. But there’s no judgment at the center.
“If they choose that route, then we tell them we’re going to be here for you if you need us afterward, and they always do,” she said. “They trust us by then, and sometimes we’re the only people that they feel comfortable telling. Almost everyone that comes back says, ‘You tried to tell me, and I didn’t listen. I feel empty, I can’t sleep, I can’t eat.’ We hear terrible things.”
The median age of clients is 32, Rorick said. That surprises some people, she said, who expect most of them to be teenagers. They are, by and large, employed and at a crossroads, with the world telling them to abort because they couldn’t handle single motherhood, she said.
“We pride ourselves on telling them the truth. We share the truth, no matter what. Sometimes they don’t want to hear it, but that’s OK. We promise them two things here, confidentiality and the truth,” Rorick said.
Many of their clients have no support system, so the center staff becomes like family to them. “If need be, we go to the hospital with them. We never want them to be alone. And we promise them, from Day 1, we’re going to walk beside you through this whole thing, and after, until you don’t need us anymore,” she said.
The center teaches clients how to care for their child, from birth to toddlerhood and beyond, with no cut-off age for assistance. As the mothers and fathers attend classes, they earn coupons that they can use to “buy” new and gently used items in the center’s boutique. “It all kind of works together,” Rorick said. “Every woman feels empowered. She’ll come to a few classes, and then she’ll go, ‘You know what? I can do this.’”
Rorick prides herself on being a good steward of the support given by local benefactors, including the Indian River County Catholic parishes of St. Helen, Holy Cross, St. John of the Cross and St. Sebastian. That extends to the fact that Rorick, along with her husband, John, board treasurer, are unpaid volunteers.
“This is our life. We’ve dedicated every day to it, weekends, everything. But we’re going to do it for as long as God calls us. We truly believe he prepared us for this point in our life. And here we are,” she said, adding, “It just keeps going. Every day the door opens, and it can be a moment of grace.”
To learn more about the work of A Caring Place for Women and how you can help, visit https://772foryou.org or call 772-257-5390.
