Pregnant? Need Help? Don't Call Us.

Since Texas Pregnancy Care Network counseling materials have not yet been released, the Chronicle decided to make a few calls to see what kind of information area "crisis pregnancy centers" are currently providing. We recruited a local woman, who agreed to pose as a scared, confused, and pregnant 17-year-old, and listened in on her calls as she sought help and advice. What we found is that getting good information and advice over the phone from area "crisis pregnancy" counselors is not easy. An Austin LifeCare Pregnancy Services counselor was hesitant to offer much counsel over the phone; she wanted to meet our caller in person in an effort to "know more about what resources you have and what your [life is like] and how a pregnancy would fit in." She said that the center had videos and pamphlets outlining the "parenting option, the abortion option, and the adoption option" and that she could help with role-playing exercises to help our caller figure out how to tell her parents about her unintended pregnancy. "Maybe it's not what they wanted for you, but it's not like you robbed a bank, are a heroin addict, or were in a horrible car accident and are a quadriplegic," she said. "It's not an unnatural event." She declined to offer any information on abortion, except to suggest that the caller read the state's "A Woman's Right to Know" pamphlet.

Our caller got even less help from the Lifeline pregnancy center near campus. After she nervously recounted her current situation, the counselor responded, "So you're freaking out a little bit?" Not to worry, the counselor said. "The most important thing to do first is to go see a doctor so that you can get checked out and start taking prenatal vitamins." When the caller said that she wasn't sure she wanted to keep the baby, the counselor said she couldn't help and wouldn't "even know" who to call to find out about abortion services. But she did have a couple of suggestions – including that our caller could try the 888/LIFE-AID crisis counseling hotline, a toll-free CPC referral service run by Real Alternatives, which provides counseling services for the newly state-funded TPCN. Still, she warned, if the caller planned on contacting Life Aid, she should probably avoid asking too much about abortion, "because they're pro-life."

Regardless, Life Aid couldn't offer our caller much help at all – the hotline hasn't been set up in Texas, so the woman who answered our call could suggest only that we call the National Life Center for further assistance. That's where our caller found "Gladys," who warned that abortion carries with it a "high risk" of uterine "perforation" and a lifetime of serious emotional problems. "There are all sorts of side effects," Gladys warns. "That's just one of them. We like to let women know exactly what can happen."