Surrounded by more than 100 members of Norman’s anti-abortion movement, U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn said Oklahomans must “change hearts” regarding the country’s abortion policy though compassion and love.

Coburn, speaking at the opening of Care Net’s new Robinson Street location, said the facility represents “people caring about people.”

“This is really about caring about people,” he said. “It’s not about judgment, no matter what decision they make. It’s about offering care for people who think that, ‘I’m in the pit and I don’t know how to get out.’”

Coburn, a Muskogee physician, spoke Tuesday.

“Nobody wins on an abortion,” he said. “Regardless of the choice they made. The important thing is to help women.”

Speaking to the media prior to the center’s opening, Coburn said his real intent for being in Norman was “because this is for women, no matter what they choose.”

“The important thing is to help women,” he said. “You’re helping them when they are in a time of need; here are the options, we’re gonna help you emotionally, physically and spiritually.”

The center, which has been in Norman since 1996, recently signed a five-year lease for office space at the Robinson Medical Plaza. The office was constructed with funds from a $92,000 grant from the Butterfield Memorial Foundation.

Care Net officials said the new location is “expected to triple” their capacity to serve woman and provide them with a large classroom center for parenting classes, pregnancy and wellness programs, and volunteer training.

Care Net’s interim executive director, Crystal Drwenski, said the facility also is launching additional services and will unveil a new brand name and marketing campaign by the end of the year.

“Having a pregnancy resource center that can provide such needed services as ultrasound screening and STD testing is one of the most effective ways for the right-to-life movement to help women through compassionate truth and professional care,” she said.
Coburn agreed.

“There are not many women who have seen their baby who then go on to abort,” he said, adding that many of the state’s unplanned pregnancies are the “consequences for early sexual behavior.”

“You’re seeing the tail end of moral judgements that we, as a society have made,” he said. “When we said we don’t have any problem with multiple partners.”

The problem is so big that “45 percent of the women in this state are carrying the human Papillomavirus,” he said. “Which is the virus that causes cancer, how’d they get that? They got that through multiple sexual partners; maybe not that, but their partners.”

The whole idea behind the center, he said, is regardless of the choices that are made, we’re gonna care for ya’, we’re gonna nurture you and we’re gonna help ya’ through it — no matter what decision they make.”