Our Initiatives
Why each call matters
From the very first call answered, Option Line consultants, caring women trained by Heartbeat International, have been able to speak hope into panicked moments of confusion. Four million calls later, our consultants continue to treat each and every point of contact with a caller with the compassionate care she deserves. To each woman calling in, this is the hardest moment she has ever had to face in her life.
Established in 2003, Option Line is the only fully staffed, bilingual pro-life contact center in the U.S. Since we first answered the call, we’ve reached over 4 million women and men, many who are desperate for answers in an unexpected pregnancy.
Every day, more than 1,100 people reach out to Option Line via phone call, live chat, texting and email for help. The number of women and men Option Line reaches continues to grow. As a result, more lives are rescued from abortion. Every call helps reduce the demand for abortion, making abortion unwanted and eventually unthinkable.
Each call is a story...
2009 - 1 Million Calls
Even before we had live chat as a way to contact Option Line (chat launched in 2010), we served over 1 million people crying out for help through phone, a website, and email. We answered each call, we helped with any immediate pregnancy need she may have, and we connected her with a local pregnancy help organization. We know that the best alternative to an abortion is another person.
2014 - 2 Millionth Call
In the wee hours of the morning, a call came in to Option Line. On the other end of the phone was a young woman seeking abortion information. She was referred to our affiliated pregnancy help organization in Warren, Ohio that could offer her so much more than abortion and empower her to make positive choices for her future.
2018 - 3 Millionth Call
On a Thursday afternoon, Jennifer contacted Option Line through our live chat feature at OptionLine.org. She told the Option Line consultant that she was 19 years old and realized she was pregnant. Jennifer said she felt caught between what was “right” and what was “easy,” and she simply wanted the whole thing behind her. Our Option Line consultant assured her she was not alone and prayed with her. Our consultant helped to calm her fears and encouraged her to get help at a local pregnancy center near her in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
2020 - 4 Millionth Call
Early on a Monday morning, a seasoned consultant working for Option Line received a chat from a woman in India. Sorting through her concerns, the consultant worked with her to find a pregnancy help organization near her through Heartbeat’s Worldwide Directory of Pregnancy Help. This cry for help shows the global nature of the need for pregnancy help.
Our Work Continues & Expands...
As technology has improved through the years, we have embraced it and so that we can increase the number of people served through Option Line. Notice that the time period is reduced between each millionth call answered!
We continue to find and implement effective technology such as adding Live Chat options to connect and utilizing online advertising. This allows us to reach more women and better serve the movement.
As calls for help continue, we have expanded our services to answer the cries for help for not only women seeking pregnancy help, but also for the Safe Haven Alliance and the Abortion Pill Rescue Network.
When women seek pregnancy help, we are equipped to answer their questions and serve them swiftly in real-time.
As our reach expands, people from all over the world are finding Option Line. The fact that we are able to serve a woman in India to help locate a pregnancy help organization in her area from our call center in Ohio is another miracle of technology.
While not everyone is available 24/7/365 to serve those in need, Heartbeat International's Option Line is! And we will continue to serve until abortion is unthinkable.
*Names have been changed within for privacy.
Global Advancement
It’s not new, it’s just our turn! Basil of Caesarea (329–379) was the leading pastor, theologian, and proponent of orthodox Christianity. When he learned that abortion was present and legal in Caesarea, he preached boldly from the Scriptures on the sanctity of human life. He called his church members to personally and actively intervene and help women facing difficult pregnancies, just as we are doing today. According to historian, George Grant, Basil’s work inspired the Emperor Valentinian to criminalize abortion in 374. The work before us is not new, it’s just our turn.
Urban Initiative
Answering the call to cherish and defend innocent human life, the modern pro-life movement surged forward as a predominantly Catholic effort in the 60’s. It was flooded with Evangelical energy in the 80’s—the second wave of the pro-life movement. The “Third Wave” points to the triumphant progress to be expected when the Black and Latino Christian community not only join, but lead, the Pregnancy HELP Movement.
PREGNANCY HELP CENTER
Heartbeat's Commitment to Urban Initiatives
Heartbeat International is praying for a “Third Wave” of minority leadership and participation in our movement. We are irrevocably committed to urban initiatives. This means identifying the neediest neighborhoods of America, the most abortion-plagued communities of our nation’s largest cities, and working through the local Christian community to establish ultrasound-equipped pregnancy help centers and maternity homes. We currently have urban initiatives in Miami, Los Angeles, and Pittsburgh. We are calling our affiliates to “go urban” as they plan for expansion. We are asking Black and Latino Christians already working in our affiliate ministries to step into national leadership and training. Our ranks are slowly but surely swelling with minority leaders. And we are collaborating, where possible, with minority-focused pro-life organizations linked here.
Probably the most Abortion-Targeted Neighborhood in America
Leadership Development
Train
Heartbeat serves as the leadership supply line for the growing Pregnancy HELP Movement worldwide. We train and equip Christian community leaders in the establishment of life-affirming, Christian-supported pregnancy help centers, ultrasound-equipped pregnancy help medical clinics, maternity homes for women and children, and non-profit adoption agencies. Local pregnancy help ministries provide women and couples the help they need to choose life, prepare to parent, or place for adoption.
Equip
As new directors arrive to lead pregnancy help ministries, Heartbeat provides them with foundational management and leadership training as well as intensive leadership assessment, and equips them with specialized resources. For example, they return home with Heartbeat’s counselor training manual, The Love Approach. Pregnancy help ministry leaders use it to train their staff and volunteers to serve women at risk for abortion with sensitivity, care, competence, and confidence.
Leading Well
"I'm the Executive Director of the Pregnancy Support Center in Stark County, OH. I've served here for going on 15 years.Heartbeat International is amazing! You can be counted on to be there when we need you--which is most of the time!"