Cash Cows of Metro-St. Louis: Certain pro-life organizations would rather perpetuate abortion than prevent abortion
January 2012
Why do pregnancy centers that collect OVER $1 million per year and pay their directors $80,000 per year exist? Because they are “window dressers”. They have lost their focus and have fallen in love with making money. They have turned into financial businesses. Unfortunately, this is exactly what Thrive St. Louis and Mosaic Pregnancy Center do. They are supposed to be helping women and their unborn children. At both of these centers, pregnant women have to be a so-called “client” of theirs, take classes, and register before they give birth to their baby to receive any help. If a desperate mom in need of baby supplies and immediate assistance visits one of these centers for help after she has given birth to her baby she cannot get any help, unfortunately, because that is their standard policy.
Almost two years ago, March 9, 2010, at Illinois legislator day, Mosaic Pregnancy Center director Kathy Sparks was passing herself off to legislators in Springfield, IL claiming that she was the ministry performing ultrasounds outside the Hope Clinic in Granite City. We caught her red-handed as we were only feet behind her in the reception line greeting the legislators. Maybe that is why she took off and out the doors when she saw us in line. You can only imagine how embarrassing it was as we introduced ourselves to the lawmakers and had to correct them. Performing free ultrasounds outside the Hope abortion Clinic has been a part of Small Victories’ daily ministering as we have for the past twenty years.
The reason our ministry started was because Sparks’ center was referring women for abortions and was not helping desperate women in need. Referring girls to the abortion clinic was brought to our attention by a pregnancy center in Collinsville, Illinois. They, too, were encountering business cards from New Beginnings/Mosaic that referred girls to the abortion clinic. Marilyn Welling was one of the several volunteers who brought this to our attention.
Another instance of deception is the Shawn Reagan fiasco. On March 17, 2005 our ministry was alone standing outside Hope abortion Clinic. Once again, another underage girl was brought for an abortion. Her frantic parents showed up outside the mill pleading, trying to get inside after their daughter’s school notified them that she was not in school. They discovered that she had been brought for an abortion that they had no knowledge of and did not want to happen. The girl’s mother, Shawn Reagan, cried out, “That’s my grandchild! I should be in there with my daughter.” Shawn was arrested and placed inside a police cruiser. For several hours we called law enforcement officials and the State’s Attorney to no avail. We contacted the local media, and they covered this tragic situation fairly well. This mother had no access to her daughter or grandchild. Only hours later was this 14 year old girl thrown out to her mother who sat in a squad car most of the time.
The family had many problems after this episode. It was all over the media. Kathy Sparks took full advantage of this tragic situation by imploring Shawn Reagan to do three fundraising banquets for New Beginnings/Mosaic. This was relayed to us by Shawn Reagan herself after Kathy Sparks paraded her around from fundraiser to fundraiser like a trophy. I asked Shawn, “Did you get paid for this?” She answered, “No.” “How did Kathy Sparks help you?” Shawn replied, “All Kathy Sparks did was give my daughter a pregnancy test in the beginning, and then she just paraded me around to do fundraising banquets for her.” I questioned, “Well, how did this help you?” Shawn responded, “It didn’t. You’re the one who helped me and my daughter outside that abortion clinic.”
This displays the character of Kathy Sparks. She is there to LOOK like she is doing pro-life work while she hijacks the work of others who are. We crashed her little “glory party” when we showed up at the Missouri state capital where legislators and media were listening to testimonials concerning underage girls being brought over state lines to Illinois to have secret abortions http://www.smallvictoriesusa.com/News/2005/A%20Day%20at%20the%20Circus%20Sep.html. Kathy Sparks, along with Representative Jane Cunningham and former Pregnancy Resource Center director and Sparks’ mentor John McCastle sat with Ms. Reagan. Surprise, we were seated with the pro-aborts. When legislators asked for any further testimony from witnesses we held our hands up and were asked to present it. We gave them heaven and told the truth about who and what organization is standing outside this abortion facility in Granite City, Illinois holding these distraught mothers of underage girls coming across state lines. And it is not Kathy Sparks.
Why would Kathy Sparks choose to selectively help pregnant girls? She goes so far as to state on her brochure that girls must come to her pregnancy center at the onset of their pregnancy and must take classes in order to then receive help. In addition, Sparks limits ultrasounds to women who are only in their first trimester. This is exactly why abortion-bound women are not walking into pregnancy centers like Mosaic and Thrive seeking help. Rather, they are dashing to abortion mills that are more than willing to provide an immediate “solution.” And that is why our ministry is so vital.
Thrive St. Louis collected $1.7 million last year and less than 10% went to actually help moms and their unborn babies http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments//2010/431/304/2010-431304395-070129d1-9.pdf. Over half of the amount they collected went towards salaries and employee benefits, with very little going towards helping women in need. Thrive St. Louis is still in denial over hiring a pro-choice Miss Missouri to speak at their major fundraising banquet in 2004. http://www.smallvictoriesusa.com/News/2004/missmissouri.html
Ministries such as the two above should not be masquerading themselves around as doers of God’s work when they are actually living off of the abortion holocaust ravaging our nation. Innocent babies are dying, and they are worried about how much money they can make. They have lost their focus. Instead of preventing abortion they are propping it up. If abortion came to an end tomorrow they would be jumping off their buildings. Why aren’t newspapers like the St. Louis Post Dispatch or the disgraceful St. Louis MetroVoice run by Jim Day reporting these facts? WHERE IS THEIR ACCOUNTABILITY?
Jim Judge of the Better Business Bureau of St. Louis recently reported that with any non-profit organization, over 65% of the money collected should go directly towards their stated purpose, not to salaries. It is very clear that both of these organizations do not come anywhere close to meeting this guideline. Both of the directors of these organizations and anyone else in the organization that receives a paycheck should be exposed as frauds.
Our Small Victories ministry collected $101,000 in donations last year and almost 75% of the money collected went towards helping moms and their babies, both directly and indirectly, as well as helping others in need.
So, the next time you think of donating to Mosaic Pregnancy Center in Granite City or Thrive St. Louis, think of two wolves in sheep’s clothing, or just better yet, throw your money out in the street and watch it blow down the road. Elaborate closed buildings do not help desperate women in need or save babies scheduled to die. When a pregnancy center discriminates and makes it hard enough for pregnant women to receive the bare essentials, it is just pushing them into the abortion clinic that is open and willing to help mothers terminate their pregnancies. Both of these centers stand behind their faith and feel justified with their rules and regulations, but Jesus would never stay in a building and pay himself an exorbitant salary. He went out into the streets seeking the lost and needy. Babies are not dying at pregnancy centers; they are dying at abortion mills.
Proverbs 14:31 “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”
