by Nafisa Kennedy, LAS, Director of Option Line

Artificial intelligence is changing the way people communicate and access services. People increasingly use AI to interact with or compare service options, and even businesses like Yelp and OpenTable encourage the use AI for making restaurant reservations. Option Line is beginning to see this firsthand.

Recently, Option Line has received a handful of calls from AI voice assistants acting on behalf of potential clients. So far, these calls have involved requests for baby items, but as the technology becomes more widely used, we anticipate receiving more. We wanted to share what we have learned so far to prepare you in case an AI call comes your way.

Sometimes, these assistants identify themselves as AI at the start of a call. Other times, they can be identified by characteristics of artificially generated speech, such as unusual speech patterns or noticeable pauses between responses.

While this is still relatively new territory, these experiences have prompted us to establish some boundaries for how Option Line will respond.

Our approach begins with the same kindness and professionalism we extend to every caller. We recognize that behind an AI assistant may be a real person seeking help, and we don't want technology to become an unnecessary barrier to accessing support.

With that in mind, Option Line consultants may provide basic information to AI assistants, including the availability of nearby pregnancy help organizations, their contact information, and business hours. However, we will not transfer AI calls directly to pregnancy centers.

Additionally, Option Line will not discuss personal circumstances, exchange personal information, or schedule appointments through AI voice assistants. When these needs arise, we will encourage the individual seeking assistance to contact Option Line or the pregnancy center directly.

As technology continues to evolve, we will continue evaluating how best to respond. We maintain that meaningful conversations around intensely personal topics ought to remain rooted in direct person-to-person connection.

As AI voice assistants become more common, pregnancy centers may want to consider how their own teams will respond to these calls. Establishing clear guidelines can help staff & volunteers navigate these interactions with confidence and consistency.

Consider discussing:

• How phone staff can recognize potential AI callers
• What information may be shared
• When direct communication with the individual seeking assistance should be required. 
• Whether any internal policies should be revised to include mention of practices related to AI voice assistants
• Standard responses your team might use when interacting with AI callers

Above all, encourage staff to approach these calls with kindness and professionalism, recognizing that a real person seeking help may be behind the technology.

Technology may help someone find the door to pregnancy help, and we welcome that, but it's the people on the other side of that door who make the difference.

by Abbey Bongiorno, Associate General Counsel

Navigating pregnancy loss after celebrating Christmas was not how I had envisioned sharing with my family about our little one.

We found out I was pregnant in mid-November, right after the season’s first snow. By the time the holidays arrived, we had already had our first ultrasound at nine weeks. The technician showed us this tiny baby with a flickering heartbeat and printed pictures for us to take home. Our little one looked like a kidney bean, and I was completely in love with the small life inside me.

We were so excited to give both families the best Christmas gift: news of the first grandchild.

I photocopied our “little sprout,” bought “grandma” and “grandpa” apparel, and wrapped everything with anticipation. I am terrible at keeping a secret when I have a gift I know someone will love, so we told my husband’s parents before leaving town to visit mine. They were thrilled.

When we arrived at my parents’ home, I insisted they open two “special” gifts before Christmas. After a little encouragement, they, too, discovered our news and celebrated with us.

It was a quietly joyful five days. We attended Christmas Mass with our tiny secret tucked away, exchanging knowing glances when the baby Jesus was placed in the manger. The day after Christmas, I happily prepared lunch with my mom and grandmother for our extended family. I had just begun pouring dessert batter into tins when that quiet joy turned into fear.

The rest is a blur.

I remember arriving at the emergency room with my mother and husband. We waited for hours. Bloodwork showed that my hCG levels had dropped. An ultrasound was ordered.

This technician would not let me see the screen and told me she could not tell me anything. My husband, the technician, and I sat in silence for what felt like forever.

Then we waited again.

When the doctor entered with a nurse carrying a box of tissues, I knew.

The day after the universal Church celebrated the birth of the infant Jesus, I was told my baby had died.

