Earlier this year Heartbeat International celebrated a “Breakthrough” at its Annual Pregnancy Help Conference as it held its first conference since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Now, in less than six months, the international pregnancy help movement will come together again on a united front. The theme for Heartbeat’s 2024 conference is “United for Life,” and the conference will take place April 24-26 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“The theme Breakthrough for our 2023 conference was inspired by the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe and released our country from the judicial shackles of, so-called, abortion ‘rights,’” explained Jor-El Godsey, president of Heartbeat International. “This not only released life-minded politicians to constrain and restrict abortion, but to put more energy and investment into the conditions women deal with that suggest abortion is the only choice.”
“Breakthrough, however, is also what happens every time a mom overcomes the cultural and economic, and even coercive, pressures to make a choice for life,” Godsey said.
Heartbeat is the largest network of pregnancy help in the U.S. and globally, spanning every inhabited continent with more than 3,300 affiliates worldwide and more than 2,100 affiliated pregnancy help locations in the U.S. The pregnancy help community consists of pregnancy help centers and medical clinics, non-profit adoption agencies, and maternity homes.
2024 will mark the 53rd year for the Heartbeat conference, which welcomes pregnancy help personnel from across the world regardless of affiliation.
Now more than ever, the pregnancy help community needs to be united as pregnancy centers face varying scenarios, and often attacks, in each state but hold a common purpose. Each center is designed to help women see the significance of life for their baby and the hope that exists for them as women.
“In the wake of Dobbs, the pregnancy help movement saw an onslaught of violence, vandalism, and vitriol from pro-abortion proponents and politicians,” Godsey said. “Big Abortion and its purchased politicians are finding new ways to protect abortion profiteering by targeting its most effective competition - pregnancy help organizations.”
“Our theme, United for Life, arises out of the need to stand together and stay strong,” Godsey said. “While our movement has different methods, we are united in the mission that women must have alternatives to abortion.”
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This year’s theme is not necessarily a new concept, Godsey said, but it needs to be celebrated and highlighted in the aftermath of the overturn of Roe.
“There has never been a more important time to recognize that the pregnancy help movement has been united for life since its inception,” he said.
“Since the 1960s we have grown in numbers, expanded our methods, multiplied our services, and incorporated life-saving technology,” said Godsey. “In doing so, we, together, have become Big Abortion's greatest competition. This is because, while our methods may vary, we hold fast to the clarity of the call to champion life.”
“It is in that call that we all in the pregnancy help movement are united for life,” he added. “With our opposition's efforts to defeat, demoralize, and divide us, we felt that our core unity for the sanctity of life is a great theme to rally around and remind us of our collective strength.”
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The themes for the last four years’ conferences and how they lead up to this year’s “United for Life” concept are discussed on the Heartbeat International webpage for the 2024 conference.
In 2020, during the Covid shut down, the “Vision” never changed. In 2021, as the county was trying to function through the pandemic, pregnancy help centers were “Essential.” In 2022, as centers gathered together in Jacksonville as the historic overturning of Roe v. Wade loomed, they were pressing “Onward.”
Today, the 2023 “Breakthrough” has led to a full embrace of being United for Life among centers across the U.S. and worldwide.
Ministry leaders, staff, board members, and volunteers of life-affirming pregnancy help centers, medical clinics, maternity homes, and non-profit adoption agencies, along with professionals in medicine, counseling, social work, and education will avail themselves of unique, professional keynote sessions, distinctive, full-day in-depth training sessions, and workshop presentations from ministry experts at the conference. Pregnancy help milestones and servant leadership will be once again recognized at the event, and the work of pregnancy help servants will be showcased and celebrated.
The 2024 conference will again offer a concurrent virtual conference option for those who cannot attend in person, and CEUs and contact hours for nurses, physicians, and ultrasound techs will be available with in-person attendance.
As with every conference, attendees will engage in worship sessions, connect and network with one another, and encounter a plentiful roster of vendors and sponsors geared specifically for the pregnancy help community.
Stay tuned to Pregnancy Help News and Heartbeat International social media platforms for announcement of when registration opens for Heartbeat's 2024 United for Life Annual Pregnancy Help Conference.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
