Nancy* walked into True Care Women’s Resource Center to confirm a pregnancy. She said she felt excited to possibly be a mom, and when the ultrasound showed her unborn child’s heartbeat, her elation escalated. A few months later, she returned, discouraged by her mental health concerns and now worried that she wouldn’t make a good mom.
“I should have just aborted this baby,” she said tearfully.
Nancy asked if True Care provided mental health counseling. The Wyoming-based pro-life medical clinic did not, but Nancy received a referral and began counseling. Months later, she delivered her baby and recently expressed gratitude to True Care for referring her to the counselor and for helping her with resources, programs, and encouragement.
There are many people like Nancy in Wyoming, in the United States, and around the world. Sadly, mental health challenges abound in and out of the state, for numerous populations, including women, young people, mothers, and Native Americans.
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Wyoming ranks in the top three U.S. states for suicide rate, and last for receiving mental health care. Anxiety and depression affect more than 32 percent of adults in the state. The remoteness of Wyoming, lack of mental health professionals, and cost for services are among the barriers Wyomingites encounter. The need for counseling services in the Cowboy State is high.
Unplanned pregnancy can bring additional stress for a woman, as does job loss or fear of job loss due to being pregnant. Partners may leave or threaten to leave if she carries to term. She may lack support from family or friends, or she may fear becoming a parent. All of these and other challenges push pregnant women like Nancy toward abortion.
In an effort to be part of the solution, True Care Women’s Resource Center, located in Casper, Wyoming, plans to start a counseling program as part of its service offerings. Jessica Baxter, CEO and president, told Pregnancy Help News she hopes to hire a licensed professional counselor by the end of the year.
True Care partnered with Hope Center in Corsicana, Texas, to begin the steps to implement this new service.
“Our vision for mental health at our pregnancy center matched with theirs almost perfectly,” Baxter said. “They were looking to expand and help other centers create a counseling program. It is such a need! So, we began to explore how such a program would work using their guidance and documentation.”
In August 2024, True Care’s board of directors voted to move forward, she said.
Earlier this year, True Care moved into a new building, one formally occupied by a group of doctors, and that move provided additional space the organization didn’t have in its previous building. This new space allows for a large office which will house the counselor and the clients seeking that mental health service.
“It’s a space that’s away from the medical area, and so it’s very confidential and very calming,” Baxter said. “Our goal is to have a counselor on board by the end of the year.”
A financial campaign is currently underway to meet that objective, she added.
Mental health counseling was one of the follow-up pieces of pregnancy help that women were asking for, she said.
“To be able to offer that is just another one of those ‘loving beyond expectations,’ components,” Baxter said.
One of the factors that speaks to the need for an on-site mental health service is the length of time people must wait to receive counseling in Casper.
“Sometimes it’s four months, and that’s just awful,” Baxter said. “We want our patients to get the help they need as soon as possible, and by having this service on site, they will receive that help much sooner.”
A similar situation occurred at Hope Center in Texas.
“Throughout COVID, we saw a major decline in the mental health of our clients,” explained Lauren Venable, executive director of Hope Center Corsicana. “In our search to help coordinate counseling and services beyond our current scope to help these families be able to walk into parenthood with a healthy foundation - we knew it was more than just physical and spiritual - the mental component was crucial as well … we found one provider that we could refer our clients to for free services, but their waitlist was four months long and the program offerings were very limited.”
After much prayer and several meetings, Venable and the board of directors decided to move forward in creating a mental health program on-site.
“We knew we had to stand in the gap, and so we began our search for a LPC (licensed professional counselor) that would be on staff at Hope Center full time and be able to offer these services to our clients free of charge,” Venable told Pregnancy Help News.
“We can’t afford to neglect tending to the mental health of the families who trust us,” she said.
Meeting needs during and after pregnancy
Adding licensed professional counselors and hosting abortion healing programs helps pregnancy help organizations meet client needs, both during and after pregnancy.
True Care has provided abortion healing for many years. However, for the past five years, the program has been operating online. The organization plans to bring that resource in-house once again with the Save One abortion healing program, Baxter said.
“It’s being offered by staff members who are lay counselors trained in the program, offering that level of comfort,” she told Pregnancy Help News. “We’re that trusted source for [the clients], that nice confidential, calm, safe space for them. I think people are craving that natural connection these days.”
For women who prefer to remain more anonymous, the virtual option is still available, she said.
“There are so many aspects to an unexpected pregnancy and that choice that a woman is facing,” Baxter said. “As pregnancy centers, we owe it to her and to that baby to help her in every way we possibly can.”
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*A pseudonym
