As pregnancy help has been the continued target of abortion activists in government, media, healthcare, and beyond, a leading pro-life law and policy organization gathered representatives of some 90 pregnancy help organizations in the Nation’s Capital to prep them on advocating for their life-affirming work.
Americans United for Life (AUL) hosted the training for pregnancy help directors and select staff June 3-4 with hands-on instruction from seasoned policy and communications experts on advocacy at the local, state, and national levels.
Founded in 1971, AUL is a non-partisan nonprofit that supports the right to life in culture, law, and policy, preparing advocates and lawmakers for pro-life work. The group monitors and reports on state legislation and policy, defends life in the courts, and publishes the annual Life List highlighting the leading pro-life states in the U.S.
AUL’s inaugural Telling Our Story: The Keys to Unlocking Pregnancy Center Advocacy training offered tools and strategies for pregnancy help personnel to confidently engage lawmakers and others and effectively communicate their organization’s mission.
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In follow-up to the training participants took part in meetings on Capitol Hill with Congressional Members and staff where they advocated for pregnancy help. Federal lawmakers offered remarks at times during other parts of the event.
The pregnancy center advocacy training comes amid persistent abortion activist assailing of pregnancy help with falsehoods about centers’ services and credibility, legislative and policy offensives from pro-abortion elected officials, and complicit tech and media industries.
Pregnancy centers, medical clinics, adoption agencies, and maternity homes, along with churches and pro-life groups, have remained on alert since the widespread pro-abortion vandalism, violence, and public smearing of pro-life entities in the months and years following the 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs ruling overturning Roe v. Wade returning abortion regulation to the states. Catholic Vote maintains a tracker of attacks on pregnancy centers and pro-life groups. Catholic News Agency had compiled one as well.
AUL’s Pregnancy Center Day on the Hill also comes less than two months after a report from the Department of Justice showing the Justice Department under President Joe Biden egregiously weaponized the FACE Act against pro-life Americans.
AUL and others in the pro-life community recognize the need for pregnancy help organizations to effectively tell their story to counter and correct the rampant misrepresentations about pregnancy help promulgated by abortion activists.
False pro-abortion claims are countered at the PregnancyCenterTruth.com website hosted by Heartbeat International, the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. and globally, and a partner and presenter for the AUL pregnancy center advocacy event.
Heartbeat is also a partner with AUL along with Care Net and Lifeline Children’s Services in AUL’s Pregnancy Center Advocacy Hub.
Tweet This: Americans United for Life hosted Pregnancy Center Advocacy Day training and Pregnancy Center Day on the Hill for pregnancy help personnel.
Topics covered during AUL’s Pregnancy Center Advocacy Day included storytelling and advocacy, lobbying, and specifics of the legislative process. Attendees participated in a listening session, sharing challenges they face and hurdles they have overcome. They learned the importance of engaging to successfully convey their organizations’ stories and mission, and rehearsed putting the tools and methods presented into action.
At a banquet in recognition of the work of pregnancy centers the pregnancy help personnel heard from Janet During, former long-time executive director of Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center, which has served countless women and families, but made headlines for being targeted following the Dobbs ruling due to its location in Washington D.C.
Pro-life Members of Congress Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL), Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) made brief appearances during the event and offered remarks assessing the legislative landscape and praising pregnancy help.
AUL’s Telling Our Story: The Keys to Unlocking Pregnancy Center Advocacy training was presented in partnership with Leadership Institute, Care Net, Heartbeat International, Seven Weeks Coffee, America First Policy Institute, Choose Life Marketing, the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, Family Policy Alliance, Truth Media Services, Vitae Foundation, and Winning Strategy Group.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
