Peach Tree Times

As court challenges continue over Georgia's "Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE)" Act, the Options Now Clinic in Valdosta, Ga. continues to offer free medical services and support to women with unplanned pregnancies.

Gov. Brian Kemp Kemp (R-Ga.) signed HB 481, the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act into law in 2019, reported the Saporta Report.  Known as the "heartbeat bill," HB 481 bans abortions after sex weeks, which is when a fetal heartbeat can be detected. 

The law is now in effect in Georgia, after being blocked until the U.S. Supreme Court[s 2022 "Dobbs" decision effectively overturned Roe v. Wade. 

While the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the law after an initial lower court ruling, the Court's decision has been appealed and that appeal is ongoing, reported the New York Times. 

Founded in 1991 as the "Pregnancy Support Center," the Options Now clinic expanded in 2012 to its current facility and changed its name to Options Now, A Life Choice Clinic. 

Options Now touts several free services provided to women, and the men involved, facing pregnancy decisions. These services include pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, free baby items, pregnancy and parenting classes, men's support and fatherhood programs, among others.

In an op-ed last month in the Christian Post, Valdosta residents Celeste Benjamin and Kevonta Browne wrote of their experience at Options Now.

"We’d both been to the center before through friends and prior health screenings, so naturally in our time of need it was the first place we thought to rely on for an ultrasound and advice. Little did we know that this brief visit would forever change our lives and help to forge a new family," wrote Benjamin and Browne. 

The couple had their son, Princeton, last December and wrote that Options Now helped take an "impossible task" into "a great blessing to our family."