The battleground for saving moms and babies in unplanned has changed in recent years as tech continues to rise. But though the backdrop may be different the mission of serving women with compassionate, life-affirming care is the same.
As the abortion industry is de-medicalizing, further depersonalizing and pursuing profit via tech, the mission of the pregnancy help movement, now more than five decades old, is the same and more crucial, Heartbeat International President Jor-El Godsey said.
Heartbeat is the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. and globally and Godsey often offers a state of the movement message at its annual pregnancy help gathering.
In his keynote message for the most recent conference Godsey underscored the fact that being present with a human connection for women has always been and remains the pregnancy help community’s greatest strength, along with authentic love. He also gave an update on changes in the abortion trade and the need to respond.
He showed how video mega chain Blockbuster went from the top of its industry to just one location now remaining for nostalgia, due to changes in the industry, the rise of video streaming and media giant Netflix, and Blockbuster staying the same.
Blockbuster has become a case study of what happens when an organization fails to adapt, he said.
“Netflix changed everything,” Godsey said. “But Blockbuster stayed the same, and Blockbuster disappeared.”
Another example he offered was Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s transformation of commerce worldwide beginning with book selling, and similarly how those bookstores that didn’t adapt did not survive.
“The lesson,” Godsey said, “Is people didn't stop watching movies, they didn't stop buying books, but how they accessed them changed.”
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For nearly 30 years, the abortion industry experienced something painful, he said, they lost business.
Godsey ran down how for three decades from the mid-eighties the pregnancy help movement thwarted the abortion industry and disrupted its model, opening clinics, offering ultrasounds, and treating women with compassion.
“You molded to better serve your community, and it made a difference,” Godsey said.
Godsey said the pregnancy help community took market share away from the abortion lobby by providing a presence, services and support that were more like home, more personal, and more human, in contrast with the abortion business whose origins were in the shadows and the dark back alleys.
Now the abortion lobby has learned the lesson that Blockbuster did not, he pointed out, and they have adapted.
This is evidenced by the fact that today more than 70% of abortions happen by pill, he said, and increasingly, these are ordered online, no clinic needed, no waiting room required.
Planned Parenthood has become Planned Parenthood Direct – no doctor visit needed, said Godsey, and they have friends in online abortion pill websites where anyone can access abortion pills, those sites currently numbering around 70 and previously as many as 120.
“Some of them are sourcing deadly pills from far away countries,” he said. “Just a website, a few clicks, and pills in the mail.”
“They certainly did not make abortion better,” Godsey said. “They made it easier, faster, more distant.”
“They have been working on removing every single thing that would slow someone towards that decision to choose death for their child versus life,” he added, “including the medical people. They've been taking everything out of the equation that they possibly can.”
He cited some of the many recent examples of easy abortion pill access opening the door to abuse and coercion. Sometimes pill providers will even send more than what's necessary for that time, he said, so that the pills are waiting and available all the time.
“So, Planned Parenthood is closing clinics all the time. And you see the headlines, the weeping and gashing of teeth that the headlines suggest,” Godsey said. “It's like, "Oh, this is really sad. We're closing."
But curiously, they're not just closing them in the life states, he said, they're closing them also in the abortion states, in the states that actually pay for abortions.
“So, in my mind, they're not really weeping,” said Godsey. “They're rejoicing because the brick-and-mortar for them is a hindrance and it's a weight on their profit line.”
They have adapted to overcome, he said, because the online model is far more profitable. The abortion industry is no longer constrained by business hours, and the new model means that they can sell more abortion pills around the clock.
“This is the friction that they've taken away,” he said. “When you contact them, you don't have to go anywhere. You barely have to do anything to be able to access the product that they are waiting to sell and waiting to move.”
The landscape has shifted, he told pregnancy help conference attendees with a challenge to adapt with it.
The mission has not changed, Godsey clarified, but methods must adapt, “Because we exist to intervene in a path that leads to death.”
The best model, Godsey said, is still where the pregnancy help community can intervene in that path leading to abortion.
Big Abortion has the favor of the media and the power of deep pockets, he said, but he eschewed being discouraged.
The need has certainly not disappeared, Godsey said. It has moved, it's gone digital, become more isolated, even more hidden, but it's still urgent.
He said that the power of the pregnancy help movement is not in its buildings, its ultrasounds, or its programs.
“The power is in our people,” said Godsey. “Because love is not a program. Love is a person, especially in a person powered by God.”
He said the power is sitting across from someone, or on the phone with them, or in a virtual setting, and saying, "You're not alone."
“Technology has its place,” Godsey said. “It can simulate connection, but it cannot replace love.”
He went on to explain how structuring operating hours to best address when clients are seeking service was key. He emphasized the importance of being innovative, engaging technology, and being open to a new perspective.
“It's still true that the very best alternative to an abortion is another person,” Godsey said.
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The other side is doing everything they can to take people out of the equation, he said, and is waiting there for her, telling her there's an easy answer.
The pregnancy help movement offers something different from the abortion Big Abortion false promise of convenience and ease, Godsey said, connection, presence, and love.
Godsey said the need was not for something different, but rather, for more of what the pregnancy help movement does, more of the time.
“You can do this everywhere,” Godsey said. “You don't have to be tied to your building to fulfill the mission. You can serve your clients and patients wherever you are and whenever they are looking for help.”
The landscape has changed dramatically, he said, and staying the same is not an option, but the champions of the pregnancy help movement have made themselves available to serve women however necessary in the past. And the great movements of history were carried forward by ordinary people who chose to act.
“Every day, you help free women from pressures, economic, relational, and cultural, that can make abortion feel like the only path forward,” Godsey said. “You don't just speak about life; you make choosing like possible. But that only happens through people who are willing to stand in the gap.”
Godsey said that the future of pregnancy help will be in the power of combining high-tech accessibility with personal connection, love, and compassion.
“When God's people show up at the right moment, with the right kind of love,” he said, “even the gates of hell will not prevail against us.”
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
