PORTLAND — Throughout January, parishioners at Our Lady of Hope Parish in Portland (St. Joseph Church, St. Pius X Church, St. Brigid School) will be filling baby bottles to offer assistance to ABBA, a pregnancy resource center located on 1250 Forest Avenue.
ABBA offers pregnancy testing, obstetrical ultrasounds, STD testing, treatment, consultations and health education in a free and confidential manner.
Parishioners and community members can pick up baby bottles at St. Pius X (492 Ocean Avenue) and the Father Hayes Center, located next to St. Joseph (673 Stevens Avenue), and fill them with cash and change, returning them to drop boxes in the same locations. To participate or make a donation, you can also contact Our Lady of Hope Parish at 207-797-7026.
All money collected will be given to ABBA in advance of its mission of counseling individuals and offering practical, compassionate ways to remove the barriers that cause women to choose abortion and provide the opportunity for every woman to make positive choices for herself and for her unborn children. For more information about ABBA, which is open Mondays through Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., call 207-253-5555 or text 207-200-5746.
The program at Our Lady of Hope Parish is being organized by the Knights of Columbus, which has offered continuous support of pregnancy resource centers across the country, including with its Ultrasound Initiative. Since it began, the Ultrasound Initiative has allowed the Knights of Columbus to purchase more than 900 ultrasound machines for pro-life pregnancy care centers across the country and in Canada. In each case, money is raised on a local level and then matched with a donation from the supreme council’s Culture of Life Fund.