Mobile pregnancy unit nearly ready for the road, headed for college campuses

Brighton-based Pregnancy Help Clinic seeks licensed sonographer to staff mobile unit, which aims to meet women where they are

BRIGHTON — It’s been almost a year since the Mobile Medical Unit of the Pregnancy Help Clinic in Brighton was renovated and made ready for the road.

Its journey from an RV lot through a nearly quarter of a million dollar purchase and renovation has it just shy of its destination near the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Michigan State University in East Lansing. The hold-up is hiring a licensed sonographer to help staff it.

Everything else about the unit seemed preordained, said Alanha Asher, the registered nurse hired as medical staff.

“It’s a whole God moment — real big God moments with how the whole thing came together,” she said.

The staff and board of the Pregnancy Help Clinic have relied on divine intervention since the clinic's beginning in Brighton nearly 50 years ago. Shari Boley, executive director of the clinic, said the addition of the Mobile Medical Unit is part of an overall plan for expansion, but it has happened in God’s timing.

In 2019, the clinic looked to expand its building in Brighton because it had outgrown the space; since then, things have fallen into place quickly to grow in other areas, Boley said.

As the clinic began looking for a larger space than its cramped Grand River Road building, the landlord presented another suite, ready to be renovated. They were able to nearly double the square footage and open a dedicated medical wing.

While that renovation was under way, the Pregnancy Help Clinic was offered a building in Flint Township, right next door to a now-closed abortion clinic.

“We’d been praying; praying to be right where women need us to be available,” Boley said. “We got the opportunity.” The second location is on Flushing Road near Ballenger Highway and opened in 2022.

The expansion in Flint wasn’t quite finished when the idea was hatched to purchase a used RV and put it to use as a mobile clinic. Boley said the decision was made after another pregnancy center in Lansing had to dramatically curtail its services, and feared women wouldn't get the care they needed.

“We weren’t even done with the Flint build-out when they originally brought the idea,” Boley said, but in the midst of construction, a subcommittee was formed, and the board started to hash out a plan.

That plan included help from the Knights of Columbus, including a member of the subcommittee who is passionate about making sure that pregnancy centers have ultrasound machines. Tim Donovan heads the Livingston County Ultrasound Initiative (LCUI), with which he became involved while he was district deputy for the Knights of Columbus.

Until he became involved with the LCUI in 2011, Donovan said he had no idea how working with pregnancy centers would change his life. One bitter December day, he decided to stop in Brighton to visit the Pregnancy Help Clinic.

“The Holy Spirit was working that day because there’s no reason for me to go to Brighton,” Donovan said, adding, that he thought he’d just stop on his way to work. “I never made it to work that day. So I met with them that day in what I thought was just going to be a 15-minute meet and greet. It turned into a two-and-a-half-hour (lesson) as to what happens when women (who need assistance) come through the door.”

By the time he left, Donovan was overwhelmed. “I went out to the car and I completely lost it,” he said.

The next month, he started working to raise money for the ultrasound initiative, with the Pregnancy Help Clinic the first beneficiary. Within the first six weeks of fundraising, the LCUI raised $20,000, which was enough to match what the Knights of Columbus would contribute. “Honestly,” Donovan said, “The money just came roaring in.”

The initiative later funded a second ultrasound machine that ended up in Flint, and has also been a big part of getting the Mobile Medical Unit equipped.

Boley and the other two center directors from Lansing approached Donovan with the idea, and he knew he couldn’t say no.

During a Lansing diocesan-wide meeting of the Knights of Columbus, Boley and another colleague presented the idea and launched a fundraising effort. “We got $5,000 that evening,” said Donovan, who put together a marketing plan and started presenting it to individual councils. In the end, enough was raised to purchase the unit with a little left over.

By October 2023, the unit had been dedicated, blessed, and was nearly ready for the road, but still needed to be staffed. A driver was quickly found, which left only a sonographer vacancy to be filled.

“It’s important to have a registered diagnostic medical sonographer,” Asher said. “We always want to uphold the standard of a true medical clinic.”

Asher can’t wait to get the mobile unit up and running, but says it is still in God’s timing. She believes that when the unit is parked outside of an abortion clinic, the number of abortions will decrease. “I don’t know if it’s the Spirit of God, or the Hand of God that rests on a place, and evil has to flee,” she said.

As a practicing Catholic, Asher hopes she will be able to use the opportunity to counsel young women. The Pregnancy Help Clinic is a licensed medical clinic that provides not only free pregnancy testing and early ultrasounds, but also testing for sexually transmitted infections at reduced costs.

Whether it's in the brick-and-mortar building or in the Mobile Medical Unit, the clinic's mission is the same, Boley added.

“We’re going to focus on providing women with support, education, and hope,” Boley said, and “it’s all God-driven.”

Denyse Shannon serves with the Pregnancy Help Clinic in Flint.