Dr. Hilgers, now in his late 70s, has spent his life using his medical expertise to support the anti-abortion movement, publishing books alleging the “faulty science” ofand training a generation of medical professionals to interpret anti-abortion politics through the language of scientific fact. He was among the first abortion opponents to see that case studies might be better received than pamphlets telling women how they might be judged after an abortion.
Since its founding in the mid-’80s, the Pope Paul VI Institute has grown from a small office into a 14,000-square-foot medical complex garnering nearly $2.5 million in revenue a year. In 2019, tand is a partner in Amazon’s charity program, Amazon Smile. The institute claims to have trained well over 3,000 medical professionals during the course of its operation and sees up to 900 patients a year.
The Institute houses a hormone laboratory, an ultrasound center, a clinic, and lecture halls where employees conduct research, treat patients, and train visiting residents, many of whom return to their home states to open affiliated clinics. An affiliated business, FertilityCare Centers of America, oversees 300 clinics in all 50 states.
In its decades of operation, the staff of the Institute has developed alternatives to nearly every aspect of reproductive healthIn its decades of operation, the staff of the Institute has developed alternatives to nearly every aspect of reproductive health. The result of Dr. Hilgers’ life’s work has been the creation of a parallel medical system, one formed in opposition to secular reproductive practices that is now, in essence, considered broadly legitimate if not particularly mainstream.
Hilgers and his staff have trained popular Christian motivational speakers and OBGYNs at Bella Health, a slick network of Colorado wellness-minded clinics funded in part by the local Archdiocese. Marguerite Duane,