(calm music) My wife and I were pregnant with our first child when we were in college, and we were dating and we were moving towards marriage.

But when it came, it was really a crisis moment.

And, thankfully, God really, you know, we were surrounded with the support we needed, but I discovered that many people don't have that.

And so, the opportunity to step in and walk with men, really impacted my life.

And I started calling around.

And nobody had a men's program until I got to Sav-A-Life.

And they had a men's program.

They invited me to come in and meet with them because I wanted to volunteer once a week.

And somehow, another two weeks later, I ended up on staff.

(calm music) [Narrator] Funding for this program comes from the Mike & Gillian Goodrich Foundation with additional support from the American Advertising Federation of Roanoke.

[Advertiser] Their profit comes not from the thing they sell, but the good they do.

(calm music) Our nation has more than 1.5 million nonprofits that employ one out of 10 Americans, providing services that otherwise go unfulfilled, keeping our community connected when all else fails.

But nonprofits often like the tools to properly promote themselves, to inspire more donors, and volunteers and clients to their cause.

That's where I come in.

I've been in the nonprofit world for nearly 20 years.

I connect nonprofits with marketing professionals who donate their time and expertise so that, at the end of the day, these life-giving organizations can do more, do better by creating more.

That's right, Buzz.

(calm music) You've heard of the Pregnancy Guidebook, what to expect when you're expecting, but what about what to expect when you're not expecting?

That's the life-changing reality that confronts countless women each year who have to navigate an unplanned pregnancy.

Hers is a crisis that has become too politicized in our country, which, unfortunately, calls itself pro-life, but offers less and less support once that life is born.

So when my good friend and videographer extraordinaire Stasi Bara of See It Productions encouraged me to take a look at a Birmingham, Alabama, nonprofit called Sav-A-Life.

Well, I was happy to give it some buzz.

Sav-A-Life is a nonprofit faith-based organization that has as its mission to share the truth of God's word with women, men, families who are finding themselves in an unexpected pregnancy situation.

We're there to meet them where they are, love them right there, and just try to take care of 'em and welcome with open arms, no judgment, and help them get the help they need, find hope and help, and hopefully, redemption for their circumstances that they're in.

(calm music) People that are pro-life, they can say it all they want to, and they can be it.

But what does that actually look like for you?

What does that actually mean, you know?

And that means welcoming single moms or teenagers that are pregnant and not judging them, you know, and not shaming them, but really coming alongside them, being there for them.

(calm music) I'm Gracey Barker, and I'm 18.

And I do online school in high school.

We always like grew up in the church, going to all the events, and being in a Christian school.

So my grandfather was one that like founded this church.

So everyone kind of knew who we were.

Barker, like that's your last name, you know, that's kind of associated with who you are.

So we were in the Bible, you know?

I felt like I definitely was a Christian even before I got pregnant, so.

(calm music) It was like a Friday night, and it was like at a football game.

I had like some extra time, and I was like, you know what?

Like, I went with my friend, I was like, "Let me just take a pregnancy test."

I was like, it was like kind of a joke, but also like not, it was like positive.

And I was like, "What?"

I remember kind of just asking the Lord, like, "Why me?"

You know, 'cause in my eyes, I wasn't this like horrible like person.

(calm music) And so, I actually told my parents 'til my birthday that I was pregnant.

So that's fun.

She was 17 that day, and she told me, and I really thought she was teasing at first.

I really did.

I was without words.

Don't have sex before marriage, you know?

And if you do like, (chuckles) you're a horrible person, you know?

I mean, they didn't tell me that, but that's kind of how I felt.

(calm music) [Interviewee] I think the roles Sav-A-Life played was really Gracey having an independent place she could go to, and she would be loved and supported and learn things that we may not even think about, you know, telling her.

Very educational, I like to know like what to expect.

Like, you know, like different milestones with Zane.

[Counselor] Loved working with Gracey.

She was not emotional.

She was there, let's get the facts.

I could tell, especially later on, she wants to be the best mom that she can be.

PA has really been great.

You can tell she genuinely cares about you and she prays for you.

And it was also fun to be with other people that kind of in the same, not situation, like everyone has different stories, but we all had like one common theme, you know, an unexpected pregnancy, the environment they create, like it is so like judge-free zone.

