With so much pressure being applied to the abortion industry in the past month, thanks to the undercover work by the Center for Medical Progress, a heightened awareness for the need of viable alternatives to abortion is emerging.
Not only is the supply side of the abortion industry being exposed as the barbaric practice it has always been, but men and women who value every human life despite the status of a person’s birth are turning their attention to the demand side: Where will women go for help in an unexpected pregnancy?
The conviction that every life is precious is the pulse of the pro-life movement. It has also led to the pioneering work of the pregnancy help community, which now includes 3,000 locally supported nonprofits across the United States and well over 5,000 throughout the world.
At the core of pregnancy help is our shared understanding that the very best alternative to abortion is another person. It is another person, offering help, hope, compassion and information, who makes the difference.
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How we connect a mother who holds abortion as an (even silent) option to another person is a matter of methodology. As varied as methodologies are from place to place, new research from the Charlotte Lozier Institute tells us that, “increased numbers of women at risk for abortion have been visiting [pregnancy help centers] over the last 14 to 15 years.” This is what the Institute’s president, Chuck Donovan, calls, “a hallmark of great success.”
It can sound appealing to develop one “national brand” under the Planned Parenthood or McDonald’s-style franchise model. But, ambitious as these plans can sound, the possibility of “one brand” capturing a market proves unrealistic even when it comes to burgers and abortions: Planned Parenthood performs less than one third of U.S. abortions, and McDonald’s owns less than one quarter of the U.S. fast food market.
Tweet This: More women visiting #Prolife #PregnancyCenters is "hallmark of great success." @LozierInstitute
More dangerously, that the Center for Medical Progress’ work threatens to take down all of Planned Parenthood in one fell swoop shows that uniting behind one brand represents a significant vulnerability for local organizations whose calling is to provide women with hope and help.
As Heartbeat International has found in our over 40 years of supporting pregnancy help, the strength of our network lies precisely in the diverse, localized, pro-active and responsive approach of our organizations—and more importantly, of the pioneering, creative, and entrepreneurial spirit of those who lead them.
Just like the pro-life movement in general—which includes pro-life men and women working in the many, diverse legislative, legal, and public awareness spheres—the pregnancy help movement is effective not in spite of our variances, but because of them.
In the United States, we are well over 40 years into this battle for life, and it has taken men and women of every stripe—yet with a shared value—to get where we are today. In this sense, the only losing proposition is an “either-or,” “one-size-fits-all” approach to pregnancy help.
Tweet This: The only losing proposition is an "either-or" approach to #pregnancy help. @HeartbeatIntl
Yes, we need big brand medical-ready centers—and many of these have been serving women since the 1980s. Likewise, we need familiar locally branded entities of every shape and size that communities have come to trust through a generation or more of service.
Yes we need full-scale life-affirming medical centers that offer well-woman and prenatal care, but this doesn’t eliminate the ongoing need for maternity homes and adoption agencies. We need to be in upscale communities, but perhaps even more so, we need to be in low-income communities where the abortion providers are most predatory.
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Perhaps it’s time to re-think any inherently narrow definition of “effective.” Effective is as effective does, and it will take on a vastly different form from one location and one demographic to another.
What stays the same, however, is the need for a person. One person who is willing to make a difference. One person who is willing to speak life and light into a deathly, dark place.
One person who is willing to be the alternative to abortion.
Margaret H. (Peggy) Hartshorn, Ph.D., has served as President of Heartbeat International since 1993, guiding the organization as it has grown into the largest, most expansive network of pregnancy help in the world, with nearly 2,000 locations on every inhabited continent.
