Featured Stories

Mallory's Story

Living Alternatives, Tyler, Texas

Mallory is a thriving young woman because her birthmother made the heroic decision to choose life for her unborn child.

My story of survival is one that I often take for granted. My life was ill conceived and what some would call illegitimate. I am the child of the hard case, the case used to justify abortion.

The night of my conception my mother made the unfortunate mistake of running to a false friend for emotional comfort during a personal crisis. Another man was there, and using the situation to his advantage, he and her "friend" managed to get her drunk, leaving her no possibility of getting home that night. She was shown to a spare bed, in which this stranger would also be sleeping. With the alcohol impairing her judgment as well as her strength, she became the unwitting victim of a rape.

When she realized she was pregnant, she turned to Living Alternatives for help. They counseled her through the pregnancy and gave her information about the positive aspects of adoption. Fortunately, my birthmother made the heroic decision to provide me with a loving mother and father, wonderful people that I am blessed to call my parents. I have never once felt unloved, unwanted, or out of place in my adoptive family. My parents make it a point to tell me that my adoption was the perfect answer to their infertility. They rejoice to see me spread my wings as a college student.

In the midst of simply enjoying life and looking forward to the future, it is sobering to think that had my birthmother not turned to the pregnancy center for help, I might not have left her womb intact. I am glad to be alive and I feel an obligation to let people know that pregnancy centers are good for America because they really do help women and children. Currently, I see myself fighting for the lives of other babies much like me. With the gift I have received, that would be perfectly legitimate.

I am currently enjoying life as a student at Regent University.

Megan and Ava's Story

Women's Choice Network: Oakland Center and Pregnancy Resource Center of the South Hills, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Ultrasound enabled Megan to see her baby, Ava, as a "real person." "The support and love the center showed me gave me the validation I was searching for all along."

When I found out I was pregnant, I was scared, confused, and believed everything I had been told. "Having a baby will ruin your life." "Abortion is the only way out." "Young single mothers cannot make it in this world." The fears I felt toward confronting the pregnancy, and having such drastic changes take place in my life, confirmed my decision. An abortion was the only way to "save" my life as I knew it.

I made an appointment for the next week for a medical abortion, where I would take the medication/pill regimen known as RU-486. The thought of "surgical abortion" made me queasy, and the clinic staff made the pill sound so simple - like taking a Tylenol for a headache. It seemed like the perfect solution had fallen right in my lap. But what I first thought was the answer to my prayers soon came with its own set of worries. I couldn't shake the nagging thoughts in the back of my mind, those unsettled feelings that I was sure would disappear since I had made the appointment to take the RU-486.

My anxiety worsened as the date for the abortion grew closer. I crept slowly through the days, wishing that I could stall the abortion appointment until I felt 100% confident about my choice. It was the biggest decision of my life, and I needed, I craved some conviction that it was the right decision. One day, as I was riding on the bus I saw a sign that read, "Considering Abortion? Pregnancy Care Centers: Caring, Confidential, Trusted." It gave me a sense of comfort I hadn't felt in weeks. I decided to call the number... I figured at that point, what did I have to lose? Maybe I did have one more chance to talk to someone before the abortion.

When I called the Help Line phone number, I was nervous - I didn't want to be judged or pressured. I just wanted to hear something hopeful. The woman on the other end of the line listened, and didn't judge. She gave me information, and set me up with an appointment. I don't know what prompted me to go. But I knew that I couldn't go in and get the abortion without some sense of affirmation that whatever choice I made, it would be a well-informed decision.

The visit to the pregnancy care center changed my life. For the first time, I saw my situation for what it really was - a blessing, a miracle of life. I saw my baby on the ultrasound as a real person. I could see her as a newborn baby... a little girl... and a grown woman who would do amazing things in this world if I would just give her the opportunity. Seeing Ava opened my eyes to everything I couldn't see before. I was able to see past my fears and my worries, and experience the excitement and joy of a new life. I felt a renewed sense of purpose, and an overwhelming responsibility to myself as a woman, and my capabilities of being a mother. The support and love the center showed me gave me the validation I was searching for all along.

The center wasn't about fixing a "problem" or telling me what to do - it was about the undeniable, unselfish celebration of life... and not just my baby's life, but mine as well. It was about empowerment, guidance and support. They were my reminder, when I was too scared to remind myself, that I didn't need to succumb to pressure just because I was afraid, and that I could choose the life I wanted. For the first time, I felt like I had choices and that I could make a genuine, confident decision.

When I left the clinic, I realized that the pit in my stomach was gone. I no longer had that nagging feeling of dread I had while I was waiting to have the abortion. I finally understood that the dread was not just a result of my current situation. It was really a preview of the regret that I would feel living the rest of my life knowing I had made a decision that I didn't have any information about. It was regret in a decision which would have stolen those qualities of joy and unconditional love that I experience in my life every day now.

Tina and Isabella's Story

Care Net Pregnancy Center of Cochise County, Sierra Vista, Arizona

Options counseling, non-judgmental care and support, as well as continuing friendship and prayers, were all provided to Tina, shown here with her daughter Isabella.

My boyfriend said there was only one option: abortion. After all, what would our parents say? What would the people at our church think?

I obediently scheduled an appointment, but before the date arrived, I was overwhelmed with doubts. I knew I couldn't do it. Desperate for help and options, I turned to the phone book and found the Care Net Pregnancy Center of Cochise County.

