MIDLAND BEACH — CompassCare Pregnancy Services CEO Jim Harden said Staten Island is the perfect place to open their sixth medical office. Although the goal is to have offices across all five of New York City’s boroughs, Staten Island is key for the organization, he said.
“Between Staten Island and Brooklyn … this particular region is the largest abortion hub in the nation,” said Harden, who is also a Methodist reverend. “So we need a team of nurses throughout this particular region of the city to address that emergency.
“So Staten Island is the perfect place to have a base of operations.”
On Sept. 25, CompassCare celebrated its grand opening in the borough with a ribbon-cutting event that, according to Harden, marks not a beginning, but the “next step” in a long line of pro-life efforts that are “carried out by God’s people.”
The opening is also part of an expansion and partnership with Pregnancy Care Center of New York, a nonprofit Christian organization serving women and their families who seek help relating to an unexpected pregnancy.
The new medical office offers free, pro-life medical care to women, including baseline obstetrician care, such as pregnancy and STD testing and treatment, along with abortion pill reversal, according to Harden. CompassCare’s other medical offices, which offer similar services, are in Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.
The new office is located in the Pregnancy Care Center of New York’s Staten Island building, with discrete signage due to safety and security concerns, according to Harden.
On June 7, 2022, the CompassCare medical office in Buffalo was firebombed after individuals threw Molotov cocktails at the center, causing significant damage. According to a statement from the FBI’s Buffalo Field Office, one of the perpetrators spray-painted the words “Jane was here” on the building — a phrase Harden attributes to Jane’s Revenge, a pro-abortion extremist group.
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“I’ve gotten death threats. My house has been doxed. I’ve had to relocate my family for security reasons,” Harden said. “So there are concerns, but we have no intention of backing down; we have no intention of shrinking.
“This is not our time to take our foot off the gas — this is the time to lean in, because we know it’s just that important.”
The Staten Island office becomes the third CompassCare office in New York City. The others are in Flatlands, Brooklyn, and the Concourse Village section of The Bronx.
Kathy Mauer, a registered nurse and vice president of patient services at CompassCare, has been with the organization for 17 years. She said she is grateful for the opportunity to expand the organization’s “influence” through the new medical center, calling it “a dream come true.”
“We believed a couple of years ago that the Lord was opening up doors for us to come to New York City,” Mauer said. “And miraculously that happened.”