Former Abortion Clinic Building Converting to Teen Parenting Center

Former Abortion Clinic To House Teen Parent Center

Little Steps To Lease, Renovate Laurens Road Site

Beth Brotherton, WYFF News 4 Anchor/ Reporter
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- A building that used to be an abortion clinic has a new tenant.

Little Steps has taken a lease out on the downtown Greenville property. The teen parent program offers parenting classes, mentoring, support groups, supplies and childcare to young moms and dads.
The group's founder, Mandy Black, was a teen parent herself. "They're young parents, they're going to be parents whether we come along side and help them or not," Black said.

The abortion clinic closed in 2002. The building has been unoccupied for years. It is moldy, water damaged and in need of repairs. To fix it up, Little Steps has planned a community makeover the first weekend in May. Black says they need supplies and sponsorships before then. "We will be repairing walls throughout the building. I don't think there is one wall in whole building that doesn't need repairs," Black said.

Little Steps hopes to finish renovations before summertime. They want to create more space for classes and play groups. Jackie Harris, a 15-year-old single mom to daughter Mary Grace, is excited about the move and the extended hours Little Steps will offer. "I didn't have the baby's father's help. I was a single mom at age 14, a freshman in high school. They gave me options for daycare. They helped me with a job."

Mandy Black knows the move is a bit of a political statement but she says the space really is a perfect fit to provide classrooms, playrooms and mentoring stations. "I don't want to forget what happened here," she said. "There were a lot of lives lost and a lot of lives changed in this building. We don't want to forget that, but at the same time we want to move from that and say here is what can happen now."

To learn how you can help Little Steps with renovations go to their website http://www.littlestepssc.org/.

This is one great example of a pro-life individual seeing a need in the community and taking the intiative for change, by provide mentoring, emotional support, and life skills to prepare pregnant and parenting teen moms for adulthood. Whether you consider yourself pro-life or pro-choice, this may be one area of common ground, there is definately a need in many communities for better support services, like this, for teens and college students who are pregnant and parenting.

H/T Christina at Real Choice