by Vivian Koob, Founder and Executive Director
Elizabeth’s New Life Center, Dayton, OH

Many of us begin this work with a heart for vulnerable women and their babies. Few, though, relish the unexpected challenges of managing finances, reaching clients through the messy world of social media, or fixing a leaky roof. Some days, it may seem that we spend more time trying to stay afloat than actually serving women and families. Amidst the everyday scramble of starting or maintaining a pregnancy help organization, who has time to think about expansion and innovation?

You do. Your next question might be why do I want to? My job is hard enough already!

Yes, our jobs are hard, but they are also worthwhile. Think of any one of your abortion-minded clients that chose life instead of abortion and you will see reflected in that saved baby’s face the glow of a loving and forgiving God who gives us all the strength we need. You will realize that a life saved from abortion is worth any amount of struggle. Then you will see and understand the complete and overwhelming grace and love of our Father guiding each step as we strive to serve more and more of these needy families becomes a lived reality in our ministry.

Over the past 33 years, Elizabeth's New Life Center has grown from an all-volunteer organization with one tiny, rented building to one of the largest PHOs in the nation. We now have a network of eight Women’s Centers (with a ninth coming soon), a prenatal care clinic, and a healthy relationships department known around the country as Marriage Works Ohio.

What made this amazing growth possible? Of course, God has granted us many opportunities, but our determination continues to be key.

As we traveled the long path from dreams to reality, we learned countless invaluable lessons. Among the most important is that, to successfully continue this work, we must be both open to God’s promptings and determined to see beyond the immediate cares and crises. If I had to list attributes of a successful growing ministry after prayer and trust in God, it would be perseverance and fearlessness. There are often roadblocks to overcome, challenges that seem overwhelming at times and naysayers who try and discourage us. But we must fight on, we must use our wits, our networks, our champions, and supporters to take the harder road and it will all be worth the struggle as we see more and more lives changes and babies saved.

In the midst of the roadblocks, opportunities arise, and we must take them if we can. It’s the only way we expand and innovate.

Are your eyes open to see them?

Practical Tip: The next time you recognize an opportunity for growth, take advantage of your affiliate benefits and call Heartbeat International for a consultation to help identify the benefits and risks of this new opportunity for your organization.

Vivian and her team will be presenting an In-Depth Day at the 2022 Heartbeat International Annual Conference in Jacksonville, Florida on Growing a Successful Pregnancy Help Ministry. Find out more about the Conference schedule or register to join us by clicking here!

by Jim & Jessica Braz

Pregnancy help organizations like yours often encounter unmarried clients. In fact, 40% of all births in the USA involve unmarried mothers, and the percentage is even higher for women under age 30.

The following, adapted from the book Baby Out of Wedlock: Co-Parenting Basics From Pregnancy to Custody by Jim and Jessica Braz, may be helpful for staff and volunteers who are working with unmarried parents who have questions about paternity tests.

If you are working with a pregnant woman, she may not be sure who the father is if they have multiple partners.

If you are talking to the father, he probably wants to ask, "are you sure I'm the father?"

Men need to keep in mind that the woman is not telling them this news unless she is pretty darn sure they are the father, and the last thing she wants to hear at this most stressful moment is that he doesn't believe her or that he thinks she must have had multiple partners recently.

However, women should remember that while they may be 100% certain who the father is, the man does not have that same degree of certainty because he does not know for sure who else she has been with besides him.

Jessica was insulted at first when she was asked for a paternity test three months after her son was born. Her lawyer was right to explain that the father just wanted to be 100% sure, as sure as Jess was.

Raising a child is a lifetime commitment. Both parents deserve to be 100% certain who the father of the child is. Certainty is a good thing for all parties involved, including the child.

Fortunately, it is easy enough to test for paternity once the child is born. Family lawyers should insist on this test, and the courts will always order the test if either party requests it. In most jurisdictions, a paternity test is a standard operating procedure. 

Fathers (or children) can quietly test for paternity with an off-the-shelf test from companies like 23 and Me or Ancestory.com these days, so the truth will come out eventually. But if either parent wants to enforce parenting rights or child support payments, then a more official test will be required by a court-approved facility.

