Being present on the front lines to offer support to women and families facing unexpected pregnancy is key in rescuing lives, born and unborn. The consultants at the life-affirming contact center Option Line bring their hearts and life experiences to ministering to contacts, impacting lives 24/7/365 across the world.
Option Line is a fully staffed bilingual contact center that receives inquiries by call, text, chat, its center locator, and website. The contact center is managed by Heartbeat International and has connected more than nine million to pregnancy help since opening in 2003, responding to more than 5,000 inquiries for help each day.
Along with providing consultation on abortion, adoption, and parenting, scheduling appointments in real time and maintaining an above industry standard answered call rate, Option Line consultants provide a profound human presence to those they serve, a lifeline at a critical time.
Each year Option Line consultants can attend a retreat to rest and recharge, and share what brought them to serve along with accounts of the impact they make.
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“We're also there for all the other needs”
Shayla* has been at Option Line since 2020, joining with a career change from teaching music. She wanted to contribute to the mission of serving the people who come to Option Line for help.
“I feel like we're on the front lines to reach those callers, even if it's just for needs for like diapers or resources,” she said, “but we're also there for all the other needs that are involved in their pregnancy.”
Contacts sometimes don't even know what they need, she said, so Option Line consultants are there to help assess and connect them to the right resources.
The day prior to sharing her reflection Shayla took a call from a 15-year-old girl who was 20 weeks pregnant. The young woman had decided to have her baby but then learned her boyfriend had cheated with her best friend, disrupting her thinking.
“She was just broken and just crying,” Shayla said, “and she didn't know what to do, and she wanted an abortion, and she wanted it fast.”
Shayla spoke with the girl for some time and was able to convince her to hold off on deciding in her emotional state.
“She was just hurt and she needed to talk with someone and get an ultrasound done,” said Shayla.
Shayla was able to help her navigate her emotions and pursue pregnancy help to examine her options.
“That was a win for her,” said Shayla.
Having always been supportive of pregnancy centers, Shayla said it is a whole different level of being involved working at Option Line. It motivates her to encourage others to go to the next level in supporting pregnancy help as well.
Tweet This: It is a whole different level of being involved in pregnancy help working at Option Line.
Option Line’s work is fulfilling, essential
Sunshine* has served at Option Line for around a year and said that while it makes a “huge difference” to be there for moms facing unplanned pregnancy, it also makes a difference in the lives of the babies’ fathers, the grandparents, and their entire families.
Sunshine had worked at her local pregnancy center, but life changes took her away from that, and she had a desire to continue in life-affirming work.
“The work that I do is extremely fulfilling, alongside of essential,” she said. “It's very needed.”
She once took a call from a woman who was pregnant who needed help finding a maternity home. The woman had a calm about her that was not typical for many contacts, Sunshine said, which she took note of as she provided information and resources for her local pregnancy center and maternity homes.
“However, the Lord placed it on my heart to pray for her and meet her in her spiritual need,” Sunshine said. “And in the end, she was crying, but I knew that the Lord let her know that He was there with her outside of just providing those physical resources that she needed in the moment.”
She remarked on the importance of serving women facing unplanned pregnancy, who might feel as though they are alone.
“Working at Option Line has meant the saving and redeeming of lives that people think are not important,” Sunshine said.
Sunshine fought back tears when sharing that she had considered abortion prior to her pregnancy with her son, owing to her relationship situation.
“However, from the moment that I knew that I was pregnant with him, there was no doubt that I was going to have him,” she said.
Later, after contacting her local pregnancy center for assistance Sunshine then went to work for the center.
“Being on the back end of that, I always remind our callers of what we offer,” she said, “even if what we offer isn't exactly what they're asking for, because it really does make a difference. And I wish that I knew more about the pregnancy center and the services that they offered at the time.”
“There is hope, and a new future that she can be hopeful for”
Ruth* has been with Option Line for more than 16 years and also stresses the importance of ministering to the entire family surrounding an unexpected pregnancy whenever possible.
“I have recently been thinking about the mamas that call” she said. “Not the ones that are pregnant, but the ones that are calling for their daughters or for their sons.”
A lot of times they may be calling intending to get that first ultrasound scheduled or to get the pregnancy confirmation, Ruth said.
“But I always stop and say, “How are you doing? This must be really hard for you,”” she said.
Ruth recalled speaking with a woman calling for her daughter who was 16, pregnant, and going into her sophomore year of high school.