I scheduled an appointment to meet with a peer counselor. They sat down with me and helped me go over all of my options, and they really listened to my needs. I didn't feel judged; I just felt cared for.

After meeting with my counselor, I knew that I wanted to keep this baby. I still had fears about how this decision was going to affect my future, but the staff from the pregnancy center was there for me throughout my pregnancy. They offered me parenting classes as well as ears to talk to, shoulders to cry on, and ready prayers.

And now, I have a beautiful little daughter, Isabella. When I look at my daughter, I still cannot believe that I almost considered abortion. Life as a single mother is not a bed of roses, but the love that I have for my daughter and the love that she gives to me make it all worthwhile.

I am so thankful for the love and support I received at the Care Net center and for their continuing friendship and prayers!

Kendra's Story

Stillwater Life Services, Stillwater, Oklahoma

At a recent Stillwater Life Services banquet, Kendra (right) presented the story of how she went from being a pregnancy center client to become a college grad and center director. As director, Kendra often helped women faced with untimely pregnancies see the importance of a loving home - with a mother and a father - for their babies. Adoptive parents, Tiffany and Ramon (left), with baby, Abbey Noel, shared their gratitude during the banquet.

I walked through the doors of Stillwater Life Services (SLS) pregnant and wrapped in many layers of pain from emotional, physical, and sexual abuse as a child. Like Lazarus when Jesus raised him from the dead, I needed His people to loose the grave clothes that bound me. God used the staff at SLS, a Heartbeat International affiliate, to bring me back to life.

Through Heartbeat's Bridges program, God helped me to build non-judgmental relationships and revived my ability to dream. I learned parenting skills and found lasting friendships with people who helped me carry my cross.

The day also came when the Bridges program allowed me to give back to other women in need - as a volunteer. Inspired, I entered college with a dream that I could work in a center like SLS someday. In fact, God was preparing me for that day through my work at SLS as I went to school and started working as the director's assistant.

In time, I stepped into the role of director of SLS. Just two weeks after my hire, I was on a plane headed for my first of three Heartbeat conferences! There, God surrounded me with other directors of Heartbeat affiliates who share the same heart and passion. I realized that my life was part of God's plan since the foundation of the Earth and that my childhood had prepared me to minister to the unborn, women, and men who are hurting.

God has tasked me with telling my own story and that of Heartbeat's work around the world in order to help others. His grace has revived my family through Heartbeat's Sexual Integrity" program, rescuing my niece from abortion, healing my mother of her own past abortion, and restoring my sisters and me from past sexual abuse and misuse. God is using Heartbeat to save and change lives across the globe.

Featured Centers

Heartbeat of Miami, Miami, Florida

Heartbeat of Miami team picture taken at the Heartbeat International Conference in 2008.

Heartbeat of Miami is one of the newest pregnancy center projects, founded in 2007 in response to "a bold and winsome call" to provide life-affirming alternatives to women in urban America. Heartbeat's two Miami centers, one in Hialeah and another in North Dade, offer culturally appropriate outreach and ministry in an area with one of the densest concentrations of abortion facilities in the nation. Miami has more than three dozen abortion facilities, not including hospitals, that market to women struggling with unexpected pregnancies.

This tragic fact prompted area leaders to spearhead the opening of ultrasound-equipped pregnancy help centers in Miami's neediest communities, with the goal of ultimately establishing three to five centers in Miami's sprawling metropolitan area. This involved a new approach adapted to the particular needs of urban communities where poverty and weakened family networks go hand in hand. The Miami centers drew on the work of the Rev. John Ensor. Fourteen years earlier, while pastoring a church in Boston, he joined others in the effort to develop a pregnancy help center in the inner city. Called A Woman's Concern, this center attracted volunteers and financial support from a broad community of Catholics and Evangelicals who labored hard, gave generously, and prayed steadfastly. Today this ministry is a network of six ultrasound-equipped pregnancy centers in the Greater Boston area staffed by well-trained nurses, counselors and volunteers.

The Miami leadership team developed a city-wide plan and opened the first ultrasound-equipped pregnancy center in Hialeah, a Miami neighborhood with seven abortion facilities. The second ultrasound-equipped center was opened in North Dade in mid-2008, with plans for additional center planting in Miami's African-American and Haitian neighborhoods and another in Little Havana.

It was important for the founding of these centers to break the pattern too often seen in center creation by ministries with tenuous roots in the communities served. All too often, traditional pro-life organizations do not invite black leaders to the planning table when key decisions are made and courses are set. In Miami, the formation of a development team composed of individuals from several black churches was instrumental in the institution and shaping of the local outreach. As Heartbeat International board member Dr. Alveda King explains, "You can't go to someone's house, tell him he has a problem, and that you know how to solve it better than he does." Dr. King and fellow Heartbeat board member Mrs. Pat Hunter have dedicated their lives to awakening the black Christian community to the harsh reality of abortion. The Miami centers respond to this harshness with compassion, giving in selfless service what words alone cannot supply.

While the Miami centers focus on providing basic pregnancy services, peer counselors, medical professionals, and essential resources, they do so in a bilingual and culturally sensitive manner with an emphasis on outreach to Hispanic and African-American women. The services and resources offered include pregnancy tests, education on all options and sexual health, limited ultrasound, parenting education, material resources, community referrals and networking, abstinence education, and abortion recovery for women and men.

