Gateway Women's Care, Anti-Abortion Center in Raleigh, Shuts Doors After Picketing by Community Organizers

On Wednesday, May 21, community organizers with the NC Triangle Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) announced that their two-year campaign against Gateway Women’s Care of Raleigh ended in victory [1]. Gateway, a crisis pregnancy or anti-abortion center, had been operating at 1306 Hillsborough Street for almost ten years and saw over 1,000 clients in 2023 [2]. While Gateway’s website describes their mission as providing “free, confidential pregnancy and sexual health services,” their most recent tax filings report their work as faith-based, “empower[ing] women to choose life for themselves and their unborn child” [2]. The center is not a licensed medical facility, and has been criticized for spreading misinformation and offering unproven “abortion pill reversal” procedures [3].

Triangle DSA’s Socialist Feminist Working Group began picketing Gateway in 2023. Describing the motivation for the pickets, Working Group Co-Chair Saige S. stated, “Everyone deserves to make informed decisions and access to comprehensive healthcare. Anti-abortion centers have been operating for decades, even more so post-Dobbs, which is why this is such an important issue to shine a light on.” Pickets were supported by local college students with North Carolina State University’s Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA). Triangle DSA estimates over 100 community members in all showed up to the pickets held outside Gateway every few months, holding signs that called out the anti-abortion center and sharing legitimate sources of reproductive healthcare. A key goal of the demonstrations was to warn passersby that anti-abortion centers interfere with reproductive justice by endangering pregnant people whether or not they intend to keep their pregnancy. Clients of crisis pregnancy centers may believe that their prenatal care needs are being met by the centers, meaning complications that arise from pregnancy can go undetected and cause harm to both the pregnant person and their pregnancy [4, 5].

In 2024, after learning that Gateway’s landlord Ted Van Dyk was a registered Democrat, Triangle DSA started a petition calling on him not to renew the anti-abortion center’s lease [6]. Following an unsuccessful conversation with Van Dyk during an August 2024 picket, the organizers decided to escalate their approach [7]. At the following picket, a sign held by an organizer read “Ted Van Dyk Sells Out Abortion Rights.” Within hours of the protest, Van Dyk contacted the group for the first time to say that the sign wouldn’t change his mind and that there are “far more positive and effective ways to support and advocate for women’s reproductive health.”

In early 2025, flyers urging Van Dyk to stop leasing to Gateway began to appear in the landlord’s own neighborhood. Triangle DSA says it only learned about the flyers because the organization was served a cease-and-desist from Gateway that included photos of the literature. While DSA consulted with a lawyer, the chapter’s Socialist Feminist Working Group shifted their organizing to directly support people seeking reproductive healthcare. In February, the group’s first “post-abortion care kit” making party drew over 70 community members to the Raleigh United Mutual Aid Hub (RUMAH) on Hillsborough Street. The group ended up with enough extra donated pads, chocolates, and self-care items to put on the whole event again the following month without needing to buy more items for the care bags [8].

On March 25, a YDSA member spotted what looked like a moving truck in Gateway’s driveway. This prompted the group to dive through public records to investigate whether Gateway was undergoing repairs as the center claimed over the phone, or was moving out. The search revealed that in December 2024, Van Dyk filed for a permit with the city of Raleigh to completely rewire 1306 Hillsborough Street. City inspections at the center in January 2025 determined that the present wiring method was not appropriate for treatment rooms, and that the center lacked tamper-resistant outlets that municipal electric code requires for spaces operating as clinics [9]. A letter posted to the portal following a subsequent inspection confirmed that Gateway had ceased operations as of March 3 [10].

With news of Gateway’s departure confirmed, Triangle DSA is already gearing up for their next fight. Socialist Feminist Working Group members plan to research potential vulnerabilities of the six other local anti-abortion centers in the Triangle, from landlords that can be pressured to improperly permitted spaces. The group also hopes to disrupt the demand for anti-abortion centers through expanding access to pregnancy tests and other material aid often peddled by anti-abortion centers such as diapers and baby clothes. With legislative efforts to regulate crisis pregnancy centers stalled in the current NC General Assembly session, Triangle DSA says it hopes to activate the power of community organizing to drive out anti-abortion centers and demand quality, safe reproductive healthcare for all.

Work Cited

1. NC Triangle DSA. “Gateway’s Aborted.” Instagram, 21 May 2025, www.instagram.com/p/DJ7bRZPy6TV. Accessed 21 May 2025.

2. “Gateway Womens Care.” ProPublica, 31 Dec. 2023, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/581584775/202402779349300980/full.

3. “Mike Pence to Visit Women’s Health Clinic That Falsely Ties Abortion to Breast Cancer.” CNN, 1 Sept. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/politics/pence-abortion-breast-cancer/index.html.

4. “The Problems With Crisis Pregnancy Centers: Reviewing the Literature and Identifying New Directions for Future Research.” International Journal of Women S Health, Vol. 14, June 2022, pp. 757–63. https://doi.org/10.2147/ijwh.s288861.

5. “New Lawsuit Alleges Actions of ‘Crisis Pregnancy Center’ Resulted in Missed Diagnosis of a Life-Threatening Ectopic Pregnancy.” Reproductive Equity Now, 22 June 2023, https://reproequitynow.org/press/new-lawsuit-alleges-actions-of-crisis-pregnancy-center-resulted-in-missed-diagnosis-of-a-life-threatening-ectopic-pregnancy.

6. Stop Leasing to Anti-Abortion Center Gateway Women’s Care, https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/anti-abortion-center-out-of-raleigh.

7. “Activists Picket Against Gateway Women’s Care, a Fake Abortion Clinic Next to NC State.” Durham Dispatch, 27 July 2024, www.durhamdispatch.com/post/feminists-picket-against-gateway-womens-care-a-fake-abortion-clinic-next-to-nc-state.

8. NC Triangle DSA. “SocFem's Garden Party Social.” Instagram, 16 May 2025, www.instagram.com/p/DJuyafsyljW/. Accessed 21 May 2025.

9. "Inspection Number: INSP-019049-2025", City of Raleigh. https://raleighnc-energovpub.tylerhost.net/apps/selfservice#/inspectionDetail/inspection/508cc8ab-2297-4eed-adec-044231389167.

10. "Permit Number: ELENR-009726-2025", City of Raleigh. https://raleighnc-energovpub.tylerhost.net/apps/selfservice#/permit/33a0d43b-4cb1-47dd-897f-0febea2de968