Testing for parentage before birth used to require extracting amniotic fluid from the mother's belly. It is not a riskless process, and while it may be appropriate in some extreme circumstances, it is probably not the right move for most.

In recent years, medical advances have made prenatal paternity tests possible using the mother's blood and the father's saliva; however, they vary widely in quality and costs. Most can wait until the child is born to test for paternity.

Fathers should try their best not to dispute her when they hear the words, "I'm pregnant, and you are the father." And mothers, try not to be defensive if he asks, "are you sure it's mine?" Neither parent should spend their time and energy arguing about a paternity test during the pregnancy. A proper test will happen if either parent wants it to happen soon after the birth. There will be plenty of things to disagree about over the years; no need to make paternity tests one of them.

By Jim & Jessica Braz, adapted from their award-winning book, . For more information, including free one-on-consulting, please visit www.BabyOutofWedlock.com or email Jim & Jessica at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Author Bios: Years before Jim and Jessica Braz married, they each had a child born out of wedlock with other partners. They wrote Baby Out of Wedlock to answer basic, but common questions about this situation, thereby reducing legal bills and leading to healthier co-parenting relationships.

This month we are highlighting Maria Beigel, one of our Medical Impact Office Assistants. Maria brings joy and encouragement as she provides organization and assistance to our team in many ways. She is a blessing to us all as she serves with a smile and a servant’s heart in all she does. We are so thankful for Maria and all she brings to our team!

Where did you grow up and go to school?

I grew up in a very small farming community called Coldwater, Ohio and attended Wright State Lake Campus for my associates degree in Business Administration. I graduated with that degree in 2015.

Share with us about your family.

I’ve been so blessed by my family and I’m so thankful to have the relationship that I do with my parents and my siblings. I am the fifth of six children and all of my older siblings are married with children now, so I have a lot of nieces and nephews to love on! 14 to be exact. I’ve been married to my husband, Austin, for four years this past December and we have two children - a 2-year-old daughter named Vera and a 5-month-old son named Graham. We also have a very spoiled ragdoll cat named Shapiro (Ro for short).

Tell us about what brought you to Heartbeat International.

When I moved to Columbus and I was looking for a job, my former pastor at my parent’s church, Michael Spencer (who now works for Project LifeVoice), recommended I look into Heartbeat International. As I was growing up, Michael played a big role in developing my passion for the unborn and I was eager to take his advice and I’m so glad I did!

Tell us about your experience sharing APR with others.

It’s always very interesting to tell people what I do for work, because most of them previously had no idea that it is even possible to reverse the effects of a chemical abortion. I love spreading the word about Abortion Pill Reversal!

What do you enjoy most about your work?

Hands down, the best part of my job is reaching out to former APRN clients to see how their experience with Abortion Pill Reversal was and how they’re doing now. The responses that I’ve gotten have brought me to tears. I get to see photos of ultrasounds and born children who wouldn’t have had a chance at life without the APRN, and I get to hear the testimonies of their moms, who are so thankful and moved that there was someone who could help them, even when there were others pressuring them to continue their abortions.

Tell us about working on the Medical Impact Team.

I couldn’t have asked for a better group of women to work with. From the day that I started working with the Medical Impact Team, I’ve felt welcomed and loved and appreciated. This team has faced many spiritual battles and continues to overcome and manages to stay positive in spite of everything. We are a unique team, in that only one of us is actually in office in Columbus. The rest are remote and working all over the country (and one in Canada), which presents a unique dynamic. Because of this, it’s extremely special when I do get to see others on the Medical Impact Team in person and I look forward to our weekly Tuesday meetings where we get to see a glimpse into each other’s lives.

What are your favorite things to do outside of work?

I really enjoy visiting my hometown and my parents and taking my kids to the places I went as I was growing up. I stay at home with my children and love being a mom to them and getting to watch them grow up. I also enjoy reading, doing puzzles, playing tennis, playing board games, listening to podcasts, and going on date nights with my husband.

What else would you like to share?