The centers are quickly making a profound impact. During 2008 the clinic in Hialeah served 1,477 clients, and the newly opened North Dade clinic served 107 clients. As part of an awareness campaign, Heartbeat of Miami launched a radio advertising campaign in the Miami area with astounding results. The message reached many women looking for a safe place to turn and receive trusted information. The two centers received over 1,500 total calls in 2008. As one client commented, "I thank Heartbeat of Miami for their support and their words that it was OK to have my baby. That was all I needed to hear."

Martha Avila, the centers' executive director, described one particularly compelling instance of the needs to which Heartbeat of Miami responds:

"In Miami a mother in her late thirties was told that her baby most likely would be born with Down Syndrome and was advised to abort. She was understandably scared. She turned her radio on at that moment and heard me sharing my testimony how, thirty years ago, I was told my daughter would be deformed because of the x-rays I had while I was pregnant. They proved to be wrong. The woman called and we got her some help through the Heartbeat affiliate in Ft. Lauderdale. She is now 14 weeks along and struggling. She calls me every day and knows that we will get through it together."

Avila adds, "Most of the women that come to our clinic find themselves in turmoil and fear, yet they leave with hope and the knowledge that God has a perfect plan for their lives and that He does not make mistakes."

Heartbeat of Miami is affiliated with Heartbeat International.

Living Hope Women's Centers, Show Low, Arizona

Living Hope Women's Centers: three pregnancy centers, Show Low, Springerville, and Whiteriver; and a maternity home, Hope House, all rurally located in Arizona.

Living Hope Women's Centers (LHWC) consists of three rural locales and a maternity home, Hope House. The group was founded in 1997 by Dinah Monahan under the umbrella of Mountain Mission Clinic. To extend vital outreach to women in rural areas, offering abortion alternatives and pregnancy support, Mrs. Monahan changed locales and opened a pregnancy center in Show Low in 1999. At this new site she witnessed a need for housing for unwed moms, and as a result Hope House Maternity Home opened its doors in 2000 to help support women in need and assist in adoptions.

The Show Low center was augmented with the Springerville satellite center in 2000 and the Fort Apache Indian Reservation center in 2003. LHWC includes Apache, Hopi and Navajo populations among its overall range of clients.

LHWC and Hope House partner with Northland Therapy (an organization that does early intervention with infants and toddlers), the Arizona Department of Economic Services (DES), Child Protective Services, Summit Regional Medical Center, Johns Hopkins University grant team in Whiteriver, the Women's Club, and numerous area churches.

Programs at each of the three locations include:

• Earn While You Learn (EWYL), an incentive-based program which allows clients to earn points or "mommy money" through education in prenatal and postnatal care, child development, life skills, abstinence, shame-free parenting styles, and boundaries
• The Mommy Store, a place where clients who earn "mommy money" while taking EWYL classes can shop for baby and toddler clothes, diapers, and furniture
• Financial Peace University, where clients can learn to get out of debt and live debt-free
• The Fatherhood Program
• Professional Christian counseling (now available at two of the centers)

The total number of client visits for each location in 2007 was:

Show Low 3,947   "   Whiteriver 2,461   "   Springerville 723

Additionally during 2007, there were over 3,000 volunteer hours logged for the three centers and Hope House combined.

The opening of the Whiteriver satellite center on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in 2003 marked the first and still the only PRC to operate on a Native American reservation. An appeal to the Apache tribal leadership resulted in the gifting of a rent-free building on the reservation. The reservation has continued to partner with LHWC, with Apache women staffing the center. The Fatherhood Program at the center has particularly flourished, attracting many men from the community. The program has also been taken into the jail there and is part of the Rainbow Treatment Center's curriculum.

During the early outreach conducted by LHWC, volunteers were keenly aware of the need to enable clients rather than just give away free things and encourage a sense of entitlement in them. The EWYL curriculum was developed to foster self-sufficient and loving parenting by teaching young mothers good parenting skills. EWYL is an incentive-based model where clients receive material assistance as they earn points, called "Mommy Money," for attending education classes in a one-on-one or group setting. The main curriculum now contains eight modules covering parenting needs from conception to 12 months of age. Topics in the curriculum include prenatal care, "going it alone," reducing the risk of SIDS, crying, colic, sleep, disciplining with love, and more.

EWYL works to increase client and volunteer-instructor bonding, raising the quality of care these mothers can provide. The curriculum was authored and published by Mrs. Monahan and it has been implemented as a core program in over 800 PRCs across the country. Additional curricula have been developed covering early childhood to elementary age. A life skills pack has also been introduced. The LHWC now sees 60 percent of clients signing up for the program, and similar success is being experienced in EWYL programs at PRCs nationwide.

"Summit Healthcare believes so much in the Living Hope Women's Center ministry that we donated $5,000 to purchase an ultrasound machine to be used for early pregnancy detection especially for the low- and no-income families of our community. This ministry not only provides free testing but it also provides free parenting classes, family classes and baby items benefiting those who take advantage of it."

William Lasonder, President, Summit Healthcare Hospital Foundation Board of Directors

"I am thankful that we have a place such as Living Hope Women's Center to provide not only a safe place for women whose lives are in crisis but also to provide opportunities to restore the confidence and to equip these women in facing the challenges in the days ahead."

Jim Chang, Navajo County Probation Officer

LHWC is affiliated with Heartbeat International, Focus on the Family's Option Ultrasound Program, and the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates.

Pregnancy Resource Centers, Greater Portland, Oregon

Client and baby, with big sister and father, at the Pregnancy Resource Centers of Greater Portland, Oregon.