You don't feel like you are being looked down upon.

The only like person that matters in view of me is God.

I don't really have to worry about what, you know, my high school friends or anyone thinks about me 'cause I'm really no different than any other Christian that has made mistakes.

You know, just some bring kids into the world and some do other things.

(laughs) (calm music) So, this is Zane.

Zane, can you say hey?

(laughs) Anyways, he's nine months old, and kinda, his dad just picked the name and I was like, "Oh, yeah."

And I think we looked at it, and it was like God's gift, that's what it means.

[Pam] Zane, he's been the most wonderful addition to our family.

He really, he's brought a lot of love and laughter, you know, into our home.

And sometimes we sit around and ask ourselves, (laughs) "What did we do before (laughs) Zane came along?"

When I look at Zane, I don't, I'm just reminded of the Lord's faithfulness to me and to him.

It's really every step of the way, the Lord has provided people, and places like Sav-A-Life to just kind of come alongside me, you know?

And I just, I see all of that in him.

And so, I'm really thankful.

(calm music) My name is Beth Winterstein, and I am the Managing Director of Sav-A-Life Inc. One of the ways our clients find us is through our Google keyword advertising.

So we see about 1,300 requests come in per year from clients finding us.

And our main goal is to get them in so that we can have a conversation with them, so that we can answer those initial questions, so that we can verify that they have a viable pregnancy, so that they don't go down the abortion route too quickly and start planning something that we don't even know that they necessarily need to do.

So, if a woman in Alabama wants to have an abortion, she does have to travel out of state, although some people are able to obtain medication to have an abortion through the mail.

So, a woman will either have a abortion with medicine or with a surgery, and with either one, a lot of times, they go well.

But there can be complications, and we are there to see them and be sure that there aren't any complications.

Or if there are, we can connect them to people that can help provide longer-term care for them.

About a third of our pregnancy test clients end up being, on average, end up being an abortion, what I would call determined.

And we don't get to win 'em all.

We encourage them to just consider all the alternatives, but we also let them know if you decide to discontinue your pregnancy or take care of what they call terminate the pregnancy, then you are more than welcome to come back here.

We offer them an opportunity to come back, and we've added a couple of services since the road decision was made a couple years ago, where if they do go out of state, 'cause Alabama is abortion-free.

For all intents and purposes, it is illegal to have an abortion in our state.

So, they go out of state for a later term of abortion.

They may need medical help when they return.

So we want them to know they're more than welcome to give us a call, and we will make sure that they get the treatment that they need or the help that they need.

So when a woman comes in to an appointment after an abortion, we check her vital signs and make sure she's stable.

We do a pregnancy test to make sure there's no retained products of conception or nothing left over from the pregnancy because that can cause bleeding infection.

We sometimes need to do lab work to be sure that she's not anemic.

And, sometimes, we need to do an exam or an ultrasound to be sure that everything has kind of gone back to normal.

And we also do screen for depression because a lot of these women, or all of these women have been through a lot emotionally, even if they were very confident about their decision.

It's just an emotional and often traumatic thing.

If they do have clinical depression, then that's something we could treat and also refer them to a clinic where they can plug in long-term or even a counselor.

(calm music) The way that I felt about my pregnancy, I didn't have positive feelings about it.

I was feeling really down and depressed.

I had only told about two people at this point, in which I really didn't have any support about my pregnancy.

Whenever I came to the Sav-A-Life Center, I had already made an online appointment at Planned Parenthood in Atlanta because I was getting pressure to have an abortion.

It's scary whenever you find that out just because you're like, "Oh, I'm gonna miss out on all these fun years with my friends, and then I'm not gonna be able to do this," you know?

So at first, I didn't want to have a baby.

I was really, I guess I was pushing Madie a lot.

After our first meeting at the center where we had our first ultrasound, that was the first time that me and Daniel really confronted the pregnancy together.

That night, I talked to my brother about it, 'cause nobody knew.

It was just me and Madie that knew.

We were at Whataburger one day.

It was like one in the morning, too.

We literally cried in that Whataburger.

So, he really got to me, and I was like, "I can't do this to my baby."

You know, I can't even imagine how she feels like me pushing her to not have this baby.