I’m very thankful to be part of the Medical Impact team! I can see that we are making a difference and I’m so excited to see how God uses us in 2022.

by Dr. Joe Malone, PhD, CFE, LWMC, CPT

A former student of mine and I wrote a book that came out in 2018. In it, we outlined many of the damaging effects of hookup culture. From the research of others (and there are too many to name here) these are some of the low lights we discovered.

First, college women’s, but not college men’s, depression symptoms increase as their number of sexual partners in a year increase. Second, research shows that women take part in this behavior even when they feel uncomfortable doing so. Next, men especially overestimate women’s comfort with hookups. Only 32% of men said they would feel guilty about having intercourse with someone they just met compared to 72% of women. In addition, the percentage of women feeling guilty over hooking up was over twice that of men, as women tend to seek more emotional involvement in sexual encounters than men do. Then this - many young adults and again, especially women, feel compelled to take part in hookup culture. Lastly, most times alcohol is involved. In a study of 118 freshman female college students, 64% of the hookups involved alcohol use. It appears that alcohol is usually required to make especially females willing to engage in sex with someone they don’t really know.

If all of that isn’t alarming enough, let’s finish this only partial list of the negatives with two extremely big ones. Around 80% of sexual assaults on campuses occur during a hookup. In the last 15 years the prevalence of sexual assault against women on college campuses has motivated campus authorities to decry what they identify as rape culture. They are justifiable in doing so as any sexual assault is one too many. At the same time, these same authorities say nothing against hookup culture and actually send a strong non-verbal message through the way orientation is handled with condom distribution and instructions about the student Health Center for STD treatment. This affirms, in reality, that they are expecting college students to be sexually active and that this is just part of the college norm. But, when we look at the above cited statistics on college campuses these days, hookup culture is for all practical purposes fueling rape culture.

As already mentioned, a major harm of hookup culture is of course, STDs. Largely because of hookup culture-promoted promiscuity, STD rates have been skyrocketing. They hit their highest levels ever in 2015 and continued to climb. Presently, one in two sexually active people will have an STD by age 25. The 15 to 24 age group makes up 53% of the gonorrhea cases and 65% of the cases of chlamydia. Once again, STDs are more dangerous for women. Currently HPV is the most common STD in America. Both men and women can get HPV, but women are 125% more likely than men to have HPV develop into cancer. The CDC states that a female’s anatomy can place her at unique risks for STD infection in comparison to a male.

As an example, one of my students who I had in class in 2007 gave me permission to share her story. She was a somewhat typical sorority sister who drank and was sexually active. Without realizing it, she contracted HPV. She married after college and had two little boys. About eight years out of college she found out that she had cervical cancer and had to have everything, but her ovaries, removed. It was a very scary, possibly life-threatening experience for her, and she felt fortunate that she and her husband had completed their family before she had to have a hysterectomy. There are many more harms and related heartbreaks that we could list here.

I recently listened to a podcast called Just Sex that I found very curious and even disturbing. The promotion said that it concerned hookup culture on college campuses. One of the first statements it made was that there are certain ideas that send the media into a panic, one of them being hookup culture. The inference was that hookup culture is routinely demonized by the media when it is really not that big of a deal and the panic is unjustified.

From there it went into an interview with the author of a book on hookup culture. What I found curious, and quite frankly disturbing, was that from that point on, despite the opening expectations that hooking up is just what young people do these days and that it is normal human behavior, nearly every observation of it showed how negative and unnatural it is, with so many demonstrated harms. The harms being especially hurtful to young women. As a matter of fact, they flat out stated hookup culture does not serve women well. This is where I could find complete agreement, because I believe hooking up fundamentally goes against the woman’s sexual nature.

