The head of a pro-life pregnancy center in Sacramento spoke to members of the U.S. Senate on July 12 about the importance of pregnancy centers and the need to protect them.

“Just last week, a man approached our care center armed with a machete,” said Heidi Matzke, the executive director of Alternatives Pregnancy Center. “We have been forced to hire 24-hour on-site security. We’ve had to reinforce doors and bulletproof our walls. We’ve had to paint our building with anti-graffiti coating. We’ve added cameras, armed our staff with pepper spray, and stopped running our mobile clinic because of threats of violence.”

Matzke said her center has had to spend roughly $150,000 — money that could have been used elsewhere — to protect themselves and their patients.

“What we do, though,” she stressed, “is worth the risk.”

Matzke testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee during a hearing titled “A Post-Roe America: The Legal Consequences of the Dobbs Decision.” Her comments come as pro-life pregnancy centers nationwide face escalating attacks, including firebombs, broken windows, and buildings defaced with pro-abortion messaging.

Matzke told CNA that her center took “extensive precautionary measures” after noticing attacks targeting other pregnancy centers.

Their security measures, so far, have protected them from two attacks.

Most recently, a man carrying a machete showed up at her center’s door at 8:15 a.m. — 45 minutes before it opened — on July 8, Matzke said.

“By God’s grace, our security guy came around the corner and saw him and they exchanged words and then he ran off,” she told CNA. “Fortunately, no damage was done and, at this point, everyone is safe.”

While she was not there at the time, security cameras caught the incident on camera.

“I was actually very surprised that he, at 8:15 in the morning, would be as bold as coming that early,” Matzke said, noting that most attacks seem to happen in the middle of the night. She called it alarming and scary that it happened shortly before staff and patients would arrive.

Another incident happened several weeks ago, Matzke said, when a woman tried to hijack her center’s mobile clinic.

“Our nurse was in the back serving a patient and our mobile clinic has to be on — and air conditioning running — in order to operate effectively,” Matzke recalled. “A woman basically tried to get in the front seat and take off with it.”

The center’s on-site security stopped the woman….

The above comes from July 13 story in Catholic World Report.