. . . Help Is Closer Than You Think
Crisis pregnancy centers believe that a woman deserves real choices when she faces an unexpected pregnancy. Even if a mother is young, poor, in school, in a bad relationship, or otherwise unready to raise a child, she should not be told that abortion is her only sensible and realistic option. Volunteers and professionals at over 3,000 pregnancy care centers understand the challenges that unexpected pregnancy may present. That is why all over the country, they quietly offer to mothers the support and resources that will help them overcome the challenges they face in pregnancy, adoption, or parenthood.
Women who visit pregnancy centers come from diverse backgrounds, and each mother has her own unique story. Pregnancy centers thus provide as much or as little assistance as an individual woman needs. Some women may only seek information, a medical referral, or a confidential conversation. Others may desire a long-term supportive relationship with the counselor, and may often return to the center for clothes, furniture, food, diapers, or other assistance. Pregnancy centers tailor their services to each particular woman's needs, empowering her to make the best decision she can for herself and her baby.
In a typical visit to a pregnancy center, a woman who thinks she is pregnant will sit down with a counselor who will try to get to know her - - "who she is, where she is," as one Massachusetts counselor phrased it. A counselor in Oregon described one of her center's goals for its clients as trying "to reduce their anxiety from the minute they walk in." The counselor will invite the woman to share some information about herself, her medical history, and her initial thoughts regarding pregnancy and why the woman may or may not perceive it as a problem. Recognizing the significant influence that parents, partners, or peers have on women's decisions about childbearing and abortion, counselors often encourage the woman to discuss important relationships in her life. The woman will then take a free pregnancy test. While awaiting the results, counselors at some centers may play a video with information about pregnancy, parenting, adoption, and abortion if the woman is interested. She could also choose to talk more with the counselor, or to be left alone with companions or her own thoughts.
If the woman is pregnant, the counselor will help estimate her due date and talk with her in more detail about her options. The counselor will also share pamphlets and information about the baby's current stage of development and the mother's health.
The mother and the counselor will then discuss what resources the mother has and what additional help she might need from family, friends, or the community. Staff at the pregnancy center will connect her to this support as best they can. Often a mother's first priority is to obtain medical care for herself and her baby. Many pregnancy centers now offer prenatal care and ultrasound at their offices, or else can offer a mother free or low-cost health care through doctors and nurses who donate their services. If the mother desires it, many counselors will meet with the baby's father, the mother's parents, and others important in her life. Should a mother choose to place her baby for adoption, pregnancy center staff are prepared to guide the mother through the necessary steps and to "mediate the emotional side of the process." Otherwise, staff can, as an Iowa counselor described it, "help her formulate a plan for parenting her child." Their work is "not just about keeping people from having abortions," one Florida employee said, but about "the value of life" - - their focus, accordingly, "is to meet the needs of the mom."
What can a woman gain from visiting a pregnancy care center? One center director answered, "current, accurate, nonbiased information about her own health and pregnancy . . . in an atmosphere that is not pressured, not coercive, not judgmental, and to get the support not to do something she didn't want to do anyway, which was abort."
A mother will find "long-term friendship, support, and tangible assistance," and a place "where she can slow down and look at circumstances." Perhaps she is seeking "somebody who's not like a mother to talk through different options" and people "who will help meet her needs, help her make a decision she can live with for years to come."
Unlike abortion facilities, pregnancy centers have no vested financial interest in a mother's decisions because they do not charge for their services. Pregnancy centers rely on donations and on volunteers, yet they are increasingly staffed by professionals who have dedicated their lives to helping mothers and their babies. Many networks of mother-helping centers advertise on the Internet, in public places, and in the yellow pages under abortion alternatives, and many run 24-hour hotlines.
Pregnancy centers offer women real choices. One staff member in Washington, D.C., encourages women, "Come in and talk. . . . [D]elay having an abortion because it is such a serious decision. . . . It's no good making a choice unless you have all the options at hand and you are making a real choice."
"I think many of us can imagine being in that place," one counselor said. Many pregnancy center counselors have themselves gone through abortions and the subsequent healing process and, according to a pregnancy center staffer in Alabama, "are doing this because they don't want to see others get hurt too."
Pregnancy centers recognize how abortion harms mother and baby, and so do not refer for abortions. However, if a woman is determined to go through with an abortion, they will not hold her back. Pregnancy centers also welcome back with open arms any woman who has had an abortion, to help her cope with the after-effects of the abortion. Women who regret their abortions visit pregnancy centers all over the country. Many of these centers sponsor post-abortion support groups.