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Preliminary Results from the NRL Educational Trust Fund's National CPC Survey

The Modern Crisis Pregnancy Center

By Randall K. O'Bannon. Ph.D., NRL-ETF Director of Education and Research

Small or large, staffed by volunteers or leavened with paid staff, the work of crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) is an invaluable component of the pro-life movement. What a range of challenges these dedicated women and men face!

Some women who come in don't really want an abortion and are simply looking for help and advice how to make it as a single mom. Others have pretty much made up their minds to abort and are coming in to give somebody one last chance to talk them out of it. Many simply are unsure what they think.

All these women are helped. It is noteworthy that many who had persuaded themselves they "must" abort, change their minds when given the facts in a loving, supportive environment.

One recent CPC survey reported that where an outcome was known, 90% of the women entering its clinics chose life, including 40% of those who had already settled on abortion as a "solution." CPCs are an integral wing of the Movement.

Beginnings

When the crisis pregnancy center movement began in the late 1960s,1 the typical center consisted of perhaps a couple of volunteers, a closetful of diapers and baby clothes, and an offer of a free pregnancy test. Such small-scale centers still continue to exist and to operate effectively. But many in the ranks of today's CPCs (or as many of them prefer to be called, "pregnancy help" or "pregnancy care" centers) are expanding and broadening their offerings in order to reach an increasingly demanding and discriminating clientele.

Documentation of these changes comes from a variety of sources. Local CPC directors have told National Right to Life of the challenges they face in their own communities and the steps they're taking to respond.

Another source of information is contacts from national CPC affiliate organizations and hotlines, who have shared their organizational visions and some of the ways they've measured their progress.

In addition, the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund conducted a national CPC survey of its own in late 1998 and early 1999, finding a wide array of services and institutional arrangements. A preliminary assessment of the data from the first 100 surveys returned provides additional depth to what many of these local CPCs and national groups are telling us about the modern CPC.

Thirty-four states are represented in the first 100 surveys, representing CPCs of various sizes, budgets, and situations. Many of the CPCs still have the traditional arrangements--small centers with modest budgets in small communities staffed by a few dedicated volunteers.

At the same time an increasing number are large-scale operations, with at least some paid professional staff, medical and social services, and budgets topping $100,000.

Volunteers still form the backbone of the CPC. Ninety-six of the 100 centers reported having volunteer help, with one center reporting over 400 volunteers!

Our surveys indicate that CPCs also rely upon paid staff to oversee programs and activities. Forty-eight of those centers had at least one paid full-time employee, while 62 reported paid part-time employees. Overwhelmingly, the CPCs reported that training is provided for their center staff - - 93, in fact, did so.

The presence of staff with medical or social work training is increasingly common, with an average of two medically trained workers and at least one staffer trained in social work on a typical CPC staff. This move to bring in medical services and professional personnel is significant for a number of reasons.

There are and always will be clients who desperately need the material resources (diapers, baby clothes, etc.) and social support that a center brings. However, with the advent of home pregnancy tests, the draw of a free pregnancy test is diminished, especially for the more financially secure, career-oriented woman, who may be drawn to the CPC by a free ultrasound and medical advice.

Beth Diemert, director of affiliate services for Heartbeat International, told NRL News of Heartbeat's latest survey of its 600 affiliates. Some 20% of those returning surveys said they offered ultrasound (as of 1998), with another 43% of the affiliates in the process of adding ultrasound and converting themselves to medical clinics.

Diemert said the impact of ultrasound is astounding. After seeing their child on the ultrasound screen, as many as 60-90% of clients will change their minds and decide not to abort.

Of course, the addition of ultrasound and medically trained personnel can be expensive, even when the medical people volunteer their services. A good used ultrasound machine runs about $20,000 and donation of such equipment is rare.

New expenses such as these are reflected in the budgets of the modern CPC, with increasing numbers reporting yearly outlays in six figures. Thirty out of those first 100 centers which responded to the Trust Fund's survey reported an annual budget in excess of $100,000, with 13 having budgets in excess of $200,000. Only 17 centers out of that hundred reported a budget of $25,000 or less.

Several centers noted in written comments that they had plans to purchase ultrasound machine and transform themselves into medical centers in the coming year. Despite the fact that they do not charge for their services and lack funds, such changes are a route that many CPCs feel they must take if they are going to compete with the abortion clinics in the years ahead.

While the addition of medical services is attractive to many clients, the traditional services of the CPC are still very much need and wanted, perhaps more than ever. According to Denise Cocciolone, president of the National Life Center, which runs a national hotline (1-800-848-LOVE) along with 25 "1st Way Life Centers" of its own, the challenges faced by women today calling her national hotline are more difficult than ever before.