Six hours after arriving, I was sent home with instructions to contact my doctor after the holidays, a folder of grief resources, and a small necklace with pink and blue baby feet.

My OBGYN later walked me through the science of miscarriage: how common it is, what my options were, what my body might do naturally, and when medical intervention might become necessary. I asked her what to expect because I wanted to prepare myself somehow.

She sent me home with another folder of grief resources.

I tried researching what I was supposed to do. Did my faith have rules for handling early pregnancy loss? Church resources directed me toward people I could contact, but I was not ready to talk. Online grief groups existed, but I was not ready to carry anyone else’s grief. Websites sold memorial items, but I was not ready to shop for the death of my child.

I simply wanted someone to tell me what I should do when my little sprout’s tiny body entered the world while their soul was already being held by Jesus.

The truth is, there is no “best way” to lose a baby. Ask five women and you may receive six answers. Pregnancy loss is deeply personal. Some information feels overwhelming. Sometimes your mind refuses to process any of it. Other times, you remember every detail and replay it endlessly.

Through all of it, God never leaves your side.

He is not punishing you or delighting in your suffering. Wisdom 1:13 reminds us, “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.”

He sits with you. He weeps with you. He reminds your heart of His love. He holds you even when you feel completely unraveled.

And He reminds you of truths you may not yet be able to see.

First, God made you a mother from the moment your child was conceived. No matter how far along you were, you are a parent. Losing your baby before medical “viability” does not erase your motherhood. Coming home from the hospital empty-handed does not mean you are not a mother.

You are not a failure.

Your body was your baby’s safe place, and you gave your child everything you could for as long as you could. You carried your baby with love, just as God carries us with love.

Second, God’s plan is greater than what we can see.

When we learn we are pregnant, we immediately begin dreaming. We imagine birthdays, milestones, personalities, and futures. Pregnancy loss shatters plans we had already begun loving.

But every moment is a gift, not a guarantee.

That truth does not erase grief. It means grief does not have to become despair. Grief and love can coexist.

I know this because as Christmas approaches again, I carry both sorrow and joy: the anniversary of the death of my first child and the due date of my rainbow baby.

Our God does not leave us in the muddy pit of despair.

Jesus told His disciples in John 16:20, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”

And somehow, even through tears, God reminds us that mourning does not get the final word.

Our tears can still turn to dancing.

For those of us serving in the pregnancy help movement, this grief may be closer than we realize. Perhaps pregnancy loss is part of your own story, a sorrow you carry even as you walk alongside women facing unexpected pregnancies, difficult diagnoses, or losses of their own. Perhaps you have sat beside a woman as the future she had begun imagining suddenly changed. Perhaps you have searched for the right words when there simply were none.

This is part of the sacred work of pregnancy help, too.

We spend so much of our lives affirming that every life matters from the very beginning. That truth does not change when a life is heartbreakingly brief. The baby who was longed for, celebrated, carried for only weeks, or known only to his or her mother and to God is still a life worthy of love, dignity, remembrance, and grief.

And sometimes our calling is not to fix what cannot be fixed. It is simply to remain. To listen without rushing grief. To acknowledge the motherhood that remains even when a mother’s arms are empty. To make space for questions that may not have satisfying answers. To remind her, when she cannot remind herself, that neither she nor her child has been forgotten by God.

For those who serve while carrying your own loss, may you extend that same compassion to yourself. You do not have to set aside your grief in order to be strong for someone else. The Lord who meets the woman sitting across from you in her sorrow also meets you in yours.

Pregnancy help is, at its heart, the work of recognizing the immeasurable value of every human life and accompanying women through moments they never expected to face. Sometimes that means celebrating a new heartbeat. Sometimes it means mourning one that has stopped. In both moments, we have the privilege of bearing witness to a simple and eternal truth: this life mattered, this mother matters, and neither is unseen by God.

by Camille Cisneros, Affiliate Grant Specialist

October is Respect Life Month – a time set aside to celebrate the incredible gift of human life and to reflect on what it means to protect and cherish that gift, especially when it is most vulnerable.