And then, I was like, "I gotta text her right now and let her know that I'm here for her, and I'm here to help her in anything that she needs."

It was just a text message in the middle of the night saying, "I love you."

"I'm here to support you.

I'm here to be with you."

"I'm happy about our baby, and we're gonna make this work."

"We're gonna work this out, and I love you."

So, it was a really great night for us.

(calm music) This baby's just a big blessing to mine and Madie's lives.

So this is Eliana, and she really fits our family of four.

She has an older brother, Dominic.

(calm music) So what I look forward to most, I guess in these next few years is really just seeing her grow up.

Without the support of Sav-A-Life, I really don't know where I would be in my relationship.

I don't know if I would even have my daughter here with me now.

It really goes to show the big impact that they do have in our lives.

You know, I'm a real person and Eliana's a real baby, and this is our real story.

(calm music) So my name is Henry Tolbert, and I'm part of the board here at Sav-A-Life.

And in the past, I had the honor of also being the men's program coordinator.

If I've got 30 seconds to convince a guy, right, to be involved in a child's life, one of the things that I would say is I would start with your own story.

You know, what is it that you really feel like you're on this Earth to do?

You know, what is it that you really feel like ultimately, you want to have?

Do you want to have a family?

Do you want to be married at some point?

Really maybe what we're looking at is not that you're in a situation that you don't want to be in.

Maybe you're in a situation for a timing that you didn't prepare for.

And if we can help close the gap between whether or not you feel ready, and whether or not you feel like you have the resources, then maybe we discover that this is not a wrong decision, this is not a wrong situation, it's just a harder timing than what you're prepared for.

But that's why we are here.

We are here to help close the gap between what you're prepared for, what you have, what you don't have, so that we can help you speed up that timeline, get ready, and actually, just do something you already want to do, maybe just a little sooner than you planned.

(calm music) Growing up, you have a lot of things you go through in life that you see your parents go through things, but you don't know how to solve them.

And you just see problem after problems by coming to class.

It gave me other mentors, other guys that can talk to me about what a man should be, what a father should be.

You're learning how to raise your kids and how to connect with your kids, and how to connect with your spouse and family, and how to raise your kids up, Bible-based.

The role I believe I play is really just almost to bounce off ideas with them when we're discussing and talking about being a father.

I was always opening my mouth, raising my hand to ask questions, and, "What do you think about this?

And how did you handle that?"

And they always had an answer.

They always had something to say.

A lot of times, maybe they didn't have the model.

We're realizing, you know, maybe sometimes they saw some bad things but not some good things.

You get 'em introduced maybe to the model of what it's supposed to be to be a father.

The women will tell them what type of man they want, but they're not teaching them how to be a man.

It's just teaching them to be the man that the woman wants.

So you have a male who's been through depression, the voice, having kids, he can kind of pretty much guide you in a way that a woman can't 'cause it's a different feel for the woman's side than the man's side.

We know that the father is the most influential voice in the decision for a young lady to carry.

That when a father is excited, when he's ready to go, it changes things.

Like, even in my own story, when my wife or my girlfriend at the time, called me and told me she was pregnant with our first child, I could hear the timidity and the fear and the concern in her voice.

And then, when I responded with excitement and said, "I'm ready.

It's time for us to build this family."

The tears that came from her face were not tears of fear or sadness.

They were tears of joy because she knew she wasn't alone, and we were ready to walk through it together.

And that young man was able to make that transition all because he knew he had help.

He had help, he had what he needed.

He had somebody to come alongside him, and say, "You don't have to do this alone."

My most favorite thing about being a dad is joy, right, the kids gimme the joy.

And what want my kids to remember the most about me is being a good Christian man.

I think being a dad is awesome.

I was like, man, what I love about being a dad is I want to teach 'em something, you know what I'm saying?

Like I'm all giddy about, oh, I can't wait to teach 'em how to swing a bat or, you know what I'm saying?

How to catch a ball, just little stuff like that, you know what I'm saying, change a tie.

You know what I'm saying?

The greatest gift I received by coming to the class is my knowledge to be more of a parent, to be more of a father for my kids, and more of a husband for my wife.

I've been just touched and amazed with these men and their stories.

I really have, and it's changed me.