“She was not planning for her daughter's school year to look like this,” Ruth said. “And so just being able to comfort her and let her know that we're here for her daughter - but we're also here to acknowledge the pain and maybe dreams that are broken for her right now - and that there is hope, and there's a new future that she can be hopeful for.”
“It's really an honor being able to be the only person that somebody confides in sometimes, or just hearing someone's story, their secret that they've carried, maybe for a month or maybe for 25 years,” she said. “It's a very sacred space, and I think we all cherish that with the callers that call in.”
A voice of encouragement to women
Sunny* has served with Option Line for four years, and echoes the thought of the magnitude of being the only one or the first person that someone confides in.
“I had an unplanned pregnancy at 19, and it turned my whole world upside down in the best way,” Sunny said. “And I think when I was pregnant, in a lot of ways, it felt like my life was ending - which is what I see a lot of girls who call the hotline feel that way too.”
“But when I look back on it now, the day that my son was born was really the first day that my life began,” she said. “And my relationship with God was just really transformed by that experience.”
“And I immediately knew I wanted to be a voice of encouragement to women in similar situations,” said Sunny. “And just for them to know that there's hope and that their baby's life is a gift.”
Sunny said it is “humbling” and “a privilege” to be the one to answer the phone.
“A lot of girls call us after they've just taken a pregnancy test and we're often the first people they tell that they're pregnant even before their boyfriend or their partner or their friends or family,” she said. “Sometimes they call us while they're waiting for the test results to load.
“And so, it's just such a special thing to hold space for their feelings in that moment and to also offer the practical support that we can,” Sunny said. “I can't tell you how, just the relief in their voices when they know that I can schedule them with a local pregnancy center, and they just immediately know that that support and those resources are available to them.”
Option Line gets a lot of political calls; people opposed to life-affirming work who call to be confrontational. Sunny had a recent call where the woman had already called several times, and when Sunny got her, she started in, was very angry and cussing her out out.
“And I just felt God telling me, just stay on the phone with her, just talk to her,” said Sunny.
“And so, I did. I just listened,” Sunny said. “I started asking her questions and when she realized I wasn't going to argue with her and that I was genuinely wanting to understand where she was coming from, she started opening up.”
It turned out the woman had an abortion 20 years prior, and Sunny recalled how they both became emotional as they had a “really real and tender conversation” about the impact of abortion.
“At the end she was so grateful that we cared enough to talk to her to acknowledge her son's life,” said Sunny. “And I was able to connect her with the local pregnancy center for after-abortion support and continued healing.”
“So, it's really just a profound reminder that every call we get is a divine appointment,” she said, “and to just be there with an open heart and an open mind because even the seemingly annoying calls can be really powerful connections for life.”
Helping women in some of their most desperate moments
Kristina* has worked with Option Line for five years.
Though she was raised in a Christian family and knew the value of life, prior to coming to Option Line she never really realized what an abortion really was or how many women experience it.
“We are helping women in some of their most desperate moments,” Kristina said.
She has also encountered callers experiencing anger and hurt from abortion and shared about a particular exchange with a woman.
“We probably talked for like an hour and I was able to listen to her,” Kristina said. “There was some anger in her voice, I could tell, and I could also tell that she was struggling a bit in her faith and she really needed someone to listen to her. So, I spent quite a while just listening to her story, and I was able to provide resources as well as get her connected with the local pregnancy center and the post-abortion hotline.”
And then toward the end of the call, the woman started asking Kristina some questions, wondering if Kristina had a similar story, if she could relate to her.
In that moment Kristina said she thought it would be nice if she had a story like that to share, but she did not. So, she told the woman honestly that maybe either the women at the pregnancy center or on the abortion recovery hotline have gone through something similar.
“But it turned out she wasn't looking for someone that had a similar situation,” Kristina said. “She was just really curious why I was listening to her, even though I hadn't been through something like that. So, it was really an opening to share the gospel to her.”
“So, in that moment, I just told her how much God loved her and cared about her,” said Kristina.
“To me, what comes to mind is planting seeds,” she said. “We are just there for such a short part of the woman's story, but it's just like we get to be here, present in this one little moment, and who knows, God may lead her to another person next to help her in her journey whether it's the local pregnancy center or it's just someone else she comes into contact with.”
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Option Line and Pregnancy Help News. Listen to the FrontLine15 series on the Pregnancy Help Podcast to hear stories from the front lines of Option Line. *Option Line consultant names are pseudonyms.