For Catholics, Respect Life Month has been part of the Church’s rhythm for decades. The tradition began as a response to the changing cultural landscape surrounding human life in America. In 1972, the U.S. Catholic bishops launched the Respect Life Program, and in 1973 they established October as Respect Life Month, following the Roe v. Wade decision earlier that year. The first Sunday of October in 1973 became Respect Life Sunday, and what began as a distinctly Catholic observance has become an invitation for all to reflect more deeply on the beauty and dignity of human life year after year.

While Respect Life Month has come to encompass every stage of human life, there is something especially important about its roots in remembering the preborn.

Even when we’ve heard a passage of Scripture countless times, the Holy Spirit can reveal something new each time we return to it, deepen our understanding, or speak to us in a new way. Perhaps this October, we can return to these familiar words with an open heart:

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”-Psalm 139:13

The child in the womb is already known and loved by God. Their dignity is not something that develops alongside their abilities or depends on whether others recognize it. It is a gift rooted in the One whose image they bear.

During Respect Life Month, the invitation for us is to consider what that truth asks of the way we see and serve others. If dignity is not earned through independence, productivity, health, or capability, then our commitment to human life must extend beyond those who can speak for themselves or easily make their needs known.

The preborn child reminds us that love begins with recognizing the worth of a person before they can offer anything in return.

And respecting the preborn doesn't mean forgetting the mother.

In fact, loving life means loving mothers, too. It means creating communities where a woman facing an unexpected pregnancy isn't left to choose between her child and her own future. It means offering friendship instead of judgment, practical help instead of empty promises, and genuine support when circumstances feel overwhelming.

Living Respect Life Month

So, what might it look like to observe Respect Life Month beyond recognizing it on the calendar or seeing a sign outside your church every October?

For those serving on the front lines of pregnancy help, this month is an opportunity to pause, renew our commitment, and ask where we can go deeper. Take time to listen to your clients and your staff. Look beyond the numbers and notice the needs that may not fit neatly into a program or statistic. Consider where your organization can strengthen the way it welcomes, serves, and walks alongside women and families—not only through a pregnancy decision, but through everything that comes afterward.

And then, do something with what you see. Make the phone call. Have the conversation. Meet the need. Strengthen the partnership. Equip your staff. Invite your church and community to step more fully into the work. A culture of life is not built by words alone, but through the daily choices to welcome, serve, protect, and accompany the people God places in our care.

This is the work of pregnancy help, and Respect Life Month gives us a reason to pause and remember why it matters. Every appointment, phone call, ultrasound, parenting class, material resource, follow-up conversation, and unseen act of faithfulness is an opportunity to make the dignity of a mother and her child tangible.

So this October, don't simply mark Respect Life Month on your calendar. Let it renew the way you see the people you serve, strengthen the way you serve them, and deepen your commitment to building a culture where every life is cherished.

by Savonne Torain, Communications and Marketing

Pastors do a lot.

They preach, teach, counsel, pray, visit hospitals, comfort grieving families, answer phone calls at hours when reasonable people are asleep—and somewhere in the middle of all that, many of them are also supporting you.

They encourage their churches to collect diapers. They send volunteers. They refer women and families. They pray for your staff. They show up at the banquet. They find room for your announcement in the bulletin. They partner with your ministry. You know who your pastors are.

October is Pastor Appreciation Month, which gives Pregnancy Help Organizations the perfect opportunity to turn the tables and appreciate the people who spend the rest of the year supporting you and the mission.

Before you panic, nobody is suggesting another major event. Your staff is busy, your budget is probably already spoken for, and nobody needs a 14-step Pastor Appreciation Initiative requiring a committee and matching T-shirts.

Keep it simple.

Here are 10 ways to show your pastors a little love this October.

1. Write the Note

Yes. An actual handwritten note. Remember those? Grab some cards, divide your church list among staff or volunteers, and thank pastors specifically for the ways they've supported your organization.

One rule: Don't ask for anything. No event flyer. No donation envelope. No “while we have your attention…” Just thank them.

