PHILADELPHIA, PA --- Unemployed and struggling to provide for herself and her 2-year-old daughter with unemployment checks, the last thing Matennah could afford was another child.

Ready or not, as 2011 dawned, Matennah found herself pregnant and headed to the doctor’s office alone for an ultrasound. What she found there left her, in her words, “crying like a child.”

Twins.

By this time, Matennah’s boyfriend, the father of her twins, was in jail, leaving her with virtually no support system to help care for her growing family. Though Matennah saw the twins as a double blessing, those closest to her urged her to consider other options.

Where would she turn? Who could help? What solution was best.

Matennah opened the Yellow Pages, holding the bulk of the book in her right hand while she browsed with her left thumb to the “A” section.

Toward the end of the section loomed the euphemistic words, “Women’s Medical Society,” whose presiding doctor, Kermit Gosnell, had been arrested just days earlier.

The beginning of the section, however, turned out to be Matennah’s salvation. It was a listing called Alpha Pregnancy Services, a Heartbeat International affiliate pregnancy help center located in the heart of the City of Brotherly Love.

We met Matennah and her three daughters, Biana, Alena, and Chloe, at our Babies Go to Congress event in January 2013, where she had the chance to show and tell lawmakers that pregnancy help centers are good for America.

Alpha Pregnancy Services is 2.5 miles from Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s “House of Horrors” clinic, where a woman in Matennah’s shoes, Karnamaya Mongar (pictured right), was butchered—in the words of one congressman—by Gosnell within a year of Matennah’s unexpected pregnancy.

Just think about that. Matennah was literally within pages and city blocks of darkening the doors to the now-most infamous abortuary in America.

But instead, Matennah found a pregnancy help center that not only equipped her with the help she needed to choose life for her two precious daughters, but is now helping Matennah raise her three daughters with practical resources, job skills training, and parenting assistance.

This is why Heartbeat International and our network of over 1,400 life-affirming organizations exist. We exist so that women and families like Matennah can live and thrive. We exist so that no woman ever feels so alone, coerced or hopeless that she ends her child’s life through abortion.

Make no mistake about it. This is a life and death issue.

Death on the one hand for—at the very least—every unborn child whose mother walks into an abortion clinic. Life on the other for every one of the 1,000,000 children, mothers, and families who visit pregnancy help centers each year.

Women like Matennah deserve better than abortion—regardless of whether our culture labels those facilities as filthy “Houses of Horror” or pristine “Centers for Reproductive Health.” Each woman in Matennah’s situation deserves the kind of emotional support and practical resources during an unexpected pregnancy that Alpha Pregnancy Services has given her.

Won’t you give today to support this life-saving, death-defying work? Heartbeat International thanks you. Alpha Pregnancy Services thanks you.

Most importantly, Matennah and her three daughters thank you. 

(Watch Matennah's full story below.)

by Jor-El Godsey, Vice President

The notice went out in February 2004 for every organization in the world to revisit their logo. It happened again in June 2007. Did you get your notice?

Actually, those were the launch dates of Facebook and the first iPhone, respectively, with both signposts signaling a smaller space in which logos would compete.

As these notices were issued, the 20-year-old Heartbeat logo and the “swoosh” heart were cleaned up incrementally to try and keep pace with the shift from print to electronic communications. But, its design, echoing some early ’90s trends, was difficult to size down for a profile picture on Facebook, or for showing up on a really small screen as more and more of us access the Web from our smartphones.

With these practical concerns in mind, and through a recent process of strategic planning, Heartbeat has committed to a logo refresh, which we officially unveiled at this year’s Annual Conference in Dallas.

We’ve kept some elements the same—the name structure and font—but are introducing a new corporate color (Midnight Blue) and our brand new network symbol, “The Heart of the Future.”

Crafted by our own award-winning graphic designer, Brett Foster of Extend Web Services, The Heart of the Future follows the five core elements of a good logo design—simplicity, memorablility, versatility, appropriateness and timelessness.

For Heartbeat International, it’s a familiar symbol that capitalizes upon the heart we’ve used since 1993 to capture the focus of our mission, networking efforts, and corporate culture.

