The grant responsible for launching numerous pregnancy help centers in areas of need in the United States over the last six years is having historic impact where it is needed most.
Heartbeat International’s Life Launch Grant Program is reporting that 75% of its recipients are located in U.S. counties that had previously gone without pregnancy help.
This means that thanks to the Life Launch Program, more than 1.5 million people in those areas now have access to pregnancy help services where they did not before (based on 2019 Census data), making available unprecedented life-affirming advocacy in these communities.
"Heartbeat has been paying close attention to the ever-increasing need for pregnancy help support,” said Sara Littlefield, Life Launch Grant Program specialist, “especially in areas primed for more life-saving outreach.”
News of the numbers and Life Launch's extensive effect comes as the pregnancy help community stands ready to continue its work of serving women and families with life-affirming support in a post-Roe world.
The Life Launch Grant was established to foster growth of pregnancy help centers in underserved communities that need life-saving alternatives to the abortion industry.
"Heartbeat's Life Launch Grant Program is designed to inspire a new season of pregnancy help center start-ups by supporting leadership teams opening brand-new centers in their communities,” Littlefield said. “Start-up
pregnancy centers in underserved regions that have gone without accessible pregnancy help are eligible to apply, as well as those start-up centers opening in communities where the abortion industry has targeted women and families."
Heartbeat is the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the world, with more than 3,000 affiliated pregnancy help locations worldwide and about 1,800 affiliated pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. The network consists of pregnancy help centers and medical clinics, non-profit adoption agencies, and maternity homes. Life Launch is available to pregnancy centers and medical clinics.
The most recent data from the Charlotte Lozier Institute indicates there are approximately 3,000 pregnancy help center locations in the U.S., including medical mobile units. Centers can affiliate with Heartbeat, one or both of two other major pregnancy help networks, all three, or none.
These pregnancy centers provide comprehensive, essential care to women and families either free or at low cost. They assisted almost two million people in 2019, at an estimated total value of services and material assistance of nearly $270 million – a fiscal benefit for the communities they serve.
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But there is still more to be done and more lives to be saved.
“Wherever women are without clear and present alternatives to abortion, the need for life-affirming pregnancy help is great,” Heartbeat International President Jor-El Godsey wrote in the 2021 document, “Pregnancy Help Centers (PHCs) in the U.S.A. – Room to Grow.”
Godsey’s white paper takes stock in the first 50 life-affirming years of the pregnancy help movement and points to a path forward for the pregnancy help community to continue saving lives in the future.
“Even with numerous PHCs in each state in the U.S.A., there is still room, and reason, to grow,” Godsey wrote.
“In densely-populated metropolitan cities we need to add more locations - similar to the expansion of popular retail outlets,” Godsey told Pregnancy Help News. “The PHC movement has physical presence in just over half the counties in the U.S. The counties without are the very definition of under-served. We can grow where we're not and where we are needed even more.”
“A network of nearly 3,000 pregnancy help locations is something to celebrate,” he said. “But upon closer examination, we find that there are major areas in the U.S. that are under-served for their population or lack of physical presence of a pregnancy help center (PHC) in their county.”
“A lot is going on,” stated Godsey, “but a lot more is needed to help continue to spread the life-saving working of pregnancy help providers.”
from the Harriman, Texas, Life Launch center
The Life Launch Grant Program has been in place since 2018 and is now dovetailing in a critical way with the pregnancy help analysis provided in the Room to Grow document.
To date there are 32 Life Launch Grant recipients with 18 U.S. states represented. Twenty-four of the recipients (75% of Life Launch centers) are serving or are preparing to serve communities that had gone without pregnancy help, making those life-affirming services available to the aforementioned 1,701,898 individuals in those areas.
“We have witnessed the growing need in communities where abortion facilities have specifically targeted women and families as well as those regions that have gone without accessible pregnancy help,” Littlefield told Pregnancy Help News.
Through an application process and matching grant format, the Life Launch Grant provides new pregnancy help center start-ups with resources, mentoring, training, and funds.
“The Life Launch Grant Program was developed to support the efforts of teams answering the call to bring pregnancy help to their communities while also seeking to foster connections in those regions in need of accessible pregnancy help," said Littlefield.
The Grant program’s efficacy has been remarkable since its inception and Life Launch pregnancy centers have proven to be unwavering and resilient.
Life Launch assisted six centers in opening their doors in its first year of 2018. Since 2019, 24 start-ups have been launched and are serving underprivileged areas through the Life Launch Program.
