Contributed to the Telegram

Success has come many times to Bill McCartney, but the major university football coach also has faced trials.

"In 1989, my life was tested," McCartney told the 650-plus people who gathered Feb. 21 for the Pregnancy Care Center's 2008 Celebrate Life Banquet.

McCartney, founder of the Promise Keepers men's ministry and three-time Big Eight Conference coach of the year, was the keynote speaker for the event held at Englewood Baptist Church.

He told the crowd how that year he was not prepared to hear the news that his 19-year-old daughter was pregnant.

"At that time, I was head coach of University of Colorado, and we were having a successful season," McCartney said. "After a football game, my daughter, Kristy, came to our home and told my wife and I that she was pregnant with my star quarterback's baby.

"I jumped up from my chair, put my arms around her and told her that her mother and I were there for her," he said.

He went on to tell the crowd that the player wanted nothing to do with the baby or his daughter. She also was being advised by friends to have an abortion to avoid possible bad publicity.

"She chose life," McCartney said.

He encouraged the crowd to celebrate life and to support the ministry of the Pregnancy Care Center, saying, "This ministry must grow."

The center has grown over the last year, Executive Director Kay F. Gurganus said. The addition of HIV and syphilis screenings are as effective preventative measures and encourage positive lifestyle changes in its clients.

"Our clients build a trust with our nurses because the testing is so intimate," she said. "Our nurses then have an opportunity to explain the consequences of being diagnosed with an incurable virus – a virus that can have a severe impact on their health and their unborn baby, not to mention their future fertility, relationships and marriage plans.

"We continue to believe that early intervention for pregnant women will significantly reduce the chance of a baby being born HIV-positive."

In 2007, more than 500 clients received services from the center during 2,626 visits. Its free services include pregnancy tests; limited ultrasounds; screenings for chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and HIV; abstinence counseling; and information on pregnancy, adoption and abortion.

Clothing and furnishings for mother and baby are available through the HOPE program. Its Healing Encouragement for Abortion-Related Trauma program offers support groups and Bible studies.

"The center has matured to provide many services, and it is only natural that we continue to increase our influence and effectiveness," Gurganus said. "We recognize men play an important role when their partners get pregnant, and we are responding with the development of a men's ministry."

Surveys show many women who had an abortion did so mainly because of pressure and no support from their husband or boyfriend. The center's goal for a men's ministry is to show men the benefits of a woman not having an abortion and to help address fatherlessness.

"The Pregnancy Care Center's desire continues to be the first choice for women and their partners facing unplanned pregnancies and related issues," Gurganus said. "The support of this community allowed us to exceed our financial goal, with more than $105,000 gross in pledges and contributions."

The missions of the Pregnancy Care Center are to assist women facing an unexpected pregnancy; to minister to the emotional and spiritual needs resulting from an abortion or miscarriage; and to promote sexual abstinence until marriage.

The banquet is one of its two major fundraisers. It an addition to its pregnancy-related services, contributions also sponsor the Worth Waiting 4! abstinence program in local schools.