The Pregnancy Resource Centers of Greater Portland (PRC) are a group of six centers located in Beaverton, Gresham, Portland, and Milwaukie offering traditional and advanced pregnancy care services. Established in 1984, PRC has helped more than 160,000 women and teens who were unprepared for pregnancy or faced a potential pregnancy. PRC began with one employee and a handful of volunteers. It now operates with the assistance of 225 volunteers and serves approximately 9,000 clients (8,577 of them new clients in 2007) each year. Former Pastor Larry Gadbaugh has served as the CEO of PRC since March 2001.

PRC's basic services include pregnancy tests, verification of pregnancy, peer counseling, education, limited ultrasound for the first and second trimesters, prenatal classes, parenting classes, newborn and older baby clothes, baby furnishings (cribs and bassinets), car seats, maternity clothing, and community referrals. Services offered off premises include abstinence education and abortion recovery programs.

Over 55 percent of the clients seen by the Portland PRC are under the age of 24. Centers are located close to high schools and colleges, public transport, and shopping malls in order for services to be readily available to 17- to 24-year-olds. The risk avoidance or abstinence message being specially delivered to youth serves an unmet need for prevention messaging in the Portland metro area. Peer counseling facilitates delivery of this messaging. Centers are decorated to appeal to the post-modern generation and are designed to be comfortable for men.

Annual referrals number 6,000 and these include community agencies, recovery programs, support groups, health care, shelters, short- and long-term housing, job training programs, S-CHIP enrollment, professional counseling, community assistance programs, continuing education, and single-parent support groups. As a respected resource for compassionate care and valid information, PRC receives referrals from numerous city and state community agencies.

The PRC of Greater Portland goes the extra mile for those cast aside and hurting by reaching out to women who are in prison and long-term recovery settings, with post-abortion recovery programs to aid in reconciliation. For the women's prison in Portland, the PRC now has two volunteers and two employees that have been cleared to go in and lead the post-abortion support group. The program length averages 13 to 15 weeks. Director of Services Jacquie Guthrie notes that PRC will not begin a group if the allotted period of weeks for program completion is not approved, because a healing program could be harmful to initiate without conclusion. The PRC has found that many women in prison suffer from the after-effects of abortion.

The centers also offer post-abortion outreach through long-term recovery homes. The following story is about Kathleen - who wentthrough the PRC's HEART group, Healing Encouragement for Abortion-Related Trauma. Kathleen lived in transitional housing called Shepherd's Door, operated by Portland Rescue Mission. The PRC offers HEART groups at Shepherd's Door twice a year.

I came to Shepherd's Door March of 2006. I was broken, defeated and wanted a change. Shepherd's Door opened their loving arms to me and loved me until I could love myself. They showed me daily the heart of Jesus. I spent one year in the program and was able to dig down deep and pull out all the lies, ugliness, deceit, self-hatred, condemnation, and so much shame that I did not want to live anymore. I gave myself totally to the Lord and was willing to trust staff, then God, and eventually myself...

Today my life has turned around. I work at Shepherd's Door as a Pastoral Care Associate, I am attending Bible College, and I am engaged to be married to a wonderful man of God. I know today that God can use all my past for his Glory. He is showing that to me now because I am teaching the Heart Class at Shepherd's Door and am on the staff of Pregnancy Resource Center as a Heart Leader. God has been so good to me and Heart has given me a heart that loves the Lord.

PRC's of Greater Portland is an affiliate of Care Net, National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), and Focus on the Family's Option Ultrasound Program.

Service Summary

Introduction

Over the past 40 years a movement of women and men has created and sustained a vital service in an area of unsurpassed need. Exemplifying the enduring American principles of voluntary and selfless giving, a mustard seed of concern for women facing unexpected pregnancies has blossomed into dynamic national and international networks of love in action. Today, through a massive commitment of personal time and professional services, the movement to provide pregnancy-related resources encompasses thousands of centers worldwide that bring aid and hope to millions of people each year.

The scope of these centers varies but their mission is single-hearted: to communicate to women and their families that their lives are valuable and that their needs - emotional, psychological, medical, spiritual and practical - can and will be met. With honesty and compassion, the global pregnancy resource movement now offers powerful community-based programs whose accomplishments are a story not yet fully told. The goal of this report is to embark upon that telling, to provide to layman and professional alike, to the legislator and the citizen - to all people of goodwill - an account of the good that is being done in our midst.

Service Summary

The array of services provided by the nation's pregnancy resource/care movement is dynamic and diverse. Free pregnancy tests were the original service provided by the centers of a generation ago. With the advent of low-cost, over-the-counter tests in the 1980s, this free service lost some of its centrality in the pregnancy center matrix, but nearly all centers continue to provide pregnancy tests as a valued service. With so much more offered today, the warmth of the nation's more than 2,300 pregnancy centers affiliated with the national groups and their spirit of service have spread by word of mouth to friends and family members alike, as women know their dignity and confidentiality will be respected in an environment of trust.

Over the last 15 years, as centers have grown in size and impact, they have added medical services like sexually transmitted infection and disease (STI/STD) testing, treatment and counseling; expanded lay and peer counseling; diversified programs and outreach to include couples, families, and post-abortive men and women; and opened multiple locations tailored to specific communities.

Center services are delivered at little or no cost to clients in an environment characterized by understanding and trust. The centers are nonjudgmental in approach, and, as thousands of client exit surveys confirm, the trust that women place in those who assist them is high and an indication of broad community acceptance. Moreover, as the centers work increasingly with other community resources, they become vital members of the local service, volunteer, business and, oftentimes, medical community.

