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Real Alternatives received 14,500th call for
help at 1-888-LIFE-AID
February 20,
2008, Harrisburg, PA, - Real Alternatives, Inc., statewide program
administrator for Pennsylvania's Alternative to Abortion Services
Program, served the 14,500th caller seeking pregnancy and parenting
support on its toll-free hotline 1-888-LIFE-AID.
“Real
Alternatives provides women facing a crisis pregnancy with hope
during what is often a desperate time,” said Jennifer Schwamb, one
of Real Alternatives hotline counselors. She continued, “On a daily
basis, I speak with women between the ages of 13 years old to 45
years old that feel as though abortion is the only solution to their
seemingly hopeless situation. Through Real Alternatives and our
service providers, women are able to accept the reality that life is
not over, it’s just beginning. What seemed only moments before as
hopeless is now full of hope.”
Real
Alternatives toll-free referral program is unique. Once a woman,
from anywhere in the Commonwealth calls toll-free, she receives
initial crisis intervention counseling. She is then asked for her
zip code and her call is patched to another counselor located at her
closest pregnancy support center, social service agency, adoption
agency or maternity home. The woman talks with a counselor in her
community who can be with her through the crisis pregnancy and 12
months afterward. With 123 Real Alternatives-funded centers
throughout the Commonwealth, there is a center within 45 minutes of
every woman in Pennsylvania.
In order to make
the 1-888-LIFE-AID toll-free hotline effective, women throughout the
Commonwealth are informed of the support from this program through
television, radio, newspaper, telephone book, and bus
advertisements. Since 1997, over $4 million in advertising has been
spent throughout the Commonwealth to reach out to women in need.
The PA
Alternatives to Abortion Services Program has served over 135,000
women at Pennsylvania life-affirming centers since its inception in
1995 and is currently funded at $6.5 million per year by the
Commonwealth's Department of Public Welfare
and Department of Health.
Women experiencing unplanned pregnancies can find their closest
center by calling toll-free at 1-888-LIFE-AID or by visiting
www.realalternatives.org.
In 2006,
Texas Health and Human Services signed a $2.5 million-a-year
agreement with Texas Pregnancy Care Network to offer statewide
government-funded alternatives to abortion using the Real
Alternatives model. Since its conception, $288,000 in advertising
has been spent throughout Texas to reach out to women facing crisis
pregnancies. In addition, the LIFE-AID hotline has received 755
calls from Texas.
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