About 50 of Planned Parenthood’s nearly 600 clinics have shut down this year, largely because of Republican moves to cut the organization off from government money — fulfilling a long-held conservative dream to defund the nation’s largest abortion provider. Already prohibited from using federal funds for abortions, Planned Parenthood had relied on government dollars to provide other reproductive services for some two million patients a year, many of whom are low-income and use the clinics as a health care provider of last resort.

As Planned Parenthood closures mount, a different kind of organization is seeking to fill the void: anti-abortion pregnancy centers. While the typically Christian-based centers have long provided pregnancy tests and counseling for women facing unexpected pregnancies, some have expanded to offer a range of medical services. The founder of the national Obria network, of which the Ames clinic is a member, described Obria as a “medical brand” intended to “attract women out of Planned Parenthood.”

But because the Obria in Ames does not advertise its faith-based approach, patients may struggle to identify the key differences between Planned Parenthood and the Christian-based clinic. Instead of prescribing birth control, Obria nurses teach patients how to monitor fertility by tracking their menstrual cycles. Instead of performing abortions, they provide counseling they hope will persuade women to carry their pregnancies to term.

With abortion numbers continuing to rise three years after the fall of Roe v. Wade, the anti-abortion movement sees the Planned Parenthood closures as an opportunity to stop abortion one community — and one clinic — at a time, offering an alternative model for reproductive health care.