All of this has been done while retaining the essential nature of the centers as predominantly privately funded, community-oriented, faith-based, and volunteer-driven enterprises. The 19th century commentator John Ruskin described the transformative power of this volunteerism in action when he wrote, "The highest reward for a person's work is not what they got for it, but what they became because of it."

Recording the scope of pregnancy center work in the United States poses challenges due to the differences in reporting among the many agencies involved, which are collaborating with increasing frequency. For this report we have used published data from the major national affiliation groups (NIFLA, Care Net and Heartbeat), information from Focus on the Family's Sanctity of Human Life Division, and public reports filed by hundreds of centers with the Internal Revenue Service. Because the programs of these groups overlap, ranges are generally used to describe their accomplishments. By any measure, the achievements are impressive, a dramatic example of the power of citizen action to change lives and improve communities.

Conclusion

The hallmarks of pregnancy center operation are that funds are raised locally and spent locally, immediately deployed to meet immediate needs, and devoted to basic services not costly overhead. Less than 10 percent of the income of the nation's pregnancy centers derives from governmental sources, and more than 80 percent of the centers covered by this report receive no public funding at all. This practice ensures that the centers minimize burdens on the taxpayer and engage their local communities in the provision of sustainable support.

Annual center income nationwide is at least $200 million and likely more for the large number of centers that are either pregnancy help medical clinics (at least 660) or pregnancy resource centers (some 1,670), more than 2,300 overall. Based on a sample of approximately half of both types of centers drawn from their recent 990 tax returns filed with the IRS, estimated annual income for the medical centers is $109 million and for the resource centers is $85 million. These estimates are very conservative as any center for which a 990 report was absent was included in the estimate with an income of zero. These figures also exclude the annual income of the center networks that contributed to this report, whose combined revenue, reinvested in the centers, totals more than $9 million per year.

While approximately half of the centers nationwide operate with total revenue at or below $125,000 per year, the largest centers have income as high as $4 million. The outpouring of private support for the pregnancy care movement is among the strongest assurances that their work will continue to thrive and reach millions of Americans.

Pregnancy resource centers are models of faith-based and community-oriented service. They draw their inspiration from the personal religious commitment of volunteers and their support, financially and professionally, from members of local congregations. Many are formally para-church ministries, and they represent the progress that can be made when "armies of compassion" take the field. Like the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:30-36, their compassion is spontaneous, personal and enduring.

What centers seek and accomplish is the transforming and saving of human lives. Through the centers' work clients realize their opportunity to wear "a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." (Isaiah 61:3). As George MacDonald wrote in The Lady's Confession:

But love is the first comforter, and where love and truth speak, the love will be understood even where truth is not. Love indeed is the highest in all truth; and the pressure of a hand, a kiss, the caress of a child will do more to save, sometimes, than the wisest argument, even rightly understood.

Pregnancy center volunteers and professionals have given this kind of love year after year, with enormous satisfaction but scant recognition. On September 19, 2008, however, more than 150 unusually generous volunteers and 56 pregnancy center organizations were honored at a White House event focused solely on this life-changing movement. Then-Assistant Secretary of Health Dr. Joxel Garcia conducted the ceremony commending outstanding centers and individuals who, in some cases, have given more than 400 hours of service in a single year. The awards were bestowed in the name of the President as part of the recognition program of USA Freedom Corps.

Every day in the United States pregnancy resource centers assist an average of 5,500 Americans, female and male, young and old, with sexuality-and-pregnancy-related concerns. The reach of America's pregnancy centers and the scope of their success continue to attract new attention. In January 2008, on the eve of the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, Nancy Gibbs of Time magazine cited the "evidence that the quiet campaign for women's hearts and minds, conducted in thousands of crisis pregnancy centers around the country, on billboards, phone banks and websites, is having an effect" in reducing abortion rates, which are down by one third from their U.S. high.

Assisting women, counseling couples, providing goods and services, offering free and confidential pregnancy care, these "centers for women's true reproductive health," as Heartbeat's president, Dr. Margaret Hartshorn, calls them, are playing an indispensable role in the health of our families and communities. They are witnessing and acting in the spirit of Matthew 25:40, "Whatever you did for one of the least of my brothers of mine, you did for me."

Endorsements

"Women who are fortunate enough to find their way to your centers are welcomed and receive loving care, access to counseling and education programs, ultrasounds and medical assistance, and referrals to other resources for little or no cost. As an Ob-Gyn, I can tell you that your efforts to assist women in underserved communities help to bring healthier babies into the world. Because of the selfless work you are doing, a culture of life is being built in America."

- Joxel Garcia, M.D., M.B.A., Former Assistant Secretary of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

"The more than 2,000 pregnancy care centers across the country are an expression of charity and genuine love for people dealing with life-changing situations. The outpouring of local support over the years shown by supporters, organizers, and staff embody the spirit of volunteerism and truly make pregnancy care centers one of the most important grassroots movements in American history."

- Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Minority Leader

"Public debates, tireless education, rallies, and political organizing are all vitally important in turning our country toward a culture of life. Too little recognized in this great human rights struggle, however, are the thousands of people who selflessly serve in pregnancy care centers to help women who are often frightened and confused."

