Heartbeat International kicked off its 55th Annual Pregnancy Help Conference Tuesday with an intensive training day packed with programming and a keynote address from a Planned Parenthood whistleblower.
Heartbeat is the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. and internationally. Its annual conference is likewise the largest gathering in the pregnancy help community.
The In-Depth Day is a pre-conference day featuring intensive tracks representing a comprehensive round-up of pregnancy help content.
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The tracks included Executive Roundtable, Housing Leaders Roundtable, STI Services To Better Reach the Most Vulnerable, Medical Leadership: Leading with Accountability & Grace, Masters in Development, Trauma-Informed Ministry: A Retreat Day for Sustainable Care, Mastering Messaging: Professional Communication Skills for Pregnancy Help Organizations, Sexual Wellness: Scientific Foundations and Practical Applications, Governing with Confidence: Essentials Every Board Member Should Know, The LOVE Approach, Who's the Guy in the Waiting Room?, Healthy is Messy: Loving Your Team Enough to Defeat Dysfunction, Pregnancy Help Apologetics, and Building Strength and Sustainability in Rural Pregnancy Centers.
The 2025 Conference is being held in Cincinnati with the theme of Power of Love, based on John 15:12, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." It is on track to be among the largest ever.
Tuesday’s In-Depth Day also featured an address from Mayra Rodriguez, the former Planned Parenthood center manager in Arizona who blew the whistle on mismanagement and failings at her location.
Rodriguez worked for the abortion giant for 17 years, advancing to the level of managing several locales and receiving Planned Parenthood’s Employee of the Year award. When she was abruptly fired in October 2017, she filed a wrongful termination lawsuit, claiming Planned Parenthood unjustly fired her because she was reporting cases of safety and health-related violations. These included incomplete abortions, falsification of patient records, illegal conduct, unreported statutory rape, severe injuries from abortion and high complication rates with a particular abortionist. In August 2019, a jury awarded Rodriguez $3 million in damages from Planned Parenthood.
Rodriguez shared her journey from thinking she was serving women in her job at Planned Parenthood and that pregnancy centers were nefarious, to objecting to the abortion provider’s transgressions and seeing pregnancy help centers for the providers of authentic providers of support and assistance to women that they are.
“I know what love looks like” she told the Heartbeat crowd of the sidewalk counselor who prayed for her and the local pregnancy center community’s support for her after she left Planned Parenthood and the lawsuit was in progress.
Tweet This: "I know what love looks like" - Mayra Rodriguez of the pregnancy help community’s support for her after she left Planned Parenthood.
Rodriguez said she is now able to understand “It was all for love.”
She thanked the pregnancy help movement’s support for former abortion workers, saying, “No one is too far gone for God.”
Editor’s note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