(calm music) So our goal is to serve Mom, not just through the pregnancy, but after the pregnancy as well, and beyond.

We want them to know we will walk with them throughout their journey, at least, until the child is three years of age.

So what does that look like?

We have education programs, parenting, education, practical parenting.

We have programs for dads, 'cause we know an active and engaged dad will mean a greater outcome, long-term for the child.

We have gift-of-birth class, childbirth education.

We have a program where they can earn car seats, what to expect during pregnancy.

We have one-on-one mentoring where they can literally pick and choose the curriculum.

So maybe they already have one child.

So maybe they need to be thinking through what does it look like with a toddler and a new baby, or, I mean, there's just an, any number of things and topics that we can talk through with them.

Then, when they earn Baby Bucks, when they come to those classes, and then they have an opportunity to go and take those Baby Bucks and shop in our beautiful baby boutiques.

We've grown into three different locations.

Right now, all three of our center locations have different operating names.

So our ministry name is Sav-A-Life Inc.

But our client name is different for all three locations.

It's Alabama Pregnancy Test Center, and so forth.

We're getting ready to rebrand that so that we have one consistent name that our clients will only have to find that one.

And that will be Alabama Pregnancy and Family Center.

We'll roll that out later this year, and it just brings some consistency to our name, and hopefully, we will continue to grow our reputation.

We're blessed with an excellent reputation since we've been around for 45 years.

(calm music) [Narrator] At Alabama Pregnancy and Family Center, we are more than just a place for medical care.

We are a place for hope, support, and life-changing decisions.

Today, we invite you to meet the people who make that possible.

Hi, I am Karen.

I serve as director here at Alabama Pregnancy and Family Center, Vestavia.

Every day, we meet women and men facing unplanned pregnancies, offering them medical services, education, and support.

I'm Ashley, and I lead the team at our Fultondale Center.

Our mission is simple to educate, empower, and encourage every client that walks through our doors.

And I'm Karrie at Alabama Pregnancy and Family Center, Crestwood, and we are here to let every woman and man know that they are not alone on this journey.

Since the overturning of Roe V Wade, it brought for us a lot of the unknowns.

Like, what will this look like after this?

And the reality is, is that you can change laws, but you don't change people's hearts or behaviors because of that, necessarily.

And so, we still have clients coming in that need our help.

Many people know our ministry as a place for women with an unplanned pregnancy to go.

But we also provide testing for sexually transmitted diseases, which I think is one of the most important aspects of our ministry.

We provide free treatment for most STDs or refer them to the Health Department for those that we cannot.

It's really a way for anybody to come to us.

So we have some women and men that will come every six months to be tested for STDs.

And every time they come, they are met by an advocate.

They are exposed to the Gospel, we love on them, talk to them, see what their needs are, and how we can help them.

Our desire is that every client would carry their child to term, and that doesn't always hope happen.

However, one of the things that we wanna do is we wanna make sure that our clients are educated in all of their options.

So if they're gonna parent, this is what we have, and this is what we can offer to you.

If you choose to have an abortion, this is what this could look like, depending on how far along you are in your pregnancy.

Not to scare or to intimidate or make them fearful, but to prepare them so that they will really understand exactly what it is that's going to happen.

And then, we also offer the third alternative, which is to prepare and have an adoption plan, and educate them on what that could look like for them.

When I think about the current climate around this pro-life issue, you know, I would often make the joke that I'm pro-life, I'm pro birth, and I'm pro-choice, right?

I'm pro-choice.

I just believe the choice should happen sooner.

I think when it comes to how we deal with sexuality and things of that nature, we all have a choice to make about the kind of protection that we use, the kind of decisions that we make.

And so, I don't think that choice needs to be made when a child is involved.

It needs to be made before they're created, right?

I think I'm pro-birth in that I do believe every child deserves a chance.

And that means that's why we support things like adoption and things of that nature.

But I'm also pro-life, and you know, one of the big accusations against the pro-life movement is that we only care about the child being born.

And I think Sav-A-Life does a great job of breaking that stigma because so much of our program is built around what happens after.

It's parenting classes, it's ongoing support, it's walking fathers through, you know, the gift of birth classes where, you know, we would take them, we would go with them to the hospital and do a class there and show them all these different things that they've never done.