- Reverend Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009), Editor, First Things

"Being pro-life means caring for mothers and their children both during the pregnancy and afterward. Pregnancy Resource Centers give women a safe and supportive environment to ask questions and receive the medical care and information needed to ensure healthy pregnancies and births. Pregnancy Resource Centers then continue to stand alongside new mothers and help them become good parents. Oftentimes these Centers are the only option available for women who lack family networks and community support systems. By creating a network of volunteers and caretakers, they bring communities and families together to help each other and celebrate life."

- Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.)

"I strongly commend the life-affirming work of pregnancy care centers. The success rates and national expansion of these pregnancy care centers are a testament to their invaluable work in the lives of communities and individuals over the years. These networks provide services that are often unavailable elsewhere to expectant mothers. The work of these hard-working employees and volunteers will be a major component in bringing about a society that acknowledges and edifies life in all its forms."

- Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.)

A Passion to Serve, A Vision for Life:
Family Research Council's Initiatives to Affirm and Advance the Work of Pregnancy Resource Centers 1997-2009

Over the last decade and more, Family Research Council has engaged in a variety of research and public policy activities designed to support, enhance and defend the work of the nation's pregnancy resource centers (PRCs). This work has involved three major projects, the first two conducted a decade ago under the guidance of one of the key founders of the PRC movement, the Rev. Curtis J. Young, who in the late 1970s and early 1980s was the executive director of the Christian Action Council, the forerunner to Care Net. The third project is coming to fruition with the release of the new report, A Passion to Serve, A Vision for Life.

Turning Hearts Toward Life

Family Research Council's first two projects for PRCs had major and positive impact on the center networks and the women and families they serve. The first project focused on the centers' marketing strategies. Over the course of two decades it had become apparent to many of the center movement leaders that they were not reaching as many abortion-minded women as they had sought to do at their inception. FRC launched its study of the entire marketing strategy of the centers with the goal of assisting them in reaching these abortion-minded women and working with them to affirm them and the lives they were carrying. The study was also aimed at improving the overall marketing reach of the centers.

The effort involved a national poll of women of early childbearing age (age 18 to 34) in 1997 with focus on every marketing facet from center location, to center naming, to advertising images and messages. FRC contracted with the well-known polling firm Wirthlin Worldwide to conduct a nationwide telephone survey of 630 women in this age group, achieving a margin of error of under four percent.

FRC published the results of the survey in a 28-page report titled 'Turning Hearts Toward Life: Market Research for Crisis Pregnancy Centers.' The report, which was widely distributed to the pregnancy centers and described to them at their annual meetings and other major briefings, was divided into two sections, 'Assessing Center Impact and Increasing Center Effectiveness,' and 'Marketing Segmentation: A New Ministry Paradigm for Crisis Pregnancy Centers.' Each section of the report contained information that was both encouraging to the centers and a spur to reform and improvement of their work.

The first section, on center effectiveness, illustrated without doubt that the centers' primary audience, younger women of childbearing age, were familiar with the centers and had a positive impression of their character and work.

The second section of the report focused entirely on adjustments to the centers' marketing strategies that could further enhance their appeal to the public, to prospective clients, and especially to abortion-minded women who could be offered assistance to rebuild their lives and bring their babies to term. Using specific recommendations, the report covered such issues as the nomenclature the centers should use, physical location of the centers in the community, advertising imagery and language, and center awareness of local demographics.

While the nation's pregnancy care centers were already engaged in exploration of name changes and other new marketing approaches in the late 1990s, the FRC report was the first to quantify the issues and provide the centers with specific, evidence-based marketing advice and strategies. Hundreds of centers across the country changed their marketing practices and service emphasis as a result of this FRC study.

Follow-Up to 'Turning Hearts'

To assess the impact of 'Turning Hearts toward Life,' FRC surveyed the nation's pregnancy care centers in 1998 to ascertain whether and how many of the pregnancy resource centers had read the report, implemented some or all of its recommendations, and seen any measurable change in their results among abortion-minded women (i.e., women helped and lives saved). The results were encouraging, verifying the impact of the marketing study in changing the approaches used by the centers to reach a very diverse clientele.

FRC published these results internally and distributed them to centers that participated in the survey. This step helped to cement the marketing adjustments in place and set the stage for the next FRC study in behalf of the centers, this one focused on another disturbing phenomenon - the decline in adoption placements by the centers despite their apparent commitment to the practice and to the promotion of intact families.

Pregnancy Centers and Adoption

In 1999, the Family Research Council undertook further research to understand the complex array of factors involved in considering adoption and how best to present adoption as a viable option for women. FRC asked Kenny & Associates, Inc., pioneers in right-brain research over the last 25 years, to conduct a study focused on pregnancy resource centers and their low and decreasing rate of adoption placements. The research was designed to identify the underlying factors that either inhibit or motivate the consideration of adoption in both single, pregnant women and in the pregnancy counselors who were advising them. The research focused on discovering the most basic impressions that women and counselors have about adoption and on the psychological dynamics of decision-making concerning adoption.

Fifty-one single women, each of whom had experienced one or more pregnancies, were interviewed. The women represented the client population both in age and ethnic background. Their ages ranged from 16 to 40 years and they were a mix of Caucasian, African-American, and Latino women. At least half of those interviewed had been to some sort of counseling center for help with their unexpected pregnancy, though not necessarily a pregnancy resource center. These women had also made different choices: some were rearing the child; some had chosen adoption or were considering doing so; some had had an abortion or were still considering one. Some of these women had experienced more than one unexpected pregnancy and had opted for different outcomes each time. Twelve pregnancy counselors were also interviewed. Some were volunteers; others were paid staff.

