What began in 1983 as a small local ministry has grown into a thriving, multi-location outreach serving women and families across northeast Alabama. Now known as Hope Family Services, the ministry is expanding once again through a new partnership with Hearts of Cleburne in Heflin, Alabama, where free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds are helping reach more abortion-vulnerable women near the Georgia border. For Executive Director Amy McDonald, the growth reflects a simple truth: “The Lord is faithful.”
Established in 1983 as Save a Life Calhoun County with locations in Jacksonville and Anniston, Alabama, Hope Family Services has continually benefitted from the generous support of the local community and churches that have embraced their mission.
In Anniston, Hope Family Services owns the building where its office is located and the Jacksonville office is leased to them for a dollar per year from a local church. All the church was looking for in return was a ministry that would come and serve the people of their community.
Pregnancy Help News spoke with Amy McDonald, executive director and Brittany Franks, clinic manager of Hope Family Services regarding the way the ministry has been able to thrive as the Lord has provided facilities for them.
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With a 125% increase in pregnancy tests over the past year, and another 114% increase during the first three months of 2026, the addition of a third location was not only welcomed, but very much needed. An open house was held in March 2026.
At the Heflin location of Hearts of Cleburne, the third location of Hope Family Services is now operating, offering free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds. Hearts has a well-established reputation in the community of meeting the needs of families and the presence of Hope Family Services now expands that reach with pregnancy help resources.
Hearts of Cleburne was already offering parenting classes and resources, but they did not offer pregnancy help services such as pregnancy tests and ultrasounds.
The director of Hearts of Cleburne welcomed Hope Family Services into the space, setting up furniture and making the area a welcoming atmosphere for their staff to serve clients.
“The Lord is faithful. We are thriving,” McDonald stated noting they are utilizing the new space on the second-floor location of Hearts of Cleburne rent free.
“We get to reach more moms and share the gospel more times and we get to help protect those babies,” she said.
Since 2018, Hope Family Services has offered ultrasound services with Dr. Braden Richmond as the medical director. They provide Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) as well to those clients who have taken the first pill and regret that decision.
Among its clients, those receiving ultrasounds are either abortion-minded or need an ultrasound in order to sign up for Medicaid. Since abortion is illegal in Alabama, the work is focused a bit differently than in states that permit abortion.
The Heflin location is key to standing for life as it is located close to the Georgia border, and is what McDonald refers to as, “The last stand.”
“I call it that because in Georgia you still can get an abortion up to six weeks and it is the county on the Georgia line,” she noted.
On I-20, leading out of Heflin, there is a billboard calling attention to abortion offerings in Georgia.
The abortion pill is also being sent by mail into Alabama which has led to an increase in women seeking counseling related to the trauma of having experienced an abortion, often alone at home.
“It’s an entirely different battle that we’re fighting now than [what] I was fighting 17 years ago,” stated Franks. “With the abortion pill being mailed, women are having abortions in their bathrooms, at home without anybody knowing.”
Tweet This: ”It’s an entirely different battle that we’re fighting now than [what] I was fighting 17 years ago”
“We need to be even more readily available to them,” she added. “That’s why we went from our ultrasounds going from eight weeks to six weeks.”
For the past couple of years, Hope staff had noticed a great number of their clients were coming from Cleburne County and Hearts of Cleburne shared that they had been praying about being able to address pregnancy needs. So all agreed to work together sensing the Lord’s leading in it.
Clients who decide to parent are immediately invited to participate in parenting classes, which has grown steadily. It is an opportunity to walk alongside the mother and, hopefully, the father as well, disciple them, and offer resources such as baby car seats and other needed materials.
This year, in a hundred days, more than a hundred car seats were received for Hope clients.
McDonald expressed her gratitude for the staff of Hope Family Services, “A really wonderful team, I’ve been here three years and I really feel like I’m just a conductor and my team are the musicians and they know their music well. It makes a world of difference.”
