(The Washington Stand) As abortion totals in the United States hover above one million lives lost in 2024, the need for pregnancy help services is greater than ever. Fortunately, the pace of news surrounding center networks in the United States and even overseas remains brisk, and plans for expansion are ambitious.
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Last week in Birmingham, Alabama, members of Heartbeat International, the largest of the network organizations, gathered from 44 American states and more than 20 countries worldwide to educate one another, share encouraging projects, and craft strategies for countering a worldwide culture of death. The annual meeting drew 1,600 in-person participants and hundreds more attending sessions online with experts in medicine, ultrasound technology, marketing, development, communications, parenting education, and other sectors.
Heartbeat International has convened conferences for more than half a century since its founding in 1971 as Alternatives to Abortion International. From modest but visionary beginnings under the leadership of Dr. John Hillabrand, Lore Maier, and Sister Paula Vandegaer, Heartbeat has acquired massive scope today despite politically-oriented attacks and litigation from elements of the abortion industry that chafe at the provision of life-affirming options for women and families in need. Delivering a fresh report in Birmingham, Heartbeat President Jor-El Godsey reported impressive figures on the network’s accomplishments:
- Having 3,647 pregnancy help affiliates around the world, with 1,357 of them overseas;
- Carrying out 2,164,043 in-person client visits at affiliated centers in 2024;
- Initiating 1,924 abortion pill reversal attempts, approaching an average of 200 reversal starts each month, now totaling nearly 7,000 babies saved and mothers helped, via this medical protocol;
- Building the abortion pill rescue (APR) network worldwide to comprise more than 1,000 providers, clinics, and pharmacies;
- Linking with 498 residential maternity homes, an increase of 17% since 2022;
- Conducting 800 online learning opportunities via its Reach and Rescue project, with 11,402 active participants in the Heartbeat Academy;
- Advancing PregnancyHelpNews.com as a vital news source on developments on today’s issues and pro-life responses, with 211,775 page views at its website;
- Surpassing $10 million in revenue and expenditures while keeping total fundraising and administrative expenses at 20%.
Heartbeat has managed to achieve these goals in the face of constant pressure from abortion exponents like the State of California, the administration of Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul in New York, and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts (D), a state where total abortions grew by more than 37% during the most recent reporting year. Many of the attacks are focused on the APR procedure, as apparently the very idea of a woman choosing to change her mind after starting an abortion offends the abortion industry’s agenda. As Godsey explains regarding Heartbeat’s mission and determination, “It is the pregnancy help movement that has stood the strongest against abortion even as the United States was plunged into the darkness of the Roe v. Wade decision. Pregnancy help outreach was successful even when the laws weren’t, rescuing hundreds of thousands of lives each year.”
Heartbeat’s impressive efforts are part of a diverse and growing movement of organizations that have tracked their combined impact since 2009 when Family Research Council published the first pregnancy center national report, “A Passion to Serve, a Vision for Life: Pregnancy Resource Center Service Report 2009.” FRC produced a second edition of the national report in 2011 called “A Passion to Serve: How Pregnancy Centers Empower Women, Help Families, and Strengthen Communities.” From the beginning, these service reports represented a collaborative effort among an array of networks, including Care Net and the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates. After the second edition, FRC generously allowed the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), the research arm of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, to take on the project of compiling service reports, which have now covered the years 2018, 2020, and 2022 in what CLI calls its “Legacy of Life and Love Series.”
The most recent of these reports, subtitled "Hope for a New Generation,” was updated in December 2024 and benefits from information provided by Option Ultrasound at Focus on the Family, Birthright, Human Coalition, and by several groups dedicated to the production and distribution of medical mobile units (MMUs). These include Save the Storks, ICU Mobile, and a newer group called Vans for Life that take their services out to their clientele, often helping to relieve the challenge of maternity care deserts where obstetrical care is of limited availability. “Hope for a New Generation” offers encouraging data drawn from 2,750 pregnancy centers and mobile units in all 50 states on the service levels being achieved through these networks:
- Participating centers recorded more than 16 million client visits, in person and virtually, in 2022;
- Centers provided over $358 million worth of goods and services to clients, including diapers, baby formula, new car seats, baby clothing, and furniture;
- New clients for the year tallied 974,000, and more than 600,000 students took part in community-based education presentations;
- More than 97% of women and men who obtained assistance at pregnancy centers reported they had a positive experience, in sharp contrast with recent patient and employee experiences at Planned Parenthood, according to The New York Times;
- Provision of key services by centers continued to grow as, for example, the percentage point increase in the number of centers offering ultrasounds grew by three percent to 82%, sexually transmitted disease testing grew by six percent to 36%, sexually transmitted disease treatment by seven percent to 28%, lactation consulting by eight percent to 27%, and abortion pill reversal by 16% to 27%.
