Pregnancy center proposed in Mentor

Developer seeks to offer ‘neutral’ approach to service

The Mentor Inside: For more Planning on the Mentor Commission Planning Commission will hold several meeting public see A3. hearings this week, including one on a proposed women’s center.

The commission on Jan. 23 will consider a request by Bella Women’s Center for a conditional-use permit to allow a medical office as a similar use in an M-1 Light Manufacturing District at 8619 Tyler Blvd.

“We’re a limited medical pregnancy center,” Development Director Luann Sowers said.

“Primarily the women we see are in the midst of making a pregnancy decision.”

She noted that the nonprofit, community-supported facility doesn’t provide abortions or abortion referrals.

“They provide an atmosphere where the women are not judged or condemned,” she said. “We’re not pressuring her to choose one thing or another.

“There’s really nothing like this out there where she can get this type of medical treatment and this very neutral approach to her.”

Sowers, former director of Birthright in Geauga County, said 70 percent of women that have abortions say they were coerced by family members or others.

“It’s an approach that meets her where she’s at,” she said. “It helps her to step back, take a breath and hear her heart.

“Obviously abortion is a very touchy issue. With this approach, people on both sides of the issue really like this because it’s doing the right thing for her, not just medical treatment.”

The center initially would be under the umbrella of Bella Women’s Center in Warren.

The center, which receives no government funding, has been around for about eight years.

Sowers, a Geauga resident, said she was looking to establish a location in the Lake-Geauga county area.

“We thought Mentor would be accessible because it’s centrally located,” she said.

She noted that the office building targeted for the site will allow for an upscale, non-clinical type of setting.

The free and confidential services, under the direction of a board-licensed medical director, include:

• Lab-quality urine pregnancy testing and noninvasive STD testing for chlamydia and gonorrhea

• Oral treatment for chlamydia

• Limited obstetrical ultrasound scans performed by registered sonographers and reviewed by a consulting physician

• Free parenting classes • One-on-one and group support services to those dealing with trauma from a past abortion

Hours would be 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., weekdays, with occasional weeknight and weekend hours. Expected staff will include three fulltime and 10 part-time employees.

“We’re hoping, if this passes, to be open some time in May,” Sowers said.

Other public hearings on the agenda are:

• Conditional-use permit to allow an automobile repair shop in the M-1 Light Manufacturing District at 7457 Clover Ave. by Corvette Motorsports of Cleveland Inc.

• Conditional-use permit to allow the purchase of automobiles as a similar use in the M-1 Light Manufacturing District at 7471 Tyler Blvd. by CarGroup Holdings LLC

• Conditional-use permit to allow vehicle servicing as a similar use in the MIP Industrial Park District at 6094 Pinecone Drive by PWP/Protection with Perfection

• Conditional-use permit to allow a car wash as a similar use in the B-3 Interchange Service District at 7350 Palisades Parkway by CMT LLC

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers at Mentor Municipal Center, 8500 Civic Center Blvd.