Here’s something you don’t see everyday: A group of interfaith clergy members in Texas gathered at the Whole Woman’s Health of Austin on Tuesday to bless the clinic and the work done inside.

They don’t see a contradiction here. In fact, they want to help the women who visit the center, especially given that the clinic’s original location was taken over by a “crisis pregnancy center,” which is a faith-based anti-abortion center that often masquerades as an abortion clinic but provides medically inaccurate information to women.

“As people of faith, it’s not that we think we’re bringing God to this place; we believe God is already present in that space,” Fulbright told HuffPost. “But it’s to ask for prayers of safety, healing and peace, to infuse the space with an energy that is life-giving for women, a lot of whom are in an anxious time.”

The content of the prayers weren’t shared in the HuffPost article, but I’d like to think the religious leaders prayed for lawmakers to support affordable healthcare (including access to birth control), a higher minimum wage, paid maternity leave, and other societal changes that would better support mothers than shaming them into keeping their pregnancies.

In fact, both groups involved in the ceremony do plenty of advocacy.

If the anti-abortion side could stop chanting “Abortion is genocide!” long enough to think about the issue, they might realize they have one important goal in common with these clergy members, at least in theory: A desire to see every pregnancy wanted and every child able to be properly cared for.

(Image via Facebook)