The final 40-page report, titled 'The Missing Piece: Adoption Counseling in Pregnancy Resource Centers,' documented the many reasons why women view adoption favorably in concept but seldom choose it in practice. The report's findings included the insight that even pregnancy resource center counselors frequently hold underlying negative options of adoption and of the women who choose this option for themselves and for their babies. FRC's study was published and distributed to the nation's PRCs to assist them in developing new approaches to adoption, including policies and training to help counselors address their own negative attitudes and provide a more balanced portrait of contemporary adoption for their clients.

Combined Services Report 2009

At a best practices meeting with the PRC leadership in the summer of 2008, FRC proposed the idea of a 'Combined Services Report' as an overarching marketing and public relations tool for the nation's centers. Similar in concept to a corporate annual report, the Combined Services Report, or CSR, would tabulate statistics on the services provided by some 2,300 pregnancy care services and deliver a well-honed quantitative and qualitative 'report to the nation' on all that the centers accomplish in support of maternal and child health.

The goal of the report was and is to provide a major upgrade to the annual reports produced by each of the center networks, and their many member centers, and to give a full picture of the benefits the centers have produced using largely volunteer staff and private charity. The goal was and is to capitalize on and reinforce the goodwill the centers have long enjoyed in the public mind and to offer them a professionally written and designed vehicle to reach legislators, policy makers, and potential donors alike with a persuasive appeal for support, both politically and philanthropically.

From July 2008 to July 2009, FRC senior staff members Chuck Donovan and Moira Gaul, M.P.H., worked with historical, statistical and public health data and themes to produce a report of 72 pages with color illustrations and photos that accomplishes the goals described above. With the research assistance of Megan Blacker and Nancy Koehler of FRC, and the active participation of the leadership of Care Net, Heartbeat International, the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, and LIFE International, the report was completed and readied for printing this summer. It WAS released on September 30, 2009 at a public event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Press

Watch Video of the Press Conference

This is the video from the September 30, 2009 press conference introducing A Passion to Serve, A Vision for Life held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Press the 'play' button below to watch the webcast:

Featured Press Conference participants:

• Moira Gaul, M.P.H., Fellow and Director of Women's and Reproductive Health, Family Research Council
• Chuck Donovan, Senior Research Fellow, Domestic Policy Studies, Heritage Foundation
• Joxel Garcia, M.D., Former Assistant Secretary of Health, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
• Freda McKissic Bush, M.D., Former Member, Presidential Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS
• Sandy Christiansen, M.D., Member, Christian Medical Association
• Margaret Hartshorn, Ph.D., President, Heartbeat International
• Melinda Delahoyde, President, CareNet
• Thomas Glessner, J.D., President, National Institute of Family and Life Advocates

Media Coverage of A Passion to Serve, A Vision for Life:

• "Personal Stories Reveal How Pregnancy Resource Centers Empower Women, Help Families," Penny Starr, CNSNews.com

Click here for some photos of the event, courtesy of Kristina Hernandez

• "Pregnancy Resource Centers Are Key to Women's Health," St Michael Society
• "Grassroots pro-lifers," Emily Belz, WORLD
• "Real Health Care Protects Women" by Mailee Smith, Americans United for Life
• "Pregnancy resource centers save lives, report says," Cindy Ortiz, Baptist Press
• "WETZSTEIN: Abortion not only option available," Cheryl Wetzstein, The Washington Times

Press Contacts

If you have a media inquiry about A Passion to Serve, A Vision for Life:, please contact the FRC Press Office at (866) FRC-NEWS (866-372-6397), or complete the form here.

Executive Summary

A Passion to Serve, a Vision for Life

Pregnancy Resource Center Service Report 2009

Executive Summary

Introduction

The tremendous achievements and contributions of the pregnancy resource center (PRC) movement, which has supported women and children for over four decades, remain a largely untold story. Tracing the history of concern and care for expectant/pregnant women and tallying the impact in this country, A Passion to Serve, a Vision for Life is the first report of its kind. With both statistics and vivid illustrations, this report records the development of the three major pregnancy resource network groups -- Care Net, Heartbeat International, and the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) -- showing how this vital PRC movement has flourished, now offering a vast array of pregnancy-and-sexuality-related services, education, support and outreach.

PRCs serve some 1.9 million people each year with pregnancy assistance, abstinence counseling and education, community outreach programs and referrals, and public health linkages. The centers provide a caring, compassionate, and non-judgmental approach, in which respect for the client and confidentially are paramount. Found in virtually every type of community across the country, PRCs play an active role in caring for the whole woman -- including both physical and psycho-social needs. In addition, PRCs are answering the call to fill the unmet need for abortion alternatives. Operating as model community-based groups, which are privately funded and volunteer-driven, PRC achievements are impressive, a dramatic example of the power of citizen action to change lives and improve communities.

A Passion to Serve lays out in detail, through statistical summaries, case studies and client stories, the extraordinary social service contributions made by the nation's PRCs, meeting the needs of women, youth and families. The report also includes a panorama of endorsements from public figures from diverse political, religious, personal and professional backgrounds, which recognize and celebrate these contributions.

Methods

Recording the scope of pregnancy center work in the United States poses challenges due to the differences in reporting among the many agencies involved, which are nonetheless collaborating with increasing frequency. For this report published data from the major national affiliation groups (Care Net, Heartbeat International and NIFLA), information from Focus on the Family's Sanctity of Human Life Division, and public reports filed by hundreds of centers with the Internal Revenue Service were all used as sources. Because the programs of these groups overlap, numerical ranges are generally used to describe the accomplishments of their over 2,300 affiliated and cross-affiliated centers nationwide.

