Dr. Matthew Phillips says Life on Wheels clinics support women facing pregnancy crises
HADLEY HITSON | Montgomery Advertiser
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Dr. Matthew Phillips loves babies.
He and his wife, Camille, have had four of their own, and Phillips has spent his adult life delivering them for mothers across Montgomery.
There’s just something about an innocent child entering the world that will make you so hopeful, he said.
Dr. Matthew Phillips in his offices in Montgomery, Ala., on Friday December 3, 2021. MICKEY WELSH / ADVERTISER
In January of this year, though, Phillips decided to quit his job as an obstetrician, which meant no more delivering babies. It wasn’t because he no longer loved taking care of babies, nor did he want to leave the hospital.
Instead, he resolved to help babies by helping their moms first.
Phillips founded Life on Wheels, a nonprofit organization that provides free ultrasounds and pregnancy tests to women in Montgomery and Birmingham through three mobile clinics. These services cost $150 and $25 respectively at local clinics. He currently serves as the Life on Wheels president and continues to work as a gynecologist from his office on Taylor Road.
Dr. Matthew Phillips in his offices in Montgomery, Ala., on Friday December 3, 2021. At right are photos of some of the babies he has … Mostrar más MICKEY WELSH / ADVERTISER
“I realized the power of ultrasound in empowering a woman to make a decision about her pregnancy,” Phillips said. “It does change your life, a child, but just like all crises in our lives, if someone can step alongside you and help you, most crises can be overcome. So that’s kind of what we do with the bus.”
The Montgomery-based Life On Wheels bus parks across the street from abortion providers, pro-life pregnancy centers and on the Alabama State University campus throughout the week.
The organization itself is staunchly against abortion, and while the nonprofit workers hope each woman will decide to parent, Phillips said the function of Life On Wheels is not to advocate against it. He said their volunteers and employees do not berate women or picket in front of abortion clinics.
Dr. Matthew Phillips in his offices in Montgomery, Ala., on Friday December 3, 2021. MICKEY WELSH / ADVERTISER
“We’re unashamedly pro-life, and we’d like to see abortion go away, but that’s not the purpose of our bus. Our bus is to love women where they are and meet them where they are. We think that’s the way Christ would do it,” Phillips said.
Life on Wheels executive director Robyn Blessing seconded Phillips’s statement. She said the women who staff the bus every day set up signs and pass out coupons advertising the free services, but they don’t engage in political conversations or pro-life versus pro-choice debates.
“It’s not our job to talk a woman into or out of an abortion,” Blessing said. “We aren’t going to overstep another physician, and if they do choose to abort, we still love them.”
Blessing met Phillips several years ago, after she had gotten an abortion herself, and he is one of the most genuine people she knows.
“He is selfless and nonjudgmental,” she said. “He really lives what he believes.”
Raising a child is a large responsibility, but when a woman who utilizes Life On Wheels’ resources struggles to stay afloat, Phillips said his organization does everything it can to help her.
He told the story of one of their former patients who lost her job and almost lost her house after giving birth. When she called the organization for help, one of the board members was able to get Catholic Social Services to pay two months of her rent, and she ultimately got her job back.
“That’s when we’re doing our job really well,” Phillips said. “It is a unique story, though, I confess. We’ve seen over 5,000 women, so if we were doing that for every single one of them, it would be a lot.”
Dr. Matthew Phillips shows one of his ultrasound machines in his offices in Montgomery, Ala., on Friday December 3, 2021. MICKEY WELSH / ADVERTISER
The usual outcome of a woman getting an ultrasound from Life On Wheels is that she either decides to parent and gets connected with a local pregnancy center or she decides to continue with her abortion.
Either way, Phillips said he hopes his team is making a positive impact.
Since Life on Wheels opened its first mobile medical unit in the River Region on Dec. 27, 2016, it has seen over 4,400 clients in the area. Many of them had decided to parent their babies before visiting the unit, but Life on Wheels’ records show that 284 women changed their minds about getting an abortion after the ultrasound.
When Phillips started Life on Wheels, his goal was to have a mobile pregnancy clinic across the street from every abortion clinic in the state. Now, he has two cities left that he wants to expand into — Tuscaloosa and Huntsville.
As the right to an abortion continues to be debated on a national scale, Phillips has no plans to delve into the politics of women’s health and abortion access. Instead, he hopes to stay focused on growing his nonprofit and resolving misconceptions around his work.
“We’re not angry,” he said. “We love the woman. We love the baby. We love the people across the street.”
About the series
The Montgomery Advertiser’s People to Watch is a series of stories about everyday Alabamians we believe will do exceptional things in our communities in the coming year. Our readers and journalists nominated this year’s slate. The Advertiser will publish profiles about these honorees from Dec. 23 through early January.
Three questions with Dr. Matthew Phillips
What is Montgomery’s greatest attribute?
“I think the reason that I love the city is we are sitting, in this time in history, in a better position to impact our nation on the issues that affect our nation than any city in America.
“Could Montgomery be the one city that could say, ‘If we can change, if we can bring reconciliation to this city, if this city can be reconciled, then our whole country could be reconciled?’ So to me, that’s the coolest thing about being in Montgomery. We have the potential to impact the country and maybe even the world on the issue of racial reconciliation.”
What did the pandemic teach you about yourself?
“I learned a lot about fear. I think the whole pandemic is plagued with fear. Fear of death, fear of losing a family member, fear of the vaccine, the whole thing is plagued with fear, and we made a lot of decisions based on fear, some good, some bad.
“But I learned a lot about dealing with fear and in trusting God that he has a sovereign plan for my life.”
Name somebody in the community who inspires you.
“John Geiger inspires me. He was the headmaster at Eastwood Christian School and about two years ago now died of ALS. He was inspiring me long before he got ALS, but then when he got ALS, he showed me how to die and how to die well.”
Hadley Hitson covers the rural South for the Montgomery Advertiser and Report for America. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com.