As I listened, I found their seeming approval to be paradoxical. It soon became clearer though why this might be. They pointed out that hookup culture had come from the 1960s Sexual Revolution and feminist movement. (I had a suspicion that anything that originated with those movements would not be criticized by these two people for deeply held, shared political reasons.) They went on to discuss many, many negative effects of hooking up. For instance, hookup culture says you should be embarrassed for having feelings and feel weak for wanting connection. The author stated that hookups are decidedly not about finding any kind of romantic connection. They had an example interview of a young woman who felt that she was being used in hookup culture, but she also felt she had no choice other than to be used. They stated that the worst thing you can be called in hookup culture is not a slut or even a prude, but you must avoid at all costs being labeled desperate. They also stated that hookup culture demands carelessness, rewards callousness, and punishes kindness. And the misery of living in hookup culture does not end there. They stated that it is important that hookups be meaningless. In fact, ironically, and nonsensically in a normal world, they stated that people generally will have sex with people they don’t like, and not have sex with people they like. They said loving behaviors and mutual respect are to be limited to relationships. A concluding thought was if a woman wants to be respected, she must either opt out of hookup culture altogether or expose herself by hooking up for a period where she just accepts the disrespect.

The book was published in 2017 and the interview was done around that time. At one point during the interview the author did characterize hookup culture as “toxic.” Even so, in this 2021 update to her research to see how the pandemic may have affected conditions, instead of hookup culture being described as the generally hurtful and heartbreaking phenomenon that it is, and calling for a movement against it, it was stated that students in 2021 just want safer, more accountable, and more pleasurable hookup experiences.

The concept of the entire validity of hookup culture was still not questioned or challenged. To me, with all the emotional/mental, as well as physical health problems that hookup culture generates, especially for young women, it would only make sense to build a movement back to romance.

In my own personal research that I conducted in 2019 and 2020 on 437 college students at a large Southeastern University, I found that 60% of the men wanted no part of hookup culture, and 80% of the women wanted nothing to do with it. At the same time, 97% of both sexes said that they wanted more romance and real love in our society. Again, maybe it is time for a Romance Revolt in which young adults unhook from hookup culture and find real love! This would be in direct contrast to what right now many young adults find themselves in, what should be more accurately labeled “hookup hell” on campuses around the world. After viewing all of the damage and destruction caused by hookup culture itself, lets call it what it is - Hookup Hell -and strategically learn to avoid it (like COVID) especially by young women who deserve far better!

Dr. Malone holds a Ph.D. in Health and Human Performance with a specialization in sexual wellness. He has presented at Vanderbilt and Princeton as well as other major universities. Joe served on the CDC Initiative for STD Prevention for Tennessee. His wife of 44 years Jody and he founded the nonprofit Sex IQ: https://www.sexiq.org/

by Jennifer Wright, Editor/Writer
Heartbeat International

I’ve never been a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. The timing feels completely arbitrary to me, most resolutions don’t make it past January or February, and somehow, they never seem to impact my life much. While resolutions make January a good time for the fitness industry, the people committing to more exercise often find themselves paying for gym memberships they aren’t using anymore come springtime. I guess such things have left me jaded (even at 30 years old).

Still, humans tend to need these resets. Even without our current arbitrary date to celebrate the changing of one year to the next, we would find some season, day, or festival to observe a new cycle. We always have. And this year, I’m trying something new.

In 2022, my resolution is to cultivate virtue. The Catholic Church has a list of seven heavenly virtues remembered from antiquity as a combination of the four classical cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude) and the three theological virtues (faith, hope, and love/charity). Now, there are other lists that choose virtues to directly combat the seven deadly sins, but this group of seven virtues is what I am committing myself to this year, in fact, I’m specifically working on the four cardinal virtues.

Why? Well, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that these four virtues are acquired only by human effort (different from the theological virtues which are God-given gifts that inform and give life to all the moral virtues). They are habits of moral good that, when nurtured, let us more easily turn away from temptations to sin. (See CCC 1804 and following for more on the seven virtues.) The beauty of these virtues is that they can – and should – apply almost everywhere. Here are some short descriptions of these virtues and some questions we can ask ourselves to check if we are firmly standing in these habits of moral goodness.

Cultivating Virtue at Home and at the Pregnancy Help Organization

Prudence

When we talk about prudence, we mean the practice of good judgement. St. Thomas Aquinas describes it as “right reason in action.” Not only does prudence allow us to discern right from wrong, but it can guide us in what is appropriate in any moment. It may not be wrong to confront someone with a difficult truth, but is it prudent to do so at a family dinner?

