[Marta] I moved to New York six years ago, I'm from Barcelona, I didn't have any
specific goal and I shared an apartment with two more people. I'm a waitress
right now and a manager at the restaurant. My shifts are at night and
then, after work, I would go out with my friends and have drinks so I was living
like a single woman life in New York, pretty fun.
I had a boyfriend, we didn't live together, but I did have a boyfriend.
One day I realized I didn't get my period. I felt a little dizzy,
so I thought I would take a test just to make sure that everything was fine. I ended
up taking four tests and then I called a friend and I told her 'Look, I'm in trouble.
I think this is happening.' So she told me
'Okay, we need to to make sure, so maybe you have to go to a doctor or something.'
I don't have health insurance, so I found this one [clinic] on 45th Street and 6th Avenue
in Manhattan and I'm like 'What? That's Times Square, so it's gonna be a
good place, I'm sure.' So I went the following morning with my friend from Spain.
That's when they took another test and it was the fifth positive test and
probably the last one like, 'Okay, yes, you are pregnant. How much more you
need to know?' [Madison Peace] I think what makes Avail special is that this is a place that
people can come and get away from the noise for a little bit and, living in the
city, you're constantly bombarded.
How we phrase it is 'standing in the gap,' giving people a place and space to process,
to stop trying to come up with a quick solution to what is viewed as a problem.
So, Focus on the Family bought our ultrasound machine and that's made a huge difference.
[Marta] Since I can remember, I always thought that I would never have an abortion. I thought
I would never consider abortion. But there was a tiny moment I had to consider that
just because I was so scared. What if I can? But I have to take this... *tears up*
So that was just one moment, one small one, very small one, that I thought 'Maybe.
Maybe I can.' But then this is how I met Avail. The moment I met Avail. Meredith,
the first woman I met there, and I told her I said 'Look, I really want this baby
but I don't know if I can have this baby.'
[Meredith] New York City can be very lonely, especially because a lot of people are transient.
A lot of people don't grow up here, so they come here for school or for a job and
they don't have any family here, they just have the roommates or their
partners, co-workers, things like that. And so sometimes they can't even tell anyone
that they're pregnant. Avail is probably one of the only places
in New York that a woman can get a free ultrasound in her earlier phase
of pregnancy, within the first trimester, and not have to commit to something
either way and I think for a lot of women that's very empowering. And, like,
being able to give them information but not making them feel pressured towards
one way or another. And so by having that ultrasound it counteracts this false message of
'Oh, it's just a blob of tissue. Oh, it's just your missed period," which
was completely unscientific, and I think something that the pro-life community
can definitely benefit from is being able to present the evidence so that
woman feels empowered by her own choice saying 'Look, I've looked at all the facts.
This is what fetal development looks like and these are my own wants and desires
and instincts in this situation.'
[Marta] I want to make sure that everything is clear. That my tiny little moment that
I thought I would terminate this pregnancy was before I saw the ultrasound.
That's... that needs to be very clear. So the eldest thought would be for a solid sonogram.
The moment I saw that heartbeat changed everything.
Everything, everything. That was life and that was her.
*crying* Oh, sorry.
That sonogram made real that my daughter was there. So I had my positive
pregnancy test, yes, and you can think but you don't feel anything. I didn't feel
anything until I was like 20 weeks pregnant, so you don't feel that there's
life in there. But seeing a heartbeat and that's inside you, you can almost feel
the heartbeat inside. So that was really... that made me think 'I'm a mom and I need
to give life to this' and that's how everything changed.