By Liz Townsend
"Help for Today . . . Hope for Tomorrow."
This motto of the Loving Options Pregnancy Support Center in Moreno Valley,
California, summarizes the powerfully pro-life mission of crisis pregnancy
centers (CPCs) in this country and around the world.
From the inception of the pro-life movement almost 30 years ago, CPCs have
been on the front lines of the fight to save unborn babies from the horrors
of abortion. Tens of thousands of women have given birth to beautiful children
largely, if not exclusively, because of the invaluable support of the wonderful
pro-lifers who work at the centers.
Philosophically as well as pragmatically, CPCs are rooted in three truths.
First, pro-lifers care about both mother and unborn child; they must never
be pitted against the other. Second, most women contemplating an abortion
feel they are without choice - - except the choice to abort - - because
they lack the kind of
emotional and financial support needed at this stressful time. Finally,
women love their babies and want to do what's best for them. All too often,
however, the culture sends the message the baby is "better off dead."
Testimonials from just two of the countless women who have benefited from
the work of CPCs illustrate how these truths are borne out in practice.
Yvette was 40 years old, single with a small son, and involved with a verbally
abusive boyfriend when she discovered she was pregnant. Understandably worried,
Yvette called the True Life Choice crisis pregnancy center in Orlando, Florida.
The counselor on the phone asked Yvette to come to the center and receive
one-on-one counseling. Fortunately, she did.
Yvette had already contacted abortion clinics in the mistaken idea that
they would be available to help her make an informed "choice."
She soon learned better.
"I called around all the abortion clinics," she told the counselor
at True Life Choice. "I tried to talk to them about maybe why I shouldn't
do it, and they didn't want to talk about it."
The pro-life counselor, by contrast, spoke to her calmly, Yvette said,
and tried to encourage her faith and her love for the baby she was carrying.
Yvette chose life. Like most CPCs, True Life Choice remained in touch with
Yvette to make sure she had all the help she needed as she built a new life
for herself and her family.
Mindy's problem was different but equally challenging. She'd lost her job
due to health complications in the early months of her pregnancy. Without
enough money to pay the rent, she needed help desperately.
She contacted Project Life, a program that provides financial assistance
to pregnant women or new mothers in Minnesota. Project Life provided a critically
important $400 towards Mindy's rent, which enabled her to keep her apartment
during her time of crisis. Mindy expressed her deep gratitude in a letter
she sent to Project Life.
"I received a letter from you yesterday saying that you would send
the money needed for my rent," she wrote. "I am so very thankful
for this money. I have had some difficult times lately."
Soon after, Mindy gave birth to her son Brandon, a healthy and happy baby
boy.
The experiences of Yvette and Mindy, told on True Life Choice's and Project
Life's World Wide Web sites, are two of many life-affirming success stories
made possible by pregnancy help centers across the country. The centers
number over 3,000 in the United States alone and at least 1,000 others around
the world, according to the latest comprehensive directory of CPCs published
by Heartbeat International.
Typically underfunded but determined to never give up, the centers usually
employ only a small staff and operate by the power of volunteers, many of
whom donate large amounts of time and effort to help women in crisis.
Knowing the persuasive power of the unvarnished truth, the centers provide
free services that center around informing women about the true nature of
their unborn children and what is available to assist the women to carry
their babies to term. The centers provide free services such as pregnancy
tests; counseling on the facts of fetal development, abortion, and alternatives
to abortion; referrals to doctors, social services, or adoption agencies;
classes on parenting and finances; financial assistance; and maternity and
baby items such as clothes and diapers.
Recently, because of the growing awareness of the continuing trauma caused
by abortion, CPCs have added to their services post-abortion recovery support,
with counseling or support groups to help women and men recover from a past
abortion.
Women experiencing crisis pregnancies in New Jersey have a wonderful resource
for support and encouragement. National Life Center (NLC), one of the earliest
CPCs established in the United States, is located in Woodbury.
Since its beginning in 1970, NLC's mission has remained the same.
"Our job is to tell the truth and let the girl be totally informed,"
NLC President Denise Cocciolone told NRL News. "I've never known
one girl who wanted to have an abortion; she resorts to abortion."
NLC "tells her about abortion techniques, what's going to happen with
the baby," Cocciolone said.
Since 1984, women across the country have been able to receive NLC's help
by calling a toll-free hotline (1-800-848-LOVE) that is staffed 24 hours
a day. Day and night, counselors are available to direct the women to centers
in their area, to give information on services available, or just to listen.
NLC also has several associate centers in various locations under the name
1st Way. All of the options NLC and its associates offer women in crisis
pregnancies work toward the goal to "get the baby born safely and help
the woman maintain some peace of mind and dignity," said Cocciolone.
