{"id":176540,"date":"2017-12-19T05:18:02","date_gmt":"2017-12-19T10:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=176540"},"modified":"2017-12-19T01:18:45","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T06:18:45","slug":"abortion-call-changed-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/abortion-call-changed-life\/","title":{"rendered":"She was hours away from an abortion, when one call changed her life"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

(Pregnancy Help News) — The phone rang at a call center in Columbus, Ohio, this Thanksgiving weekend. On the other end of the line, a woman and her young daughter were in tears, barely audible as the consultant at Option Line* (www.OptionLine.org; 1-800-712-HELP) answered the phone.<\/p>\n

Choking back tears, the mother, \u201cKaren,\u201d told the Option Line consultant the situation. Her daughter, \u201cBeth,\u201d was pregnant, and the baby\u2019s father had intimidated Beth into making a decision she really had not intention of making.<\/p>\n

At her lowest point, Beth felt she had no choice other than abortion, so she set an appointment at a nearby abortion business. The night before the appointment, Beth had second thoughts and finally told her mother what was going on.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Karen reached out to Option Line<\/a> \u2014 a 24-7 pregnancy helpline that answers over 1,000 cries for help\u00a0every day of the year. Time was of the essence. There was no time to wait around for an answering machine.<\/p>\n

On the phone with Option Line, Karen struggled to gain her composure. With Beth by her side, Karen said she\u2019d support her daughter no matter what decision she made, but with time winding down to her appointment, she couldn\u2019t stand the thought of losing her first grandchild to abortion.<\/p>\n

In the course of the conversation, the Option Line consultant asked to speak with Beth directly, and Karen handed the phone over to her daughter \u2014 praying silently her daughter would find the help she so desperately needed.<\/p>\n

Terrified over the threats and bullying she\u2019d received from the baby\u2019s father, Beth felt her future was in the balance. If she canceled the appointment and chose life for her child, she\u2019d be giving up a relationship with her boyfriend and \u2014 far worse \u2014 she felt she’d be forced to sacrifice her career goals all at once.<\/p>\n

Those fears \u2014 which the abortion industry so commonly exploits \u2014 had compounded to effectively rob Beth\u2019s ability to make a decision on her own.<\/p>\n

All of that changed in just one phone call to Option Line.<\/p>\n

By the time she and her mother hung up the phone, Beth had canceled the abortion and scheduled a new appointment: this time at a local pro-life pregnancy center, where she could get a free pregnancy test, free ultrasound, free material aid and the chance to connect woman-to-woman with staff and volunteers ready to help her through every point of pregnancy and well on into motherhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were so thrilled Beth called that night,\u201d Nafisa Shamsher, the director of Option Line, said. \u201cNo woman should be so afraid or coerced that she feels she has no choice other than abortion. What a blessing it was to come alongside Beth in her journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a typical day at Option Line, over 1,000 women just like Beth reach out and find hope in the midst of an unexpected or difficult pregnancy. Run by pregnancy help affiliation network Heartbeat International, Option Line is closing in on answering the 3 millionth individual in its 14-year history in early 2018.<\/p>\n

Since launching in 2003, Option Line\u2019s contact volume has been on a steady climb \u2014 including calls, texts, live chats and emails. Expected to reach close to 350,000 individuals by the end of this year, Option Line\u2019s 2017 total represents a 32 percent increase from its 2016 contact volume.<\/p>\n

\"Option<\/a><\/p>\n

Beyond the numbers, it\u2019s lives like Beth\u2019s \u2014 as well as Karen and her soon-to-be-born grandchild \u2014 that keep Shamsher and her team motivated to keep answering the call.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone wants to make a difference in this world, and it\u2019s an absolute gift from God to play just a small role in making a difference every day,\u201d Shamsher \u2014 who has answered well over 230,000 individual contacts since joining the team in 2006\u2014said. \u201cThere are almost three million families who\u2019ve found hope through us, and every one of those families is an inspiration to keep serving every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: This article was first published at Pregnancy Help News<\/a> on December 6, 2017<\/a>, and is reprinted here with permission. You can subscribe to Pregnancy Help News here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

*To contact Option Line, you can call\u00a01-800-712-4357, text\u00a0\u201cHELPLINE\u201d to 313131, start a live chat here<\/a>, or enter your zip code<\/a> to find a pregnancy center nearest you or your loved one.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Pregnancy Help News) — The phone rang at a call center in Columbus, Ohio, this Thanksgiving weekend. On the other end of the line, a woman and her young daughter were in tears, barely audible as the consultant at Option Line* (www.OptionLine.org; 1-800-712-HELP) answered the phone. Choking back tears, the mother, \u201cKaren,\u201d told the Option […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":301,"featured_media":95125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[9455],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nShe was hours away from an abortion, when one call changed her life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At her lowest point, Beth felt she had no choice other than abortion. 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