• How can I choose the right moment to share the gospel with a client?
• Will this client be ready to hear a message of sexual integrity right now? From me?
• Can I take time and energy to do this good/kind thing now or do I need to refill my cup first so I’m prepared for the next opportunities?

Justice

Justice is the virtue that guides us to make sure that God and others receive what is due them and we assume our responsibilities. Practicing justice ensures that we order things rightly, putting God first. We naturally want to see wrongs righted, but justice can be cruel without mercy, so we must incorporate God’s mercy into our human concept of justice as well. When I practice justice in my relationships, I mostly realize that I’m punishing others unjustly. My husband doesn’t really deserve to be on the receiving end of my fuming when what I’m actually upset about is my own failing.

• How can I effectively support justice for the unborn?
• Who am I punishing unjustly because of my own anger and how can I stop?
• Which client needs me to fight for her to get the support she needs?

Fortitude

Sometimes, fortitude is referred to as courage to make it easier to understand, and certainly fortitude should strengthen resolve, help us conquer fear, and encourage us in the face of trials and persecution, but it’s about more than that. Fortitude is about constancy in seeking good.

• How do I model taking courageous actions for clients?
• Am I helping others to overcome fear?
• Do I persist in seeking good even in the face of adversity or do I give up?

Temperance

Without temperance, anything can get out of hand. Practicing temperance allows us to experience life in a balanced way. It’s not wrong to eat, in fact it’s necessary! It becomes sinful to overeat greedily. Good things, if we overindulge, are no longer good. That’s why we need temperance. We ought to temper our practice of justice with mercy, and fortitude and prudence can temper one another to make our choices more and more virtuous.

• Is my sense of justice overcoming my capacity for mercy and love?
• How can I share the truth with clients, friends, and family without overwhelming them?
• Do I speak too harshly on social media when I should be tempering fortitude with prudence?

I still may not be a fan of New Year's resolutions, but I hope that spending this year cultivating virtue will make the world - or at least my world - a better place. I think a resolution like this is one all of us should make, so why not now? And let's be honest, if I need a reset on this resolution, Lent is coming soon! May we all grow in virtue this year at home and in the pregnancy help movement.

How does this FDA decision affect your center, your clients and your community?

What did the US Food & Drug Administration decide last week about the abortion drug mifepristone?

Considerable changes were made to the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) safety program. These changes affect how it can be prescribed and dispensed. This decision by the FDA will affect thousands of women in the coming year.

What is the REMS and why was this placed on mifepristone?

There are over 20,000 prescription drugs approved by the FDA, there are just 74 medications deemed so dangerous to warrant a REMS restriction and one of these was mifepristone.

A Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) is a drug safety program that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can require for certain medications with serious safety concerns to help ensure the benefits of the medication outweigh its risks.

This was one last safety barrier in place for chemical abortion of a process that’s been shown to be four times more dangerous than surgical abortion.

The REMS for mifepristone was intended to minimize the significant risk of hemorrhage, retained fetal tissue, and infection – symptoms that can quickly become life-threatening for women. This was not restrictive – it was protective of the thousands of women who take this drug every year in the US.

Is mifepristone actually dangerous?

We really do not have a true picture of the dangers of mifepristone because the FDA made the decision in 2016 to stop collecting data on nonfatal adverse events related of mifepristone - instead they have only been collecting data on maternal fatalities related to the drug. Unless women actually died, they did not make note of the complications or injuries to women caused by mifepristone for more than five years. With only voluntary reporting, no one in America is systematically collecting data on the women hurt or killed by mifepristone complications. 

However, recent analysis of the Adverse Events submitted to the FDA with the REMS in place shows over 3000 women suffering with complications, of which 24 of those women died, and another 500 would have died if they had not reached emergency medical care in time. And we know that up to 7% of women will need surgical intervention after a chemical abortion.

Mifepristone causes pain and bleeding that can become perilous, but the FDA also warns women to expect nausea, weakness, fever/chills, vomiting, headache, diarrhea, and dizziness in the first day or two. Chemical abortion is quite a miserable experience for nearly all women who take these drugs, dangerous for the thousands suffering complications and can even be deadly for the most unfortunate. 

