Sometimes, the best news can feel like the worst news.
New life seemingly collapses the one from which it came, while shame, guilt, and oppressive fear leave no room for other emotions.
The reality of unintended pregnancy can be the loneliest place in the world for millions of women each year in the U.S. All their options can feel politically, emotionally, relationally, and religiously supercharged, each choice seemingly leading to destitution or devastation.
In 1996, Chris Whitford and others gathered around a friend experiencing the same. The solutions available to her were nearly all led by a politically informed agenda that offered contradictory information and disallowed honest conversation.
As a result, compounding isolation, shame, and worst-case scenarios pulled on her like gravity. Whitford and friends decided they would fill the gap.
“We created what we couldn’t find for her,” Whitford, CEO and Founding Member of Avail, said. “That was a place without political agenda, where people could slow down, explore their options, and make confident decisions about their future.”
The idea was to offer care grounded in Biblical compassion, rather than explicit ideology, so that women and men facing a life-altering circumstance could address it with hope and confidence.
Whitford was also a founding member of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA) at the time, helping to build the young Manhattan church plant while searching for ways to love her New York neighbors well. The gap in care was perhaps larger than expected, and the need was great.
“[Unintended pregnancy] can be an experience of the devastation of their whole world,” Whitford explained. “In one instance, their future evaporates. What they imagined who they were going to become is instantly under threat.”
The struggle is exacerbated by a fear of others’ reactions, or how their own lives will be affected. Many new mothers self-isolate out of fear or shame, driven by a feeling that those they normally turn to either would not understand or would react negatively.
Others keep to themselves as a protective measure, such as fearing the reaction or even presence of an abusive father.
Avail was designed to include the “gentle and lowliness” of Jesus in every detail, each interaction intended to reflect the Good Shepherd’s care for his sheep.
“What we wanted to do was build an organization that brought the gracious hospitality of Jesus to the experience of processing, in a confidential and safe place, the emotional and relational dilemmas that a woman faces, as well as the man,” Whitford said.
“...So she can move into her future with hope and a sense of great possibility, rather than what the initial emotions and reality often are for her, which is that everything that she dreamed about her future disintegrates.”
They built exactly that. And what began as a local initiative has grown to serve more than 150,000 people, providing cost-free access to qualified, compassionate, and confidential care to all 50 U.S. states.
The evolution hasn’t just been that of scale. When the world shut its doors in the spring of 2020, Avail moved its services fully online in a matter of 48 hours. The care is still administered primarily via digital means, offering both one-on-one care and self-guided resources for those not ready to talk.
Upon news of pregnancy, the vast majority of those needing help will turn to the internet for answers anonymously. Avail aims to meet them where they are to offer care that can be easily and confidentially accessed.
“Sometimes people won’t even give their real name, and that’s okay,” Whitford said. “We are committed to care that’s offered on the terms that the clients are willing to set. And that is really good clinical care, really. That’s allowing people to discover their agency and their voice.”
As one might imagine, the needs of an individual seeking care are as unique as their experience.
Avail’s professional care experts diligently listen to new clients to identify their specific needs, consider solutions together, and work with them to apply or access practical resources. Underneath every detail of care is a commitment to honoring each woman or man as a child of God made in his image.
“The woman, man, and child experiencing an unintended pregnancy all bear the image, the Imago Dei,” Whitford said. “And so, to approach someone and to care for them, you’re doing so by listening first. Listening first, listening long. Dignity means letting people have a process. Dignity is to afford someone the honor and respect we know is due them, that love requires.”
The same level of integrity is applied to Avail clients regardless of background, circumstance, belief, or status. Whether they are single, married, old, or young, they are equally valued and served.
Stories of redemption and healing are being added to the pile each week through the work, such as Amber, who was featured in Avail’s 2025 Impact Report.
Amber had an increasingly common experience of shock upon finding she was pregnant, stuck somewhere between joy and terror. Through stress-induced Google searches, she came upon Avail.
“Some days I still struggle... But when I look at my daughter, I see hope. I see the life that felt almost impossible,” Amber is quoted in the report.
“Avail didn’t just help me through pregnancy. They helped me become a mother. And because people chose to support this work, my daughter and I are standing here today – stronger, steadier, and not alone.”
Other cases are perhaps surprising, but common in their own way, such as a 70-year woman contacting Avail to talk to someone about an abortion she had decades earlier.
“She was finally able to tell her story,” Whitford said of the woman. “And we could carry it with her and we could impart hope and the magnanimous grace of Jesus.”
Partnerships with other national organizations like Safe Families for Children, Thrivent, CarePortal, and more are enabling Avail to make its services holistic and customized to each client.
Those partnerships and Avail’s continued growth are bolstering efforts toward an ambitious goal to meet 1 in every 5 women facing unintended pregnancy in the U.S. by 2035.
The task at hand is both vast and simple: to cultivate a world in which no one facing unintended pregnancy ever feels alone, but instead “is able to imagine possibilities in the seemingly impossible.”
It is in the valley of the shadow of death that Avail will keep walking, because those who need them walk there, and because Jesus walked there first.
“Jesus is close to the brokenhearted, and he saves those who are crushed in spirit,” Whitford said.
“The moment that we stop trusting God in the complexities and mysteries of our own lives is the moment that we actually have nothing to say or offer to the women and men we serve... It’s because of the love with which we’ve been loved, and it’s the love with which we will love our neighbor.”
To learn more about Avail, click here.