How to swaddle a baby, how to prepare a bottle, right?

How to do all these things to be there to be supportive of the child and the mother.

And I think all those resources that happen on the backend, show that we are concerned about, not just the child getting here, but it actually being born.

(calm music) All right, baby girl, I know you're hungry, especially after being at the church.

-We got all that.

-Yeah.

(calm music) This is Miss Charlotte.

She's the princess of the group.

We have three boys and one girl.

Charlotte is six.

And, of course, she has Daddy's heart (laughs) being the only girl.

'Cause the boys, they love their mama.

They are all Mama's boys like, seriously.

Charlotte has cerebral palsy, and just due to some of the challenges at birth, we have to feed her by way of G-tube, which is just connected to the inside of her stomach.

(calm music) Definitely challenging, parenting.

We have three in the house right now.

Our fourth is in college, and I will say, (laughs) he was like our third parent.

11 [Henry] Yeah, he's a huge help.

-Great big brother.

-Right.

Lennox is nine, pretty much at that age where Legos and electronics can kind of keep his attention.

Are you guys playing each other?

We're playing with you.

-Huh?

-We're playing with you.

All right, Legend, I think Charlotte wanted a kiss earlier from her twin.

She didn't wanna kiss from me.

You know, she always loves your kisses 'cause you're her twin brother.

(Mom laughs) Mom.

(wailing) -Come here.

-(Charlotte groans) Hey, hey, hey.

-I'm strong.

-Hold on, Jackpot.

-What's Jackpot?

-What are we saying?

-Like podcast.

-Say it after me.

-I'm strong.

-I'm strong.

-I'm brave.

-I'm brave.

-I can control.

-I can control.

-My emotions.

-My emotions.

-And I'm okay.

-I'm okay.

-My diagnosis.

-My diagnosis.

-Won't define me.

-Won't define me.

-Okay.

-(footsteps crunching) -You okay now?

-Yeah.

Remember we have to talk.

We have to speak that.

And then you see with her twin brother Legend, he, great spirits, great kid that loves sports and just loves being outside.

But he has those times where being on the autism spectrum, he breaks down.

It takes a while to get him back into character.

And oftentimes, I will say the challenge with him is you just have to be vigilant all the time because his- Right, he's always getting into something.

-He's always in something.

-You wanna try it on your own, throw it so you remember.

I know the ball's bigger than your hand.

Come, Coach Lennox.

-Yeah.

(screams) -Oh, good throw, man.

High-five, high-five, Legend.

-Did you see your brother?

-High-five, dude.

-Hi, yeah!

-(Henry laughs) Let the ball dribble.

-One, two.

-Wait now.

-One, two, three.

-Three, throw!

-(ball plonks) -Oh, so close, man.

Try it again.

Two, three, oh, you got (indistinct) (laughs) Like with a ball, dude.

From where we were when we first walked into Sav-A-Life pregnant with Lennox nine years ago 'til now, definitely learned a lot from Sav-A-Life, from discipline to, you know, false narratives that we bring from our own childhoods to where God wants us to be with our children.

That's definitely helped a lot.

I learned from Sav-A-Life that the dad is just as important as the mom is.

One thing that our Dad's Night Out instructor would always say a lot of times, people always say, "Happy wife, happy life."

But at the same time, he would say, "It's very important for the dad to be happy too."

(laughs) I am always going to be thankful to Sav-A-Life because the best thing I've learned was self-care.

It's okay to take a minute to myself.

It's okay to let a child cry for a few minutes if I need just a few minutes to get myself together.

And I learned that from Sav-A-Life.

And those are just godly principles, like we can't pour from an empty cup.

And that's where I am now.

I went from pouring from an empty cup to making sure my cup is full enough to where I can care for the kids.

So, I felt like at a time in my life, even though I had one child, I was walking in as immature, kind of like a young girl thinking, with pregnant with my second one.

And over the years, just with the teachings, the leaders that we had, the support, like I really feel like a mother.

Put myself in a mothering position not only that I could be proud of, that I know God would be proud of.

(lively music) [Narrator] On our next episode, we provide some Buzz to the nonprofit Down Syndrome of Alabama, which is working to create community and opportunity for those living with Down syndrome.

(lively music)