Heartbeat International’s worldwide network of pregnancy help organizations stepped up to meet the needs of women in 2023 by providing a consistent alternative to abortion.
Following the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the U.S. abortion landscape has gone through a marked transformation, shifting toward increased accessibility, reduced medical oversight, and alarming risks to women’s health, exemplified by the fact that over 80% of all abortions in the United States are chemical abortions, with a significant increase (18%) in the last three years in women obtaining abortion pills online or from acquaintances.
This reality underscores the need for compassionate care and support for women facing unplanned pregnancies - as provided by the pregnancy help movement. As the abortion environment changes, pregnancy help organizations are taking measures necessary to serve women both in person and virtually.
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Heartbeat International, the largest network of pregnancy help in the U.S. and the world, recently released its annual Life Trends Report, providing a snapshot of life-affirming pregnancy help.
Heartbeat and its global network of more than 3,500 pregnancy help service providers work continuously to offer hope and help to women and families experiencing unexpected pregnancies. From this network of care, Heartbeat discovers and evaluates trends within the movement as a whole and uses them to inform and encourage others on the work accomplished. The information in the 2024 Life Trends Report comes from 2023 data and provides a tool to better understand the services that clients seek, while also providing key information about the good work and positive impact of pregnancy help.
“The annual Life Trends Report represents a chapter of the larger and longer success story of pregnancy help,” said Heartbeat International President Jor-El Godsey. “The graphs and statistics tie together the countless stories that unfold in pregnancy help organizations throughout the year.”
There were 1,949,457 total client visits to affiliated pregnancy help organizations in 2023.
Heartbeat’s affiliate pregnancy help centers offer a broad range of services, from abstinence education and STD testing/treatment, to Abortion Pill Reversal and parenting classes. Some stats on the centers from the current Life Trends Report:
- 73% provide abortion recovery services.
- 31% are part of the Abortion Pill Rescue Network.
- 76% provide ultrasound.
- 56% provide incentive programs for clients.
- 34% provide STD Testing.
- 80% of women considering an abortion choose life when they see an ultrasound.
Abortion trend: Increased access with little oversight
In addition to chemical abortion accounting for 80% of all U.S. abortions and 22% of women reporting they obtained abortion pills online or from acquaintances in the last three years, data shows a 38% drop since 2017 of women receiving ultrasound screenings before abortion initiation - depriving women of vital information about their pregnancies. What’s worse, one in four abortions is unwanted or coerced, with abusers exploiting the availability of abortion pills to control women’s reproductive choices.
Life trend: Expanded services
Conversely, pregnancy help organizations often expand their reach by providing additional outreach to women in need, with little to no federal taxpayer dollars, doing so in 2023. For example, of the 2,187 Heartbeat-affiliated pregnancy help organizations in the U.S., 256 have mobile units, 100 have on-site doctors, and 46 have telehealth.
Heartbeat International Vice President of Communications and Marketing Andrea Trudden applauded an increase in services and locations among Heartbeat-affiliated pregnancy help organizations while lamenting abortion’s increasing prevalence via laxly regulated chemical abortion.
Tweet This: “We celebrate the growth of both services and locations of pregnancy help found in the latest Life Trends Report."
“We celebrate the growth of both services and locations of pregnancy help found in the latest Life Trends Report,” she said. “However, we also noticed a disturbing trend that all pregnancy help organizations need to be aware of, the significant increase in women receiving abortion pills from friends or the internet in the past three years, escalating from 1% in 2020 to a staggering 22% in 2023.
Life trend: Abortion Pill Reversal
The Heartbeat-managed Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) offers a life-affirming option in contrast to chemical abortion. The APRN connects women who regret taking the first dose of the abortion pill regimen to a network of medical professionals trained to administer the reversal protocol. Life Trends numbers pertaining to APR:
- 5,000+ lives have been saved since 2012, according to statistics
- 1,200 lives were saved in 2023 through APR
- 150 women on average start the abortion pill reversal process each month
- Women in all 50 states and 93 countries contacted APRN in 2023
- 77% of women who seek reversal do so within 24 hours of taking the abortion pill
- 43% increase in reversal starts since 2020
Life trend: Option Line
Option Line, powered by Heartbeat, is a 24/7 pregnancy helpline, serving as a vital resource, especially when pregnancy centers are closed, ensuring that assistance is available to women in need around the clock.
Option Line statistics as of 2023:
- 58% of contact via phone
- 9% of contact via chat
- 23% use a self-service locator
- Option Line connects someone to lifesaving help every 76 seconds
- More than 7 million women and men have contacted Option Line since 2003
The increase in access to abortion with less oversight accentuates the critical need for pregnancy help, Trudden said.
“This underscores the urgency of our mission,” she said. “The window to offer life-affirming alternatives is rapidly narrowing and we need to look at innovative ways to increase both speed to service and speed to care,” she said.
“Thankfully, we are already noting pregnancy help organizations adding such services as telecare and on-site doctors who are at-the-ready to serve,” said Trudden.
Godsey praised the day-to-day service carried out by the pregnancy help movement and its life-affirming impact.
“We celebrate each and every success story and collect them all to show how, as a community, we are making a huge difference across the country and around the globe,” Godsey said.
The full 2024 Life Trends Report is available HERE. A breakdown of the stats in the latest Life Trends report can be found HERE.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