Enhancing Maternal and Child Health

Services, Programs, and Outreach

The array of services provided by the nation's PRCs is dynamic and diverse. Free pregnancy tests were the original service provided by centers, but over the past 15 years, as centers have grown in size and impact, they have added medical services like sexually transmitted infection and disease (STI/STD) testing and treatment, physical exams and ultrasound to confirm pregnancy, and prenatal education and care. They have also diversified programs and outreach, while opening multiple locations tailored to specific communities and populations. Support and outreach programs have grown to include parenting classes, community programs in abstinence education, abortion recovery and fatherhood initiatives. The high number of mutual, referring relationships PRCs have with community agencies speaks to the widespread and established trust placed in PRCs to provide accurate information and appropriate help, as well as the essential link they constitute in community networks of care. This movement now:

• Assists an average of 5,500 Americans daily with sexuality-and pregnancy-related concerns.
• Offers parenting classes through nearly 70 percent of centers nationwide to new moms, providing education on topics such as child development, nutritional counseling, positive discipline strategies, as well as life skills.
• Provides medically referenced literature on the topics of prenatal/fetal development, risk avoidance/primary prevention of sexually transmitted infection and disease, and the physical and psychological risks of abortion. Materials distributed by the national networks and affiliate PRCs are reviewed by national-level experts in the fields of medicine, psychiatry, and psychology.
• Offers abortion recovery outreach to women through two-thirds of centers nationwide, with more than 10 percent of centers offering similar services to men; programs provide support and healing for women and men suffering the emotional and psychological impact of abortion;
• Provides 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-per-week accessibility to centers via Option Line, a national telephone hotline and web site that averages 20,000 contacts per month.
• Focuses increasingly on U.S. cities, pursuing "urban initiatives" in areas with unusually high abortion rates, where the desire of women and the underserved for compassionate alternatives is not being fully met.
• Includes Focus on the Family's Option Ultrasound Program" which has placed over 400 ultrasound machines between 2004 and 2008 through funding grants enabling PRCs to obtain ultrasound equipment, and to train medical staff in the provision of ultrasound.
• Includes an international network of more than 60 centers in Canada, and another 40-plus countries worldwide from Romania, to Vietnam, to Zambia, and beyond.

Provision of Abortion Alternatives

Forty-five million abortions are estimated to have been performed in the United States between 1973 and 2005; put another way, at the present rate one in three women will have an abortion before the age of 45.* Providing abortion alternatives and abortion recovery outreach, PRCs help women to achieve better health for themselves and for their children. Averting abortion and even multiple abortions, the centers:

• Promote maternal health and child well-being.
• Lower the incidence of preterm birth. A risk association has been identified between previous induced abortion and subsequent preterm birth in numerous published studies internationally for over two decades.*
• Reduce the rate of repeat abortions which, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in 2008 reporting data for 2005, account for at least 44 percent of abortions in the United States.*
• Avert mental health impacts of abortion for women, which include elevated rates of depression, substance abuse, and even suicide.*

Standards

In 1995 NIFLA, Care Net, and Heartbeat, along with other national networks, developed a standard "Commitment of Care" which addressed such issues as scientific and medical accuracy, truth in advertising, compassion, nondiscrimination, patient confidentiality, staff training, and a consistent life ethic. A new statement, "Our Commitment of Care and Competence," was recently approved by the aforementioned groups as an ethical code of practice for life-affirming PRCs and medical clinics. The newer statement expands the network's determination to comply with applicable legal requirements regarding employment, fundraising, financial management, taxation, medical licensure and operation standards, and more.

Additionally, each of the three groups provides affiliates with legal reviews. To date, NIFLA has performed 874 individual legal reviews for 1,175 affiliates, and Care Net has performed more than 600 legal reviews.

Volunteerism, Charitable Giving, and Faith-and Community-Based Models

The PRC movement is rooted in and sustained by its active grassroots and faith-based support. The high proportion of volunteers in the movement reflects the best traditions of American voluntary service and outreach. PRCs' faith-based organization, operations and delivery of services represent a flagship in community-service, drawing their inspiration from the personal religious commitment of volunteers and staff, and their support, financially and professionally, from members of local congregations.

• Twenty-nine of every 30 people engaged in pregnancy center work are volunteers, involved with lay and peer counseling, medical services, center upkeep, and fundraising.
• Heartbeat and Care Net utilize the services of more than 40,000 volunteers. NIFLA has now provided training to over 1,200 volunteer nurses and physicians in the provision of ultrasound.
• The centers raise at least $200 million in income each year, with more than 90 percent of those funds coming from private charitable giving.
• In September 2008, nominated volunteer and pregnancy center organizations were honored at a White House event as part of the national recognition program of USA Freedom Corps.

Conclusion

PRCs are providing compassionate care and support, key primary prevention education, and linkages to vitally needed community resources to more and more women, youth and families each year. The demand for these services, and opportunities for individuals to serve, continue to rise. In addition, in contributing to the reduction of abortion totals in the United States, which are down one third from their U.S. high in 1990, PRCs are promoting positive health outcomes for women and their babies, outcomes that will pay dividends for our neighborhoods and for our nation for generations to come.

*Endnotes may be found on report document.

For more information about this report or to order a copy go to www.apassiontoserve.com