In 2020, seven Life Launch centers were able to keep their doors open to serve clients and another seven centers were able to open their doors for the first time.
Other remarkable achievements include one center that had opened in 2021 now becoming a full medical resource center, and one of the centers that had opened in 2020 doing so next door to the local Planned Parenthood.
“Life Launch is a trendsetting program that brings strong partnership, training, and support to communities that want to start a life-saving, pregnancy help center in their communities,” said Cindi Boston-Bilotta, Heartbeat International vice president of Mission Advancement. “The program is designed to bring long-term mentoring, quality training, and tools to the start-up group. It also provides matching funds so centers open quickly and can provide much-needed services for moms facing unexpected pregnancies.”
Tweet This: Life Launch is a trendsetting program bringing strong partnership, training, & support to communities
“Every community should have good access to pregnancy help,” Godsey said.
Tweet This: “Every community should have good access to pregnancy help”
The mid-1980s saw a spectacular spike in growth of pregnancy center organizations, he explained, and the Life Launch Program is an intentional effort to encourage another spike in growth that will impact the future. The Room to Grow analysis has helped refine the grant direction so that nearly all recipients are chosen to help us grow where the impact can be the greatest, said Godsey.
“The heart of the Life Launch program is to accelerate life-saving impact,” he said. “Our opportunity is to supercharge the founding and framing to produce more life-decisions faster and achieve sustainable services sooner. What might have taken five years or more, can now happen in just three or less.”
Tweet This: “The heart of the Life Launch program is to accelerate life-saving impact”
Life Launch Grant centers have termed the program “a lifeline,” praised the volume and effectiveness of the resources, and also expressed gratitude for the significant personal support provided by Heartbeat.
"Heartbeat is linking arms with those teams of people driven and determined to see the need for pregnancy help met through start-up pregnancy centers,” said Littlefield. “It's an exciting time for the pregnancy help movement as we see prayers answered and communities renewed for life!"
Additional information on the Life Launch Grant is available HERE.
See the roster of 24 Life Launch Grant Program centers that are providing first-time life-affirming pregnancy help services in their areas below:
1. Juneau Pregnancy Resource Center (Juneau Burough, Alaska – Pop. 32,227)
2. Moreno Valley Women’s Health Center (Targeted Community in Riverside County, California – Pop. 207,289)
3. Choices Pregnancy Center (Rabun County, Georgia – Pop. 16,645)
4. Crossroads of Crawford County (Crawford County, Iowa – Pop. 17,034)
5. Shenandoah Pregnancy & Resource Center (Fremont and Page Counties, Iowa – Pop. 22,214)
6. Pregnancy Help Center (White County, Illinois – Pop. 13,868)
7. Hope’s Place Pregnancy Support Center (Sherman County, Kansas – Pop. 5,938)
8. The Unexpected Pregnancy Center (Iberia Parish, Louisiana – Pop. 69,830)
9. Opelousas Pregnancy Center (St. Landry Parish, Louisiana – Pop. 82,124)
10. Katie’s House Pregnancy & Family Resource Center (Cedar County, Missouri – Pop. 14,043)
11. Life Options Green Hills Pregnancy + Health Center (Grundy County, Missouri – Pop. 9,992)
12. Pregnancy Resource Center of West Plains (Howell County, Missouri – Pop. 40,117)
13. Greenwood Pregnancy & Hope Center (Leflore County, Mississippi – Pop. 28,183)
14. Arms of Grace Pregnancy Resource Center (Alamance County, North Carolina – Pop. 169,509)
15. Life Line Sampson (Sampson County, North Carolina – Pop. 63,385)
16. Alpha Life Pregnancy Center (Hoke County, North Carolina – Pop. 55,234)
17. Options Pregnancy Center (Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska – Population 35,618)
18. ZoeCare (Yankton County, South Dakota – Pop. 22,814)
19. Life Choices Resource Center (Roane County, Tennessee – Pop. 53,382)
20. Created with Purpose of West Texas (Parmer County, Texas – Pop. 9,718)
21. Restore Reproductive Health (Medina County, Texas – Pop. 51,584)
22. Laredo Life Pregnancy Center (Webb County, Texas– Pop. 276,652)
23. Her Heart Pregnancy Help Center (Brazoria County, Texas – Pop. 374,264)
24. Futures Pregnancy Care (Caledonia County, Vermont – Pop. 30,234)
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
