Reaching the Vulnerable

Crossroads is the best-kept secret” It’s often said in jest but routinely we have had new donors and clients come to our new Mifflintown office and say just that. We are excited about new opportunities to change this and to reach young women who are looking for answers online when they are afraid they might be pregnant. 

Imagine a young girl, maybe your daughter or niece, who is worried because she is a few days late and might be pregnant. She’s going to reach for her phone and look online for something like “how do I know I’m pregnant” or “late period” or “pregnancy test”. She may also search for “abortion clinic near me” because she’s afraid and wants to “take care of it” as soon as possible before anyone finds out. Either way, our hope is to be the top result in her search for any pregnancy or abortion-related words. Not because we are doing nefarious things or changing our mission, but because if a young woman is scared, we want to be there to talk to her, relieve some of her fears, offer her medical confirmation of her pregnancy, and tell her about her options.

But none of that matters

if she doesn't find Crossroads

There are two things that help women in such a situation feel confident and supported enough to make the brave decision to keep that unexpected pregnancy. They are the support and medically accurate information we provide in our Options Counseling and the medical confirmation of her pregnancy through an ultrasound. But none of that matters, if she doesn’t find Crossroads, if she doesn’t know we are here in her community, and if she doesn’t call for an appointment. We believe that no woman should feel so unsupported that abortion seems to be her only choice.

Thankfully, we have so much available to us today through technology. We have invested in online marketing with the Life Advancement Group. Over the next few months, we will see how Google Ads might increase the number of calls and appointments we get from women like the example above, that we refer to as Abortion Vulnerable or Determined. Benjamin and the team from Life Advancement have a heart for ministries like ours and have helped many other pregnancy centers with Google Ads. Many of their clients testify that the number of abortion-vulnerable clients and calls more than doubled once they began using Google Ads.

Rebekah Hagan, our Fall Banquet speaker, shared her personal experience with an abortion clinic in contrast to her local pregnancy care center. She was unexpectedly pregnant with her second child and was very scared. The interactions she had with the abortion clinic were cold and clinical, but in just a short phone call with a caring Client Advocate at the pregnancy center, her fears were relieved and the haze of the crisis was lifted. Our aim is to be the first place that women contact so that we can talk them through their crisis and help them find the support they need to choose life. 

We’ve decided to make this investment because we want to be good stewards of what has been entrusted to us: both the mission to save lives from abortions and the donations that have enabled us to have ultrasound machines in each of our offices. We know the machines and the services we offer are wonderful but if the women, we aim to serve, remain lost and unaware we exist, those machines would only collect dust.

Marketing is not the most glamorous topic or place to spend money but it is of utmost importance when you consider the things I have laid out here. We do get a lot of our BRIDGES clients via word of mouth. But when faced with a missed period or suspected pregnancy, the first place a young woman will turn is likely her phone and we want to be there!

If this is an area you are passionate about and would like to give a special gift to the ministry, to specifically help further this new marketing initiative, be sure to leave a note with your gift saying “Marketing”. Thank you for your support. It truly does take a community to help these women.