The March for Life in Washington, D.C., Jan. 27, 2017. / Jeff Bruno.

Knoxville, Tenn., May 19, 2021 / 17:50 pm (CNA).

The pro-life community in Chattanooga, Tennessee celebrated its 28th anniversary this week of not having an abortion clinic in the city.

“Greater Chattanooga Right to Life is grateful that Chattanooga has been without an abortion clinic for nearly three decades and want to keep it that way,” Candy Clepper, the organization’s president, told CNA.

Chattanooga’s last abortion clinic closed May 17, 1993, and the pro-life community has been working to educate the public ever since. 

“We are spreading the good news that life matters with billboards all over Chattanooga and surrounding areas,” said Clepper. “We are partnering with churches to pray, carry out petitions, and attend school board meetings. We are educating the public on Planned Parenthood’s devastating effects on women and children, and we are advocating for public policy that respects the sanctity of human life.”

Twenty-eight years ago the pro life community raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase the last failing abortion clinic in a bankruptcy sale. 

The building was restored into two pro-life centers: Choices Pregnancy Resource Center, which supports pregnant women, and the National Memorial to the Unborn, which works to help heal the pain associated with abortion loss.

Clepper told CNA that Planned Parenthood has hired a community organizer and educator to oversee the Chattanooga area. 

She said they stand against the “deadly agenda” Planned Parenthood brings to the city.