2. Pray for Them

How often do we ask our church partners to pray for us? This month, flip it.

Divide your partner pastors among staff, board members, or volunteers and intentionally pray for their families, ministries, leadership, health, congregations, and rest. Then send a simple message: “Pastor, we're not asking you for anything. We just wanted you to know our team prayed for you by name today.”

Free. Meaningful. Powerful.

3. Assemble a Pastor Survival Kit

Coffee. Chocolate. Mints. A good pen. Maybe a $5 gift card. Put it in a bag with a handwritten note and—voilà—a Pastor Survival Kit. Do you happen to know that Pastor Dave has an unhealthy devotion to Reese's Cups? Even better.

 Personal beats expensive every time.

4. Brag About Them

You already have social media. Use it.

Highlight a pastor or church that has faithfully partnered with your organization. Share a photo and a few sentences about what makes them special. Maybe they've filled Baby Bottles since flip phones first came out. Maybe they send volunteers or never miss your banquet.

Tag them and say thank you. Cost: $0. And you already had to post something this week anyway. You're welcome.

5. Make a Thank-You Video

Before your communications person (which is probably you) starts twitching, I said a video, not a cinematic masterpiece. Pull out a phone and ask staff, volunteers, or board members to finish one sentence: “Pastors, thank you for…”

Put the clips together, add your logo, and you're done. If you can make it fancy, wonderful. If not, sincerity works just fine in vertical video.

6. Feed Them

There are very few ministry problems that cannot at least be temporarily improved by food.

Drop off donuts. Send lunch. Invite a few pastors for coffee. If you have the capacity, host a simple breakfast at your center. Just don't turn it into a presentation.

No fundraising pitch. No “since we have you here…” And absolutely no surprise 37-slide PowerPoint. Feed them. Ask how they're doing. Pray for them. Thank them.

7. Celebrate the Ones Who Have Been With You Forever

You know the church. They've filled bottles, attended banquets, sent volunteers, prayed, and partnered with you year after year.

Recognize them! Celebrate years of partnership with a certificate, photo, social media post, or simple public thank-you. Those years represent prayers, referrals, volunteers, donations—and families who received help because a church decided pregnancy help mattered.

8. Don't Forget the Rest of the Church Staff

Senior pastors aren't operating those churches alone. Recognize the associate pastors, youth pastors, administrative staff, communications teams—and the church secretary who has personally saved your life approximately 14 times.

Send cookies, drop off coffee, or simply address a card to the entire team: “Ministry takes a team. Thank you for serving our community alongside us.”

Showing love to the entire team speaks to the heart of the pastor too.

9. Show Them What They Helped Do

Pull a few numbers from your annual impact report. Clients served. Ultrasounds provided. Parenting classes completed. Fathers supported. Material assistance distributed. You already have them. Please do not create more work for yourself.

Put a few numbers on a simple graphic and add: YOU HELPED MAKE THIS POSSIBLE.

Because they did. Your pastors may never meet the people whose lives were impacted, but their prayers, referrals, volunteers, donations, and advocacy helped make those moments possible. Show them the fruit of their partnership.

10. Give Them Something They Can Actually Use

Create a simple Pastor Resource Kit with the information they need when someone says: “Pastor, I'm pregnant, and I don't know what to do.”

Include your contact information and resources for pregnancy decisions, fathers, parenting support, material assistance, adoption, abortion recovery, or whatever services your organization provides.

And please don't make it a 46-page manual. One useful page beats a beautiful binder gathering dust every time. The message is simple: “You don't have to serve them alone. We're here.”

Pastor Appreciation Month doesn't need to become another campaign. You don't need a new budget line. You don't need a committee. And nobody needs matching T-shirts.

by Joshua Cheresnick, Next Level Customer Support & Growth Specialist

For seven years, I had the privilege of volunteering at a Pregnancy Help Center while serving as a pastor. That experience gave me a perspective I wouldn't have had otherwise.

