National Call Center Responds to Request for Help Every Three Minutes
More Than 673,000 Men & Women Served in Five Years
January 18, 2008 — The first call center staffed by paid, trained, pro-life consultants 24/7 designed to patch callers to pregnancy centers across the U.S. and Canada celebrates its fifth year in operation on January 20, 2008. Option Line (1-800-395-HELP) consultants respond to an average of 15,000 contacts – calls, emails, and Instant Messages (IMs) – each month using a web-based, state-of-the-art center locator system, powered by MapQuest.
“To be a voice of hope to the hopeless. To be a beacon in the night, bringing light into darkness…,” said Heartbeat International President Peggy Hartshorn, Ph.D. “
Over the past five years, our consultants have helped more than 673,000 men and women to find honest answers about abortion. Daily they are responding to almost 500 contacts which is nearly 20 an hour or about one every three minutes.
Although we have answered more than 61,360 emails in the last five years, IM has become our fasting growing contact method since we began using it 24 months ago. IM is the best way to communicate with women aged 15 to 24, because they want answers immediately. Our consultants have responded to more than 30,000 men and women through Instant Messaging. Often, the women we’ve helped take the time to let us know.
Option Line, a joint venture between Heartbeat International and Care Net, is a free and confidential, bi-lingual, national call center and website for those women facing untimely pregnancies and those hurt by abortion. Option Line consultants are Hispanics, African Americans, Caucasians, college students, graduate students, homemakers, and professionals providing a compassionate, non-judgmental response to callers in need. Option Line is accessible via OptionLine.org or PregnancyCenters.org.
Heartbeat International, founded in 1971, is an interdenominational Christian association of nearly 1,100 pregnancy resource centers and post abortion groups in 48 states and 42 countries.
For additional comments from
President Peggy Hartshorn, Ph.D., contact Virginia Cline at
(614) 885-7577.
