Pregnancy help organizations and pro-life advocates embrace the ambitious goal of saving and changing lives and regularly turn to prayer to guide them in this objective. For some, that’s starting a new pregnancy center or medical clinic. For others that means adding a new element, such as adoption, or a fatherhood program, or a maternity home.
Mater Fillius (“mother and child” in Latin) opened in opened in Colorado Springs earlier this year.
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Lisa Schmitz served as founder and executive director for Mater Fillius Colorado Springs, and though she no longer holds the position of executive director, she shared via video earlier this year that homelessness is a significant problem in the city of nearly a half-million people. She and others felt compelled to help pregnant women and single mothers who experienced homelessness and sought guidance from God about how to help. Through prayer and networking, the vision took root.
Schmitz had worked in pregnancy help and transitional housing for several years, and therefore knew the type of clients the home would serve and how to connect the mission of “defending life with love” with pro-life pregnancy centers and other organizations in the community.
The staff and board are likewise praying regularly as they search for a new director.
The endeavor is part of an international organization. The U.S. lead affiliate is located in Omaha, Neb.
At the homes, women receive housing, counseling, medical care, and emotional and spiritual support at no charge. Through workshops, they learn how to parent, and through prayer, they come to understand the love of God and that they are truly loved by the Lord.
Powered by prayer
Prayer is a critical element in pro-life pregnancy help work, as trusting that the Lord will bless this ministry requires faith.
In one example of how this plays out, a maternity home in Texas has grown to now encompass an entire neighborhood and include a thrift store and a grocery store, employing moms from the home as well as community members.
In another instance a pregnancy center in a small town in Iowa responded to woman’s cry for help via Abortion Pill Reversal, the first of such saves for the center. The staff battled a blizzard to serve the young client with APR services and a safe place to stay.
Prayer comes into play when any time a center implements a mobile unit, not only for where deploy the unit, but also how to fund and staff it.
Additionally, when the New York Attorney General sued Heartbeat International and other pregnancy help organizations over sharing information with women about APR, prayer was an integral part of meeting that great challenge and standing firm in the face of adversity.
“Prayer is vital to the work [of pregnancy help ministries],” said Martha Avila, executive director of Heartbeat of Miami. “God knows every need that we have.”
During the past 20 years, she and her supporters have opened five pregnancy medical clinics in the Miami, Fla., area. The staff has seen thousands of women, helped those who are victims of human trafficking, and administered the APR protocol, all supported by the power of prayer.
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Some pregnancy help organizations designate special rooms in their facility for prayer. Women choose life for their children because of prayer. Abortion facilities close their doors and pregnancy centers open maternity homes as a result of prayer.
The 40 Days for Life prayer vigils and outreach change hearts and minds in the U.S. and beyond, with prayer as a pillar of its ministry. It was in fact after having served as a “prayer warrior” on the sidewalk with a 40 Days for Life campaign that Schmitz answered God’s call to work alongside others to found Mater Fillius Colorado Springs.
"I just had a call on my heart that there was something more," Schmitz said.
Witnessing the impact of prayer
Avila has witnessed the power and impact of prayer in her clinics and in the state of Florida where she resides. The five Heartbeat of Miami clinics are located in Hialeah, Miami (two locations), North Miami, and Homestead.
Two of those five are previous abortion facilities. Spiritual warfare exists at all the pregnancy medical clinics but can be especially difficult in the two centers where abortions were once performed, Avila told Pregnancy Help News.
“We fight not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities of darkness,” she said.
Staff at each of the Heartbeat of Miami clinics pray daily before meeting with clients, and once per week, the staff from all five gather via Zoom to pray together, Avila said.
“We don’t start the day without bringing the Lord in,” she said. “Prayer is the number one thing for us.”
“Prayer connects us to the God of the universe,” said Jessica Baxter, president and CEO of True Care Women’s Resource Center in Casper, Wyo. “It is a foundation for everything we do.”
The staff prays for each other and for the patients they see, but they also pray for guidance for the ministry, for the donors, and for family and friends of their patients.
“Prayer is also a connection to Him,” Baxter said. “We pray daily as a group before our patients come in, we pray when certain circumstances arise. We pray as a staff, but we also send out prayer requests – we have a prayer group that prays for us.”
Baxter and her staff have witnessed many answers to prayer, from the abortion-determined woman who changes her mind to funds needed for specific items like new computers.
“Knowing folks are praying for us outside of our organization is another level of protection and accountability for us,” she said. “It also connects them to what’s happening at True Care. Their connection to us while they’re connecting to God in prayer brings about that community and ownership of everything that’s happening here.”
A recent “windfall” of growth from placing trust in the Lord for True Care was ther meeting of an unbudgeted need for a second location near a newly-opened abortion center in Casper. True Care supporters filled in the monetary gap to open and staff that second location.
Prayer, always
The efficacy and power of prayer extends beyond the walls of a pregnancy help organization and other pro-life efforts that complement them to prayers for pro-life lawmakers and laws.
The state of Florida was among the U.S. states with a constitutional amendment on the ballot in the 2024 election, narrowly missing the enshrining of abortion in the constitution with the 60 percent threshold for passage missed by three points. faced a potential state amendment change during the 2024 general election in November. The DeSantis administration called upon the faith community to rally in opposition to the extreme amendment 4 and also battled the well-funded pro-abortion misinformation campaign to pass the amendment.
“The amount of money spent [to pass] Amendment 4 was horrific,” Avila said. “It was like a David and Goliath story.”
She and her staff once again turned to prayer.
“At our clinics we said, ‘We are going to pray, we are going to fast,’ and that is exactly what we did,” said Avila. “God answered, and He found us faithful. And not just ours, but through the faithful prayers of His people.”
“Prayer is vital to the work [of pro-life pregnancy centers],” Avila added. “We fight our battles on our knees. There is no other way to face these evil forces that we face every day. This is a spiritual battle.”
Editor's note: 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 the sharing of information about Abortion Pill Reversal.
