Last Monday night I was contacted by a friend who turned to me for assistance with adoption. It was not for herself, but rather for a resident of her city who came to her looking for help while she was working for her local government.
I felt a sense of appreciation that this friend recognized the mindset I have when it comes to women facing pregnancies which may not be planned and that women may want options other than parenting. I looked up pregnancy centers from Option Line and was able to find a close by location to refer her to.
That same week, on Thursday, Life News was contacted by Heartbeat International, the organization which runs the Option Line service. Option Line was writing to share that they had reached 2 million contacts!
The e-mail sent out shares the story of one of those 2 million contacts, an 18 year old named Morgan.
Morgan was 18 and facing an unplanned pregnancy, which came to be while she was living with her father. While her father wanted her to get an abortion, and even scheduled her an appointment, Morgan was able to fly to her mother in Washington state. Fortunately, Morgan not only had her mother to turn to, but a pregnancy center.
The friend who reached out to me is not the first person to contact me for information regarding pregnancy centers or the forms of assistance they provide. I have gladly referred others to Option Line to look up pregnancy centers in their area, or have done the looking up for them. And just as Morgan turned to the same pregnancy center for assistance where she once volunteered for, I would turn to one should I ever face an unplanned pregnancy. I would know that I would be met with dignity and respect while being assisted.
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Secular Pro-Life Perspectives featured a piece from an anonymous blogger in April, in which the author discussed how thinking she could have been pregnant affected her pro-life views. One such view point of hers specifically mentions the pregnancy center she turned to:
7. The attacks that crisis pregnancies are under seem even more shameful and unnecessary. I turned to a pregnancy center for a pregnancy test. The staffer there was kind, helpful and non-judgmental. I was also promised confidentiality. The test was explained to me, and was free. My partner, who is neither pro-life nor a Christian, felt being at the center went positively. (This blog just recently reported on the hypocrisy of the legal trouble pregnancy centers have to endure when abortion clinics are allowed to operate without being inspected and under deplorable conditions.)
As the point on pregnancy centers mentions, pregnancy centers are subject to battles in court, their first amendment, as well as their ability to best help those women who turn to them, being threatened. Fortunately, the courts ruled in favor of pregnancy centers in Austin and Baltimore. However, pro-abortion groups still continue to attack these centers, as NARAL Pro-Choice America did so by sharing an article on their Facebook page just earlier this month. And, Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America have pages “warning” women about them. Despite these shameful attacks, pregnancy centers, such as those which Option Line assist women in finding, pregnancy centers continue to operate to truly help women, women just like Morgan.