I saw firsthand how important the relationship between Pregnancy Help ministries and local churches can be. I also learned how difficult it can be to get pastors connected.

And believe me, I say that as a pastor. We pastors are an interesting bunch. We love people. We want to help. We believe deeply in ministry, and we will tell you that the Church should be engaged in the community.

And then you ask us to add something to our calendar.

Suddenly, we need to pray about it. A lot.

The truth is, pastors are busy. There are sermons to prepare, counseling appointments, hospital visits, funerals, weddings, Bible studies, meetings, staff concerns, family responsibilities—and the occasional emergency involving a church toilet that apparently requires theological intervention—and don’t forget many of us are bivocational.

So I can understand why a call from a Pregnancy Help Center may not always get an immediate response.

But after seven years at a center, I also understand what is waiting on the other end of that phone call.

It's a woman who may be scared. A couple who may not know what to do. A young man trying to figure out how to respond. A family already under financial or emotional pressure. These aren't simply “pregnancy cases.”

These are people.

That's where pastors and Pregnancy Help ministries can complement one another so beautifully.

Pregnancy Help Centers often meet people right in the middle of a crisis. They can provide practical resources, compassionate care, and a safe place to begin asking difficult questions.

The local church can provide something equally important: community. A pastor can listen. Pray. Encourage. Connect. Shepherd. And the church family can become the people who continue walking alongside a woman or family long after the immediate pregnancy crisis has passed.

But that relationship doesn't happen by accident. It takes Pregnancy Help leaders who are willing to keep reaching out to pastors—and pastors who are willing to open the door and listen.

To my friends serving in Pregnancy Help ministry: please don't give up on pastors.

I know it can be frustrating. You've made the phone call, sent the email, invited the pastor to lunch, and perhaps wondered if your message disappeared into the same mysterious place where missing church pens go.

Keep building those relationships. Don't simply ask a pastor to support your ministry. Help him understand how your ministry can help him care for the people God has already placed in his congregation and community. And as you look for practical ways to strengthen that relationship, start with these 10 simple ways to show appreciation to the pastors who support your mission, and explore our Pastor Appreciation page for resources and even more ways to encourage and support them.

And to my fellow pastors: please take the call. You don't have to become a pregnancy-center expert. Start by getting to know the people doing this work. Visit the center. Listen to their stories. Learn what resources are available in your community. Then, when someone sits across from you and says, “Pastor, I'm pregnant, and I don't know what to do,” you won't have to wonder where to send her. You'll know someone.

More importantly, you'll know that she doesn't have to walk through this alone.

After seven years of serving at a Pregnancy Help Center while serving as a pastor, I came to appreciate something deeply:

Pregnancy Help ministries and churches don't have to do this work separately. We can do it together.

The Pregnancy Help Center can open the door. The pastor can help keep the door open. And the church can become a place where a woman, a man, or a family discovers that an unexpected pregnancy does not have to mean an unexpected journey alone.

So this Pastor Appreciation season, let's thank our pastors—but let's also remind them of something important:

There are people in our communities who need them. And there are Pregnancy Help ministries ready to stand beside them. Sometimes all it takes is a phone call.

And as someone who has made—and received—those calls, I can tell you: That phone call is worth making.

by Joshua Cheresnick, Next Level Customer Support & Growth Specialist

There are moments in life when you realize the road ahead is not the road you thought you were on.

For our family, one of those moments came when our unmarried, young daughter—serving in the Navy—told us she was pregnant.

It wasn’t the news we had expected. We wanted grandchildren someday, but this wasn’t how we had pictured her life unfolding. We had dreams for her. We had expectations. We had a picture of what her future might look like, and an unexpected pregnancy wasn’t part of that picture.

Then it happened again.

Two unexpected pregnancies.

Some encouraged abortion. Others believed she should leave the Navy. There were plenty of opinions about what she should do. 

Just as our daughter had a choice to make with each pregnancy, so did we. Would we hold tightly to the future we had envisioned for her, or would we trust God with the future He had placed before her? 