Why was the REMS altered?

The FDA said it made changes "to minimize the burden on the healthcare delivery system" and "to ensure that the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks." Sadly, the FDA has chosen to ignore the thousands of women in need of emergency care who were injured by chemical abortion and has caved to the pressures of ACOG, World Health Organization, the American Medical Association and Big Abortion.

Will chemical abortion be prescribed by telemedicine and mail order now?  

Although the FDA continues to allow in-person dispensing at a clinic or other medical setting, the FDA removed the requirement that it must be dispensed in person. This means that abortion pills can now be sent in the mail across state lines without seeing a doctor. Regrettably, telemedicine has emerged as a viable option to expand the availability of abortion. By lifting the REMS, the FDA has allowed providers in states without telehealth restrictions to dispense mifepristone without a clinic visit. There is much risk in not providing assessment for ectopic pregnancy, accurate determination of gestational age, testing and treatment for Rh- incompatibility, fully informed consent, and assessment for coercion prior to prescribing mifepristone.

Who can prescribe and dispense mifepristone?

Mifepristone must be prescribed by or under the supervision of a certified healthcare provider who meets certain qualifications. The prescriber must sign a Prescriber Agreement Form with the manufacturer and patients must still sign a "Patient Agreement Form.” When signing this form, women agree they were counseled regarding the dangers of bleeding, infection and ectopic pregnancy; the failure rate of chemical abortion (estimated by the manufacturer to be 3-7%); and what to do in the event of emergency symptoms. They also must agree to take the second drug, misoprostol, 24-48 hours later, which inappropriately seems to remove their rights to withdrawal their informed consent if they wish to continue their pregnancies. They are also provided with a letter to take to the emergency department if symptoms require urgent medical care.

Is mifepristone allowed by prescription?

Previously, mifepristone was not available by prescription at commercial pharmacies. Women couldn’t just pick it up at Walgreens or CVS; it was most frequently prescribed and dispensed at an abortion facility. The FDA is now allowing prescriptions at certified pharmacies, helping to facilitate e-prescriptions for mifepristone. This certification is between the pharmacy and the manufacturer of the abortion drug and is not regulated by the FDA.

How do we help clients considering abortion drugs?

Informed consent is the idea that patients have the right to know as much information as possible about the risks and benefits of a medical procedure and use that knowledge to decide whether they want to receive the procedure. There are many ways your center can assist women to be fully informed about their pregnancy decisions:

• Share information about the medical process she is about to undertake.
• If you need more information, Heartbeat Academy has a course called Abortion Procedures Information for Pregnancy Help Organizations
• The American Association of Prolife Obstetricians and Gynecologists offers guidance regarding counseling the abortion vulnerable patient and medical abortion. Their information is evidence-based and defends the lives of both the pregnant mother and her pre-born child.
• Life Institute has a training documentary regarding chemical abortion.
• Encourage all pregnant clients to have a scan at your center for accurate fetal heart rate and assessment of viability, location, and dating prior to making a pregnancy decision.
• Share the truth about fetal development with your client. The Endowment for Human Development has recently shared a new free tablet app for educators called the Little One Pregnancy Guide. This resource helps show parents what is going on during the developmental journey of their preborn child. You can also encourage clients to actively follow their baby's growth in the womb.
• Spend as much time as needed answering questions with families regarding the ultrasound report, fetal development, and chemical abortion as well as the help and support that is available to her as she moves forward with a pregnancy decision.

If your client has started a chemical abortion and has regret, she can learn more about reversing the effects of chemical abortion and possibly continuing her pregnancy by contacting the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network hotline 877.558.0333 or at the APR website to begin a live chat. We have a team of nurses waiting to answer questions, explain reversal, and connect her with an APRN Provider in her area.

Women deserve to know the truth; they don’t give up that right when they seek an abortion. Help is available for women who have taken the first abortion pill and experience regret. APRN offers the chance to reverse the effects of the chemical abortion pill and potentially continue their pregnancies. Statistics show that more than 2,500 babies have been saved through the APRN.

