Heartbeat International’s 53rd Annual Conference, held April 24-26, 2024, in Salt Lake City, Utah, drew one of the largest crowds ever for a Conference west of the Mississippi River.
About 1300 attendees gathered on site, while another 700 attended virtually. This included 45 representatives from 16 of the 96 countries that are home to the 1300 Heartbeat-affiliated pregnancy help organizations outside the US.
The conference theme, “United for Life,” arose “out of the need to stand together and stay strong,” Heartbeat’s President Jor-El Godsey said. This rang especially true when some centers—and even Heartbeat itself—received notice during Conference week of new efforts to oppose their work.
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“Different hearts beating the same way”
Evangeline Sanders, director of Pregnancy Resource Center of Salt Lake which hosted the conference, told Pregnancy Help News afterward, “The thing I love most about Annual Conference is seeing all the different centers come together and realizing that we are one movement with lots of different hearts and we’re all beating the same way.”
“While our movement has different methods, we are united in the mission that women must have alternatives to abortion,” Godsey said. Supporting and equipping ministries using all those methods called for a conference experience with a wide range of presentations, workshops, and vendor exhibits.
In-Depth Day on Tuesday, April 23, offered 12 focused, day-long presentations. Directors of pregnancy centers or maternity homes could participate in focused roundtable discussions. Other sessions ranged from pro-life apologetics to fundraising, from trafficking to trauma-informed care, and from abortion pill reversal to post-abortion care.
Medical professionals and Life Affirming Specialists could also opt to receive continuing education units from several workshops geared specifically for them throughout the conference.
Seventy-eight in-person workshops and 54 virtual sessions filled the main Conference schedule, categorized in tracks for center defense, client care, fundraising and marketing, leadership and staff stuff, medical advancement, housing, sexual integrity, soul care, and current trends.
A concurrent LOVE Approach Ultrasound Clinical training took place for ultrasound professionals, and prayer stations, Mass, and Confession were available for attendees. Maternity housing leaders gathered to visit a local home, and Life Launch centers convened to share successes. Servant Leaders in the pregnancy help movement were honored, and pregnancy help organizations observing milestone anniversaries were recognized.
Between workshops, attendees flocked to an exhibit hall filled with 91 vendors. Lisa Edris, a veteran board member from Heartbeat Hope Medical in Freemont, Ohio, said, “People don’t always talk about the vendors, but I think the vendors bring a unique perspective on how people can spend their money wisely and bring the best services to their community.”
Exhibitor and workshop presenter Tonya Waite with ESTEEM Youth Curriculum said she would gladly repeat this first Heartbeat conference experience.
“The workshop was absolutely full, and the booth was busy all week,” Waite said. “I have five pages of follow-ups for when I get back home. I was blown away with how many prevention-minded people are here and want to incorporate that into their centers.”
Keynote speakers included David Bereit, former CEO of 40 Days for Life; Amy Ford, President of Embrace Grace; Dr. Dermot Kearney, President Emeritus of Catholic Medical Association, UK; Jor-El Godsey; Kyle Mann, Editor-in-Chief of Babylon Bee, and Sylvia Johnson, executive director of Houston Pregnancy Help Center.
Both Mann and comedian Kerri Pomarolli added welcome doses of humor to the Friday general sessions. Mann related opposition to his own revealing of cultural truth through satire to what the pregnancy help movement encounters in saving lives from abortion.
“If flak is coming at you, you must be over the target,” he said.
Heading home ready to change
Many in-person conference attendees told Pregnancy Help News that they were taking home new ideas to ramp up their services, especially to reach abortion-minded women sooner.
Client Services Director Susan Kanerviko and Executive Director Ellen Wichmann came from Little Way Pregnancy Resource Center in Louisville, Ky.
They said, “Heartbeat and Jor-El do a good job of giving us an overview of the landscape of what’s going on in the country. How are we going to adapt? How are we going to change? This gives us things we’re going to focus on when we go back.”
Tweet This: Heartbeat does a good job of giving us an overview of what’s going on. This gives us things we’re going to focus on when we go back.
Emily, executive director of Lifeline Coalition, said she was heading home “really inspired to make some changes to combat what’s happening in the abortion industry and to work hard and fast to bring my team together and work with other organizations across the country.”
“Jor-El’s speech was amazing, about how we need to change the way we’re doing things,” Michele Menke, nurse at Hand ’n Hand Women’s Center of Mo., said. “This is the stuff we want to take back to our board and other employees to share with them and get them all on fire too.”
For others, the takeaways were more personal.
“I got to network with other people who are in my role in different parts of the country. It gave me lots of confidence and encouragement,” Jackie Wild of Women’s Support Center in Milwaukee, Wis., said.
Erin, a new nurse manager with Lifeline Coalition, said, “It’s so encouraging to be with so many people who are doing the same thing and believing the same thing, and you just don’t feel alone in it.”
Jacinta McGorian of Gianna Care in Ireland said, “My one take from HBI Conference is to meet people where they’re at and love them like Christ does, love them in their storm. I can only do this with Jesus.”
With the close of the “United for Life” conference, Heartbeat is already prepping for next year’s conference in Birmingham, Ala., under the theme, “Together Towards Tomorrow.”
“We don't all work together in our separate organizations, yet we can all worship together, laugh together, and be encouraged together for the mission set before us,” Godsey said. “It is a joy just to be standing in the same room as those who labor tirelessly for the Gift of Life and the Giver of Life.”
As for Evangeline Sanders’ team at Pregnancy Resource Center of Salt Lake, they’re already planning for next year.
“Even if we don’t have enough in the budget, we’ll start saving now,’” she said. “That’s how much Conference meant to them.”
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