We came to understand that our daughter’s life was not ours to control. Our responsibility was to love her, speak truth when needed, pray faithfully, and stand beside her.

That required surrender.

There was fear. There was disappointment. There were questions about her future, her career, and the challenges she would face. We had to let go of some of the plans we had made in our minds for her life.

But letting go of our expectations made room for something better: trusting God.

We chose to encourage our daughter rather than pressure her. We chose to be present rather than withdraw. We chose to believe that an unexpected pregnancy did not mean the end of her future.

Today, I am a grandfather, a “Poppy”–because of an unexpected pregnancy.

And I’ve learned that sometimes God’s plans look very different from ours—and sometimes they are far more beautiful.

There are still joys and sorrows, victories and challenges. We worry. We pray. We’ve watched our daughter navigate motherhood while serving her country. We’ve seen strength in her that perhaps she didn’t know she had.

And then we look at two precious children who are here—two lives we might never have known if circumstances had followed the expectations of others.

Grandparents Need Support, Too

I wonder how many grandparents find themselves in a similar place when their son or daughter faces an unexpected pregnancy.

They may feel afraid, disappointed, or grieve the future they imagined for their child. They may not know what to say or how to help. And sometimes, their fear can unintentionally become pressure on their son or daughter.

This is an important place for pregnancy help organizations to come alongside families.

Grandparents need someone to listen, too.

They need a safe place to acknowledge their fears and disappointments without judgment. They may need help separating their expectations from their child’s future and learning how to support rather than control.

Sometimes the most helpful thing we can tell a grandparent is this: 

Your child still has a future. This pregnancy does not erase the dreams you had for them. The road may look different, but God is still at work.

That is what we needed to hear.

I’ve learned that surrender doesn’t always feel like peace at first. Sometimes surrender means laying down the future we thought we wanted and trusting God with the one He has given us.

The story didn’t unfold the way we expected.

But it taught us to trust. It stretched our hearts. It gave us two precious grandchildren.

And it reminded us that God is not limited by our plans.

Sometimes the life we would have chosen is not the life God gives us. And sometimes, when we dare to surrender our plans, we discover that His plan was more beautiful all along.

by Andrea Trudden, Vice President, Communications and Marketing

Pregnancy help organizations should be aware of a concerning form of document fraud involving pregnancy verification letters.

Pregnancy verification letters and editable templates are being offered for sale or placed behind paid access on online document-sharing platforms. Individuals may download these documents, alter the personal information, and use them to apply for public assistance or other social benefits.

A falsified letter may include the name, logo, address, provider information, or letterhead of a legitimate pregnancy help organization, even though the organization never served the individual or issued the verification.

While pregnancy centers cannot prevent every misuse of their name or documents, they can take practical steps to identify fraudulent materials, seek their removal, and strengthen their documentation practices.

Search for Your Organization Online

Pregnancy help organizations should periodically search Scribd and other document-sharing or digital-publishing websites for materials bearing their name.

Sites to consider checking include:

• Scribd
• SlideShare
• Yumpu
• Studocu
• Etsy and other online marketplaces selling document templates

Some pregnancy verification letters may be advertised for sale, while others may be available only after
purchasing access or subscribing to the platform. The presence of a document on one of these sites does not necessarily mean the platform created or knowingly approved it. Many of these services host content uploaded by individual users.

Search for:

• Your organization’s full name and common abbreviations
• Previous names used by your organization
• “Pregnancy verification” followed by your organization’s name
• “Proof of pregnancy” followed by your organization’s name
• Your organization’s name with terms such as “letter,” “form,” “template,” “PDF,” “download,” or “for sale”
• The names of medical personnel or staff members authorized to sign verification letters
• Previous addresses or outdated contact information that appeared on older letterhead

Search results may identify documents that are difficult to locate through a platform’s internal search function.

