A woman’s firsthand experience with unexpected pregnancy has resulted in support for women becoming available in what could be termed a pregnancy help desert in rural Kentucky.
Holly Neighbors is the executive director and founder of Olive Branch Pregnancy Center in Morgantown, Butler County, Ky.
The center held a soft launch May 12 and officially opened its doors May 26 offering free pregnancy tests, material resource assistance (diapers, wipes, formula, clothing, etc.), post-birth support for moms and dads, post-abortion Bible study, emotional and spiritual support for parents, Abortion Pill Reversal referral, and community resource referrals.
Neighbors had been silently wondering for years why such a center had never existed in her area.
“I was a teenager that faced an unplanned pregnancy myself,” she said.
“Though I had support at home and at church, I still felt ashamed, terrible, scared, all the things,” Neighbors recalled of her personal experience.
“I want to be that hope and support that others in a similar situation may not have and think abortion is the only alternative - it is not,” she said. “You have choices.”
Kentucky banned abortion with the exception of preserving the life of the mother in 2022 following the Dobbs decision. There have been attempts by abortion advocates to overturn that law, but they have failed.
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However, the need for pregnancy centers in rural areas like Butler County is significant, in particular because while pregnancy help and other services may be at a minimum chemical abortion pills can be obtained by anyone via mail given the drugs’ current largely unregulated status.
“We have never had anything like this in our county that was a sole support system in its own for families facing what could be perceived as challenging or difficult times - especially if they have no support system,” Neighbors said.
Neighbors said she recalled a church group temporarily opening something to offer assistance in the area. However, an official pregnancy center has never existed in the community.
Neighbors, who had been working for a sign shop, contemplated the potential to bring pregnancy help to the area over an 18-month period.
“After much prayer and recognizing the calling the Lord was laying on my heart, I went through the proper procedures and steps to get Olive Branch Pregnancy Center up and running,” she told Pregnancy Help News.
Neighbors is forthright about the process being more challenging than she ever imagined, from compiling a board of directors, the lawyer fees and paperwork, securing a location with affordable rent, quitting her full-time job to commit fully to the mission, procuring insurance, and so on.
“All these things were scary,” Neighbors said, “but I knew who was leading and directing my every move.”
The new pregnancy help executive director said she reached out to the nearest pregnancy center just under an hour away in Greenville, Ky., for information and advice.
The executive director there, Diane Anderson of Pathway of Hope Pregnancy Center, served as a mentor to Neighbors.
“Not only did she make herself available to answer any questions I may have had, Pathway of Hope donated over 30 boxes of diapers to us to jump start the collection in our Stork Room, as I call it,” said Neighbors.
Neighbors visited Pathway of Hope and volunteered to see how things operated.
Within a month of opening Olive Branch Pregnancy Center saw 18 families and was able to offer support.
Though the center does not yet offer medical services, Neighbors said it is definitely a prayer for the future. Olive Branch is still embracing its beginning.
Neighbors said the emphasis on “new beginnings” is the reason for the center’s name.
“The name is very special to me,” she said.
She cited the great flood in the Bible when Noah was on the ark and sent out a dove to see when it was safe to come off the ark. When the time was right, the dove brought back an olive leaf symbolizing new life, new beginnings, she said.
“Babies are precious,” said Neighbors. “They are new life and can bring new beginnings.”
The center’s mission statement is to “Provide a Christ-centered facility committed to providing a safe, confidential space for anyone needing guidance or resource assistance during pregnancy and thereafter.”
“We want all to feel welcomed and seen when they enter through our doors,” Neighbors said. “We will not judge your circumstances or make you feel less than. Jesus loves us all and we are called to show that love to others as He has shown it to us.”
Editor’s note: Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) and Pregnancy Help News. Heartbeat is currently the subject of two lawsuits concerning sharing information about Abortion Pill Reversal.