Clearly, there are needs and room for additional service growth, which can occur via multiple pathways. Fresh synergy could emerge through the recent merger of ICU Mobile and Care Net. Care Net was established as a successor organization to Christian Action Council which was established in the 1970s. It describes itself “as a gospel-centered ministry that builds strong families, promotes marriage and fatherhood, and connects people to their local churches for ongoing care and discipleship.” Care Net operates 1,200 centers nationwide and has regularly compiled national reports on its patient and service totals.
The Akron, Ohio-based ICU Mobile likewise states its mission is gospel-centered and focused on encouraging women to embrace “God’s gift of life.” It operates 38 mobile units that partner with 37 pregnancy center affiliates in 21 states. The units record 1,600 decisions made for Christ and 21,000 clients who made decisions for life with ICU Mobile’s help.
Finally, and perhaps with the greatest potential for growth, there is the range of public funding options becoming available to expand pregnancy help center work. In an ideal world, states would compete to establish preeminence in pregnancy care to ensure that women can receive positive counseling, obtain early prenatal care, and access a range of help, including child care and employment training. Over time, the gap would become even clearer than it is now between states that view unexpected pregnancy as a burden to be discarded or a boon to be treasured. As noted elsewhere, major improvements need to be made in U.S. pregnancy data collection to allow comprehensive measurements of states’ success in maternity care and infant thriving, but the means to conduct such examinations will be crucial to all the policy and program evaluations of the future.
One particular program deserves extra mention now, the state of Arkansas’s $2 million appropriation signed into law last week by Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Funds under the bill can go to pregnancy help groups, adoption agencies, maternity homes, and other entities that help women make decisions for life. According to the Arkansas Family Council, the funding is flexible enough to permit grants to charities that focus on maternal and infant nutrition through distribution of prenatal vitamins, referral to Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) programs, food pantries, and other community resources. The funding is just the latest measure in a string of enactments in Arkansas designed to reach women in need on a timely basis.
The search for model policy sets will continue, with everything from child and adoption tax credits to enhanced child support enforcement in the mix. Reducing a substantial percentage of America’s sky-high abortion rate will not be easy and will require legal changes in addition to enhanced social service supports. Peggy Hartshorn, a driving force behind the pregnancy center movement as the longtime leader of Heartbeat International, put it best when she said, “God will use people from every walk of life, every profession, every business background, no matter what it is. He doesn’t call the equipped; He equips the called.” On the conference’s final day, the international audience honored her as she accepted a new role as president emeritus of Heartbeat and offered this encouragement: “With the challenges we face after the Dobbs ruling, these days feel like the period immediately after Roe v. Wade. It seems daunting, but I see hope in what God has done for us. God is working through His people. We can prevail if we continue together towards tomorrow, trusting in the Lord.”
For 54 years, Heartbeat International and life advocates everywhere have endeavored to provide this equipment to dedicated women and men around the world not to walk with families for a day but for a lifetime. By measure of the events last week in Birmingham, this vocation for life continues its constant renewal.
Tweet This: For 54 years Heartbeat International has worked to equip those who walk with families for a lifetime through pregnancy help.
Editor's note: Chuck Donovan served in the Reagan White House as a senior writer and as Deputy Director of Presidential Correspondence until early 1989. He was executive vice president of Family Research Council, a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation, and founder/president of Charlotte Lozier Institute from 2011 to 2024. He has written and spoken extensively on issues in life and family policy. He served on the board for Heartbeat International which manages Pregnancy Help News. This article was published by The Washington Stand and is reprinted with permission. Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) and Pregnancy Help News. Heartbeat is currently the subject of two lawsuits brought by State AGs concerning sharing information about Abortion PIll Reversal.