What to Do If You Find a Fraudulent Document

If you discover a pregnancy verification letter or other document that appears to use your organization’s name, logo, letterhead, or staff information without permission, take the following steps:

1. Preserve the evidence

Before requesting removal, document what you found. Save:

• The direct URL for each document
• Screenshots of the listing, preview, uploader information, and document
• The date the document was discovered
• The listed price or subscription requirement
• Any visible title, description, upload date, or account name
• A copy of the document, if it can be obtained lawfully and without providing unnecessary payment or personal information

Do not share the fraudulent document publicly, particularly if it contains personal or medical information.

2. Confirm that the document is unauthorized

Compare the document with your organization’s records and approved templates. Determine whether it was issued by your organization, altered from an authentic letter, or created without authorization.

Limit access to client records to authorized personnel and follow all applicable privacy and confidentiality requirements during the review.

3. Contact the platform and request immediate removal

If the document appears on Scribd or SlideShare, submit a report through Scribd’s copyright infringement and abuse reporting page.

Include a direct link to every unauthorized document. Scribd states that it cannot process reports based only on search results, keywords, document titles, or general listings.

The report should clearly explain:

• That your organization owns or controls the letterhead, logo, form, or other protected material
• That the document was uploaded and distributed without authorization
• That the document is being sold, offered through paid access, or otherwise distributed
• That it may be used to impersonate your organization or misrepresent services provided
• That you are requesting the document’s immediate removal
• The direct URL of each document at issue

For documents found elsewhere, use the platform’s reporting, intellectual-property, impersonation, fraud, or abuse process. Preserve all evidence before submitting the report.

4. Notify the appropriate internal leaders

Immediately notify your executive leadership and, as appropriate:

• Legal counsel
• Your board chair
• Your insurance carrier
• Your compliance or privacy officer
• The staff member whose name or signature was used
• Your communications or technology team

Legal counsel can help determine whether the incident should also be reported to law enforcement, a government benefits agency, or another authority. Do not contact an individual suspected of using the document without first considering legal, privacy, safety, and evidentiary concerns.

Protect Client Confidentiality During an Investigation

If an investigator, government agency, law enforcement officer, or benefits administrator contacts your organization, do not provide personal details about any client or confirm that an individual is or is not a client.

Instead, ask the investigator to send your organization a copy of the document under investigation. Your organization can then review the document and confirm whether it appears to be an authentic document issued by the organization.

Designate a specific staff member to receive and respond to these requests. Consult legal counsel before releasing records or information beyond confirming the authenticity of the document.

 

Review Your Procedures

Pregnancy verification letters can provide important documentation for women seeking assistance. Unfortunately, even a legitimate document can be copied, altered, sold, and misused once it leaves an organization’s control.

Pregnancy help organizations are encouraged to search for their names online, update their letterhead, remove unauthorized materials when possible, and review their document-security procedures before an incident occurs.

If your organization discovers a fraudulent letter, preserve the evidence, report the specific document to the platform, notify the appropriate organizational leaders, and consult qualified legal counsel regarding any additional response. Above all, protect client confidentiality by requesting a copy of the questioned document rather than sharing personal information about current or former clients.

We cannot prevent every instance of fraud or control how others may misuse our documents. What we can do is strengthen our internal practices and continue serving every client with integrity, compassion, and respect. In an unfortunate way, this misuse also demonstrates that pregnancy verification provided by our organizations carries credibility. Social service agencies recognize the quality and value of the services pregnancy help organizations provide. While some may attempt to exploit that trust for dishonest purposes, we must remain committed to protecting the integrity of our work without allowing their actions to diminish the care we offer women in need.

 

Below, you will find video devotionals from our 2026 Pregnancy Help Institute (PHI). Each one was delivered by members of our Heartbeat staff, designed to strengthen and encourage you as you carry out your calling in this mission.

Your Faith Today Touches Tomorrow's Hope

Jennifer Ellis, Manager of Academy

Finding Peace When You Feel Overwhelmed

Joshua Cheresnick, Next Level Customer Support & Growth Specialist

Open Your Eyes to the Nations

Ellen Foell, International Specialist

The Tool We Forget to Sharpen

Savonne Torain, Communications and Marketing

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