Belle sat in the abortion clinic for two hours contemplating her decision before taking the first abortion pill. She was told by the abortion clinic doctor, “that once you take the first pill, there’s no coming back from it.” Eight hours after taking the first abortion pill Belle experienced heartbreaking regret. She searched and found the Abortion Pill Rescue Network (APRN) online and called for help. “I got someone on the phone that was so nice and helpful, also encouraging and positive which is what a woman needs during a time like that.”

The APRN medical team compassionately helped her through the process. Within hours, she had a prescription for progesterone and was working with a provider doing everything they could to save her baby. Belle had faith that Abortion Pill Reversal would work even though she knew it may not, and it did! A healthy and beautiful baby boy named Rey was born on Oct 11, 2021. “I am so glad and eternally grateful for this website [AbortionPillRescue.com] because it saved my baby’s life and mine.”

Baby Rey will be celebrating his 1^st Christmas this year in the arms of his mother.

This is the kind of story we celebrate at every opportunity, and we know you do too. Belle shared her story with us to encourage others in her situation that there is hope. We pray for Belle and Rey, as well as all your clients and patients this year that they may have a joyful holiday season and truly embrace the beauty of life.

by Andrea Trudden, Director of Communications and Marketing
Heartbeat International

In this, our 50^th birthday year, we reflected on the many accomplishments that the pregnancy help organization has witnessed. (And boy, were there some amazing things to celebrate!) We have grown into a worldwide movement that provides the timeless care and support that any woman facing an unexpected pregnancy needs in addition to new, innovative services to help combat the ever-changing needs of our clients.

It is awe-inspiring to look at how much this movement has grown and adapted since 1971.

And yet, there is still so much to do!

Now, we must look into the future to ensure we are following the path laid before us by God. We must remain laser-focused on the goal.

As we considered various themes for the 2022 Conference, we knew that we wanted to look forward at what God has in store while providing a comprehensive learning opportunity for each and every person working in pregnancy help. So we went to His word.

Keeping in mind that there are various types of organizations represented within the pregnancy help movement – pregnancy centers, medical clinics, maternity homes, and non-profit adoption agencies; serving cities and colleges, farms and suburbs – we all have a common vision: To make abortion unwanted today and unthinkable for future generations!

This common bond holds us together as a movement. We must navigate this path together toward this goal to truly advance a culture of life and also be encouraged in the task.

It is a journey. It is an adventure! And yet, those words didn’t represent what we wanted.

Future… Advancement… Press on… No. No. No.

And then a different word came to mind.

Onward (on·​ward) - toward or at a point lying ahead in space or time

Interesting word. What does the Bible say about it?

Philippians 3:12 - Focused on the Goal

I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.

That’s it! A combination of persistence, of adventure, of following God’s mission toward a mighty goal.

That one word encompassed all that we strive to achieve at our 2022 Conference in Jacksonville, FL from March 30-April 1.

We hope you will join us for the education and inspiration we have planned as we come together to honor the past and plan for the future of the pregnancy help movement.

Together, we move onward!

Click here to learn more about the conference and all it has to offer.

This month we are highlighting Ashley Vance, one of our Healthcare Team Managers. Ashley assists our affiliates with medical questions and oversees the Abortion Pill Reversal Hotline. Before joining the Medical Impact Team almost three years ago, Ashley served as an Abortion Pill Reversal Hotline Consultant. Ashley also brings a background of Medical Surgical Nursing to the Medical Impact Team. If you speak with Ashley, you will be blessed with wisdom, encouragement, and inspiration in your work within the pregnancy help community!

Where did you grow up and go to school?

I grew up in northern Alberta. I left my hometown in the last year of high school where I moved to British Columbia and pursued my nursing career. I completed my nursing degree through Athabasca University.

Share with us about your family.

I am blessed to come from an extremely tight knit Christian family. I have one brother and I call my mom my best friend! I have a family of my own with my lovely husband and we have two small children, plus another one on the way set to arrive January 2022!

Tell us about what brought you to Heartbeat International.