We call it The Heart of the Future because pregnancy help is focused on just that. Our future—at least the one God desires for us—is established upon the foundational truth of the sanctity of life and the promise of life everlasting. As we focus together on preserving and welcoming the next generation, we serve together to strengthen our society’s future, because at the heart of a healthy society is the family.

Everything the pregnancy help community does today—save babies, uplift women, and restore families—is vital to the health of every community’s future.

Moreover, we know the call of God is upon the pregnancy help work, because it is truly His Heart. The Heart of the Future is recognition that God is at the heart of all we do in championing both the Gift and the Giver of Life.

Medical Students for Life Summer Internship Program

In the end, few summer internships will change the world. But, after the initial launch of an internship program by Medical Students for Life in 2012, a trio of Heartbeat International affiliate medical centers are hopeful this could be one of them.

With a growing pro-abortion inclination within the medical community, these pro-life students often face challenging situations where their convictions are pressure-tested, and possibilities of advancement are sometimes threatened.

As part of its broad range of efforts to build up the students who face this type of pressure during their education, Medical Students for Life placed medical students in three Heartbeat affiliate centers for summer internships, where they had the opportunity to observe first-hand the clients facing unintended pregnancies who visit Heartbeat centers every day.

These students were able to shadow consultants during their client visits, learn how pregnancy tests are conducted, and observe limited obstetrical ultrasounds in action on a regular basis. Some were able to meet with/shadow the physicians serving as pregnancy center medical clinic medical directors in their private practice, which served to provide the students a chance to watch how pro-life medical professionals navigate the predominantly pro-abortion medical culture.

We received glowing reports from all three of the centers who volunteered for the program, and all three are eager to participate in the program, which Medical Students for Life hopes to expand.

Here are the reactions in our friends’ own words…

Sylvia Johnson, Executive Director, Houston (TX) Pregnancy Help Center

Spencer Stickler served at Houston Pregnancy Help Center’s two locations (Fifth Ward and Downtown) as a Medical Intern. We were honored to have Spencer for three weeks this past summer. Some of the duties Spencer performed are as follows; filing medical records, observed ultrasounds, updating our referral and resource, assisting with day to day administrative duties. It truly was an honor to serve with Spencer.   

See Spencer’s reflection on the experience here (link to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl0ldqy_De0).

Anne Kako, RN, Nurse Manager, A Woman's Concern, Revere, MA

I wanted to thank you for offering A Woman's Concern the opportunity to participate in the Summer Medical Student internship program. It was wonderful to meet and share ideas with the next generation of pro-life healthcare providers. It was an opportunity for those of us working in PRC's to share our experiences and knowledge with the medical students. The med students shared with the staff the pro-life issues that they are facing in their education. The students were able to see first-hand the situations that our at-risk and abortion-minded clients are facing. They were able to witness the AWC staff helping clients by providing information, ultrasounds and support in a life affirming environment.

Our medical director, Dr. Keough, had the students shadow him in his office. Both students felt this was a great opportunity. Next year, we would like to offer them exposure to our radiologist and other OB/GYN physicians on staff. AWC also has an ultrasound course (DVD's) from Case Western that we would like to make available for the medical students to view next year. AWC will also be offering STI testing next year to our clients and their partners, which the med students can also shadow. AWC is looking forward to future participation in the summer Medical Student internship program. Thank you for allowing us to share in this opportunity.

Debbie Wolff, Nurse Manager, Women’s Choice Network, PA, reported that her center’s intern was an “ideal student”, and the experience in their center was “very beneficial for (the student) and impacted her, as there was a lot she learned that she was not previously aware of.”

Heartbeat International is thrilled to join with Medical Students for Life in this cooperative effort, which benefits those entering the medical field by actively involving them in the ministry of our affiliate pregnancy centers.

Many medical students who are pro-life in their beliefs have no real-life experience with women and men faced with untimely pregnancies and the reality of abortion options. This internship helped to solidify their convictions, as they saw first-hand that pregnancy help centers set the standard for true compassion and support for women.

Heartbeat International looks forward to its role in cultivating the next generation of pro-life healers who are dedicated to “do no harm.”