The Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) gave us a game-changer with its A Half Century of Hope: A Legacy of Life and Love report released yesterday.
One finding? In 2017, pregnancy help ministries saved communities $161 million by providing care and resources to nearly 2 million people. That’s a lot of money and a lot of people.
This—and so many other insights in this 80-page report—is just what we need in the pregnancy help community. If we ever wonder whether we are making a difference, reading this report will change our minds. This report is more than perfect for those who support us and even for those who are wary of what we do.
With the abortion industry blaring “fake clinics!” at every turn, this report is—if read objectively—a kind, gentle refutation of virtually every objection voiced against our work.
Now that CLI provided such a powerful report, we in the pregnancy help community have a choice. We can either make this a one-day news story and set it aside, or we can go for maximum impact. I say we choose maximum impact.
If we do, we’ve got an opportunity to debunk the myths and take a major step forward in turning our communities toward life.
CLI has done its work. If we want this report to reach its destiny, here are five action items:
1. Read It All
Take 30 minutes and read every word. The pregnancy help community is strongest when we are on the same page. This is one of those rare documents which gives us a common ground to launch from in the coming year. Let’s all give this a careful once- or twice-over so that we are singing from the same song-sheet.
2. Find Key Bullet Points
We mentioned two of them above. But how about the fact that 1,900-plus pregnancy help clinics offer ultrasound? Or that we gave 400,100 ultrasounds to clients, worth more than $100 million in free medical care?
Or what about the 295,900 women and men receiving parenting education at our organizations? Or the fact that 96 percent of pregnancy help ministries provide material assistance to clients?
Want to find out about fatherhood initiatives? The rapidly growing Abortion Pill Reversal Network? Mobile Units? Prenatal Care?
Go inside the report, find the key information which applies to you and get ready to tell the good news. Which leads us to...
3. Share, Share, Share
CLI’s report is objective, yet powerful; non-political yet culture-changing. This is exactly what we need to share with a world full of too many cynics and reactionaries. I rarely share pro-life information on my personal social media platforms (I have another page for this), but I posted this quickly because it shares our message in such a positive way.
And, if we are in a position of influence in our ministries, we should send the link to this report to board members, paid and volunteer staff, supporters and friends who want to know more about our work.
Maximum impact matters. This is the time.
4. Hold the Politics
As we share this, keep in mind this is not our opportunity to “score” points with those who oppose us. The report creates this narrative quietly and effectively without our help.
For instance, Planned Parenthood is mentioned in the report but only matter-of-factly. On page 51, we see, “Planned Parenthood, the organization with the greatest market share of abortions in the U.S., located 100 percent of its surgical abortion facilities in 2014 in urban areas, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.” This highlights the truth—pointed out in the report—that minorities are more highly impacted by abortion than any other group. Then, CLI’s report underscores the pregnancy help community’s positive steps toward serving these communities.
In a wise move, the CLI report leaves the interpretation of this up to the reader. We should do the same.
This report is not our “Take that, abortion industry!” moment. Instead, it is our chance to shine by allowing this report to speak for itself. In CLI’s report, the abortion industry gets a casual glance, but the consistent focus is on the incredible news of our culture-changing work. This is as it should be.
Let’s “do us” instead of worrying about any “thems.” This report makes it happen.
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5. Print It
It’s 80 pages and some of us will believe this is too much to print. Print it anyway. Keep it in view of volunteer and paid staff members in break rooms and staff offices. Have it ready to give to a supporter.
When we see our local work is part of a larger, nationwide (and worldwide) mosaic, we gain confidence. And we pass this confidence on to others, too.
A sixth item? Thank our friends at the Charlotte Lozier Institute. They did an outstanding job pulling together the pregnancy help community by placing exclamation marks on the work of so many different groups, carefully researching the strengths of each.
Yes, CLI did its job well. Let’s take these five action points and do ours well, too.