Maternity Homes
In its early years, NLC gave women in need shelter
in private homes. For the past 18 years, Cocciolone said, the center has
referred women to group homes. Next door to the main center in Woodbury,
for example, there is a group home called the Lighthouse Community that
houses women over 18 during their pregnancies and with their babies after
birth.
Maternity homes are available in many parts of the country for women who
need a loving environment to prepare for their baby's birth. The homes provide
training and support to help the women live successfully on their own and
be able to care for their babies.
Several Sources Foundation runs four maternity shelters in New Jersey.
Founder Kathy DiFiore told NRL News that pregnant women can stay
free of charge in the homes until their babies are born and then for one
year after the birth. The shelters provide weekly chastity workshops, motherhood
training, and academic and skills training. The first shelter opened in
1981 in DiFiore's own home in Ramsey.
One of the women who lived at a Several Sources shelter chose these words
to express her profound gratitude to DiFiore. "When my mother found
out I was pregnant she told me to leave home," wrote Stacey Alexander.
"I slept in the stairway of her building and I also slept in the subways.
Finally, I found out about Kathy and the Several Sources program. Now I
am happily married to my wonderful husband Paul, and he accepted my daughter
as his own. I am happy that I never aborted Cassandra because I do not think
it would have made my life better than it is now."
Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Women who do not need a maternity home environment
can find assistance from traditional CPCs, most modeled on the first organized
network, Birthright. The first Birthright center opened in 1968 in Toronto,
Canada, and it quickly grew into the first international crisis pregnancy
service, according to Birthright's web site. When the organization celebrated
its 25th anniversary in 1993, it counted 450 chapters in the United States,
70 in Canada, and more in countries around the world.
In Cincinnati, women can seek help from any one of the 15 independent crisis
pregnancy centers that work together in a coalition to ensure that women
from all around the area get the best help possible. Birthright of Cincinnati,
which opened in 1971, established one of the earliest hotline numbers.
Listed in the phone book under Abortion: Accurate Information, it refers
women who call in need of help to the center closest to them. The services
offered by Birthright of Cincinnati and the other area CPCs have expanded
since the early days, adding childbirth classes, chastity education, and
post-abortion healing services.
Coalitions of CPCs, whether centered in one area or spread across the nation
or the world, provide women with even more options for help. The centers
within the coalition can share ideas, pool their resources to provide the
best care possible, and attend training sessions or conferences to allow
each center to help as many women as possible.
Heartbeat International, established in 1971 as Alternatives to Abortion,
has over 350 affiliates in 46 states and 12 foreign countries. Its affiliates
receive
manuals, training seminars, and other assistance in order to provide a variety
of services to pregnant women, both in the short term until the baby's birth
and then in the long term with support groups, day care, parenting classes
and education, and medical care.
The organization also publishes a directory of pregnancy services, according
to Heartbeat's president, Peggy Hartshorn. The first directory listed 110
active and prospective centers in 43 states and Washington, D.C.
In the 1996 edition of Heartbeat's Worldwide Directory of Life-Affirming
Pregnancy Services, that number has exploded to 3,000 in the United
States alone.
Using Technology
Reflecting the quantum leap in information technology,
many centers are reaching women in need through the Internet. The virtually
cost-free Internet has been a tremendous boon to CPCs, who are notoriously
short on resources. With only a few clicks of the mouse, information on
a center's location, days and times of operation, available services, and
more are available.
Several Sources Foundation runs a web site at www.lifecall.org that is
aimed at providing information about abortion, fetal development, and the
help that is available to women in crisis pregnancies. "Our long-term
aim is to reach as many teenagers as possible and to teach those people
online how to save babies" by
communicating with teenagers in chat rooms and in real life, said Kathy
DiFiore.
The site will soon allow women to simply type in their state name and receive
a complete list of CPC's, maternity shelters, and other pregnancy help centers
in their area. The search engine available on the site at the present time
lists only the contact information for maternity shelters, but staff members
at Several Sources are working to expand the database to include information
on every type of pregnancy help center in the country. The complete list
will come from Heartbeat International's comprehensive directory of CPCs.
"We hope to have a complete list up and running very soon," said
DiFiore.
Several Sources also runs a hotline (1-800-NO-ABORT) that sends a free
kit to pregnant women seeking help. The kit includes videos, such as The
Silent Scream; pro-life information; testimonial letters from women
who chose life for their babies; and pictures of babies who were saved from
abortion with the help of Several Sources.
Pregnant women in crisis have many options to help them through their difficult
times and give their babies the chance to live. It is up to pro-lifers everywhere
to make sure these women know that abortion is never their only option that
there are already services in place in every part of the country to give
them whatever help they need.
"It is the right of every pregnant woman to give birth, and the right
of every child to be born," reads Birthright's motto. The dedicated
crisis pregnancy center volunteers are working to make this right a reality.