Whereas in the past a teen might call, pregnant and afraid to tell her parents, today's 16-year-old may well be living on the street with no contact with her parents. Some seventeen-year-olds who already are the mothers of other children are contacting the National Life Center for help.

Centers affiliated with the National Life Center offer pregnancy tests, ultrasound, educational guidance, a shelter home, community resource information, medical care, legal advice, adoption guidance, and referrals for professional counseling, as well as baby and maternity clothes. Different services typically meet the needs of different women.

Cocciolone told the story of one girl who called after receiving the National Life Center's hotline number from a sidewalk counselor in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. She said simply she needed all the services they offered--a level of desperation Cocciolone said counselors had not seen in some time.

Tabulating responds from the first 100 centers who responded to the Trust Fund's survey, we found free pregnancy tests, baby clothes, and maternity clothes were offered by nearly every center (96, 95, and 94 centers, respectively). A number of other more unique services were frequently offered. Seventy-eight of the centers, for example, were prepared to help mediate with parents or with a woman's boyfriend (72). Nearly two-thirds of the centers (62) offered assistance in placing babies for adoption. Other innovative services now offered by many centers include parenting classes (48), educational assistance (34), birthing classes (32), financial counseling (30), and legal assistance (20). While medical referrals were common (92), a few centers even went so far as to cover costs of prenatal (8), delivery (6), and postnatal care (4), in some cases.

Different centers, naturally, utilize different approaches to helping women. While the National Life Center has its own affiliates spread across the country, its 24-hour, 7-days-a-week national hotline refers women to CPC's of all affiliations, simply directing a woman to the nearest center capable of meeting her needs. While some centers offer adoption services of their own, others work with or refer clients to abortion alternative groups like Bethany Christian Services, which, in addition to offering traditional CPC services, has long specialized in the adoption field.2

Tracking Outcomes

Tracking outcomes is not easy. A number of women will call but not come into the center, or visit once and then disappear. Yet even if run on a shoestring, most CPCs attempt diligently to keep records and follow up to determine if things turned out well for mother and baby.

For instance, 40 of the centers in the Trust Fund's first 100 returned surveys indicated they kept records of crisis calls, and 97 centers indicated they kept records of client visits. While 9 out of 10 kept records consisting of the basics of name, address, phone, age, and marital status, a high number (8 out of 10) also kept track of a woman's previous pregnancies, if any, and outcomes, her initial thoughts regarding abortion, how many weeks pregnant she was, dates of contact, and the services and materials delivered to her.

Outcome and follow-up were tracked on two-thirds or more of the records, as well as a woman's race, religion, and personal circumstances. A few also kept on file photos of children born to clients who kept their babies and letters of gratitude to the CPC staff.

Among the CPCs in the Trust Fund's first 100 surveys reporting statistics, there were an average of 19 crisis calls a week. On average, 56% of these women actually came into the CPC. Those centers report that approximately 43% of their clients turned out to be pregnant. Of these women a remarkable 82% on average carried their babies to term.

Though these were often estimates rather than hard statistical data from center records, and represented only a portion of the total surveys the Trust Fund received, they do mesh with statistics available from other sources. CareNet, with over 500 affiliates in the U.S. and Canada, reported that out of the 300,000 women its centers served in 1998, in cases where the decision was known, 90% chose life for their unborn children. Even more remarkable, 40% of those women who came in intending to abort their babies eventually chose life.

Naturally, women predisposed to abort are harder to reach and harder to convince, thus lowering a center's success rate. But who needs a CPC more than a woman who is leaning toward choosing death for her unborn child?

But when one sees the capacity of modern technology to change women's minds, no wonder CPCs are attempting to raise money to buy ultrasound machines and run additional advertising. That's also why they're hiring professional staff and giving extensive training to their volunteer counselors.

That's why they're expanding services and networking together to make sure that the needs of every pregnant woman are covered. And that's why there are thousands upon thousands of babies alive today who otherwise would have been destroyed at the local abortion clinic.

To those involved at your local CPC, thanks for all you do.

Notes

1. Birthright, founded by Louise Summerhill in 1968, was probably the first. According to Terry Weaver, Birthright's national director, Birthright currently has about 400 chapters in the U.S. in 1993, and is receiving 50,000 calls a year on its national hotline. The Birthright website (www.birthright.org) indicates that, as of 1993, 28,000 women a year made their first visit to a Birthright center.

2. In addition to its own national hotline (1-800-BETHANY), Bethany Christian Services has 65 centers of its own scattered across the United States, offering medical care, legal aid, support, guidance, and even a place for a pregnant woman to live during her pregnancy.