As Janet Durig leads visitors around her odd-shaped office building, the walls stacked high with portable cribs, she bubbles over in excitement about her job. Durig is director of the faith-based Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center, which offers free counseling, parenting and childbirth classes, pregnancy tests and material resources to those who need them. “This is the best job I’ve ever had, because I feel like it makes a difference in helping people,” the Maryland resident says. She sat down with The Washington Examiner to talk about her faith and work, her eyes filling with tears as she recounted all the divine acts of kindness she’s seen at CHPC. Do you consider yourself to be of a specific faith?
I am a Christian, and I believe in everything that Christianity stands for and that helping others is what we’re here to do. I find it very rewarding that the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center provides the kind of help that we do.
Abortion and the issue of life are so politicized, and there’s so much information out there. How do you know that you’re doing the right thing? How can you be sure about when life begins?
It is political, but it’s a matter of belief for me, and it’s based on Scriptures. “I knew you in the womb.” “I knew you before your mother knew you.” To me, in my belief, God knew us in those times, and therefore that’s all I need to know.
Another way of talking about this — and this is my personal belief — is when an egg and a sperm unite, your DNA begins to form. And as that baby grows, that DNA never changes. So for me that says: That’s life, that’s a person.
What are women who come to you facing?
Some are facing little to no support system. Others have mothers and aunts. There’s no stereotype for this. The teenagers we see often don’t have fathers in their lives. That’s a common thread. They are facing trying to finish high school while they have and raise a baby. Without a support system, that’s difficult to do. And we can be a part of that support system. There are some high schools in the city that actually have child care, which has been a huge help for them, and I applaud D.C. for doing that. We see approximately 2,000 clients a year, and 86 percent of them fall between the ages of 14 and 20.
What we’ve seen in the last four years since we started the fatherhood program, where male volunteers walk with teenage fathers through the pregnancy of their girlfriends, is that five years ago we would have a childbirth class of 12, and nine of them would be teenagers, and none of the fathers would be there. This past year in our childbirth classes, every teenage father except for two attended the classes. We are seeing these young dads step up to the plate and accept more responsibility.
When women do decide to get an abortion, do you struggle with that? Does it still bother you?
Never is anyone callous to it who believes that life begins with conception. At the same time, we recognize that the law of the United States allows abortion. It makes me sad, but at the same time everyone who comes here who is abortion-minded and leaves here still abortion-minded are welcome to come back if they need counseling or post-abortion help. They’re welcome to come back without judgment. The ones who do come back say they didn’t realize they would feel the loss of life like they did.
How do you change someone’s mind about abortion?
We offer an alternative to abortion for those who want that alternative by educating them about their options. Their options are keeping their baby, adoption or abortion. We know that keeping the baby can be very difficult, so we help by counseling, mentoring, walking with the client for as long as they want and providing material resources.
How do you think the pro-life movement can accomplish its goals?
Changed hearts — by helping one person at a time, showing them the love of Christ. That’s where it really starts. The pregnancy center isn’t just about saving a baby from abortion; it’s really about helping men and women in a crisis pregnancy. We’re finding more and more people who haven’t had work and who don’t know what to do. It’s about helping people.
At your core, what is one of your defining beliefs?
Jesus is the son of God.
– Liz Essley