Well, that is a God thing! I felt so strongly in my last year of nursing school that I wanted to join the prolife movement and have God use me in whatever way I was needed. I reached out locally and through my church but never heard back. Doubt crept in and I began to wonder if I was wanting to do something that didn’t actually exist! However, I could never shake the feeling of the call God placed on my heart so I started to do research and every time I kept coming back to the same name- Heartbeat International. I learned about Abortion Pill Reversal and was desperately eager to join! However, being Canadian I assumed that wouldn’t be possible so I reached out to see if anyone could connect me with a Canadian contact. To my surprise they let me know that they were looking for hotline nurses and the opportunity was open to me as well. I was SO excited! Along with being a mother, working for Heartbeat has been the biggest honor, joy and blessing of my life!

Share with us about your experiences sharing APR with others through presentations.

Public speaking and presentations are the biggest areas of growth that I have experienced in my career. It’s so humbling for me to speak in front of other prolife individuals because I deeply admire and respect them! With the guidance, support, and prayers of Christa Brown I have learned so much about this extremely important skill- Spreading the word about the APR mission! Every presentation I have done has connected me with others in the movement and strengthened my understanding of the many other life affirming roles as well.

Tell us about how you offer assistance to affiliates within their pregnancy help centers.

We offer assistance to affiliates in whatever capacity it is needed. That could be establishing medical services, information on STI testing, adding APR or how to find a medical director. For example, during the onset of Covid-19 we worked quickly to ensure we could assist pregnancy centers with policies and insights in a rapidly changing landscape. We work diligently to make sure we provide affiliates with the most up to date and in-depth information available.

Tell us about your experiences helping clients on the APR Hotline and now overseeing the Hotline as one of the Healthcare Team Managers.

My time on the hotline was where I fell in love with the mission. I remember my first shift so well and the feeling of my first call- I was so nervous but so grateful that I had the opportunity to speak with someone in the midst of a pregnancy crisis and share the good news: There are people out there that have no judgement for you, only love and that help is available. This line of work is hard, I’ve shed happy tears and sad ones alone in my office, but every second has been worth it! Now as a manager I work closely with the nurses, and I have seen the network grow in so many ways. It’s been an absolute blessing to witness!

Tell us about working on the Medical Impact Team.

In my eyes the Medical Impact Team is its own family. We are bonded by a love of women, the unborn, family and medical science. We have a unique role within Heartbeat where we oversee the APR hotline, nurse consultants, answer affiliate questions and assist with ultrasound training. There is always more to learn and it’s very fulfilling!

What do you enjoy the most about your work?

My favorite thing (and this is harder than one might think to choose!) is seeing God in details. He really comes through, and often in the most surprising of ways for these women. Sometimes it’s through a Provider willing to see a client after hours on a holiday, sometimes it’s a pharmacy that is open a few minutes late which allows a client to get started on the Progesterone in the middle of the night. Most often it’s in the courage He gives these women to reach out and find us. He whispers into their heart that there is a way out, a second chance available. Witnessing the ways they find us and hearing their stories gives me tremendous respect for these women that fight so hard to fix a decision that they regret and to now save the life of their precious unborn baby.

What are your favorite things to do outside of work?

Outside of work I enjoy slow days drinking coffee on my front porch surrounded by family! I love books, current events, horses, and good conversations with loved ones.

What else would you like to share?

How much we value and pray for the many Pregnancy Centers and prolife ministries around the world! We see how deeply you care and love for these women. None of your hard work goes unnoticed. It’s a true honor to serve alongside all of you!

There has been quite a bit of buzz around this topic since the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Ministries across the country have found themselves on vacillating ends of the spectrum between empty and full houses with burgeoning waiting lists. So why the variance?

I recently spoke with homes from different regions of the country, each with varied programming models, ministry models, and eligibility criteria. I found that the homes with low occupancy rates (For the purposes of this writing, “low” will be less than 25%) repeatedly described their experiences of receiving calls from women in the community inquiring about their home or even interviewing some women, however, these women did not meet the criteria to be eligible to move into the home. Reasons ranged from past or current drug use, criminal record, previous pregnancies, previous children removed from care, children currently in care, or perhaps a generally poor attitude. Needless to say, this can be an exhausting daily merry-go-round for ministries.