Q: Isn’t it better to put a person on the pill rather than risk that her sexual activity will eventually lead to an abortion?

A: By putting a woman on the pill or providing contraceptives, we are likely, in fact, to be exposing her to a future abortion, since we know that more than half (51%) of abortion patients in the United States reported that they had used a contraceptive method in the month they became pregnant. 

Many researchers conclude that the pill often acts as an abortifacient. “Breakthrough” ovulation can occur when a woman is on the pill, she may conceive, but the pill has thinned the lining of the uterus so that the tiny embryo cannot implant and so is aborted (clearly, the pill does not always contra-cept). So-called contraceptives such as the “the morning after pill” Plan B can also act as abortifacients depending on when they are taken during a woman’s cycle, and the Ella brand does act as an abortifacient.

Since the pill has a large failure rate – the CDC reports 7-13% – those on the pill will be encouraged by medical providers to switch to implants that have additional health risks, and even to IUDs which act as abortifacients.

With the pill’s high failure rate, it often leads to an abortion. The choice to use contraception is to prevent what the woman sees as the worst possible outcome of her sexual behavior – a pregnancy and a baby. Therefore, they may rationalize that they were being “responsible” by using the pill, and, since it failed, abortion is now the responsible choice to make.

Q: If a woman or girl is intending to go on the pill, and we care about her, isn’t it better for us to provide it to her rather than have her go to Planned Parenthood?

A: If we truly care about her, it is best to present her with only the healthiest life-affirming options for her physical, emotional, and spiritual health.

Putting an unmarried woman or girl on the pill says to her that we are doubtful that she can or will make the healthiest choice for her body, mind, and spirit – abstinence before marriage. She deserves positive, life-giving truth from you, messages that honor her value and affirm her whole person – emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual – not just sexual. It is only when she can express her personhood appropriately, in light of all these areas of her life, that she can become a whole, healthy, empowered woman. Sexual pleasure outside of a life-time commitment of faithful love can rob her of that and ultimately be unfulfilling, hurtful, and wounding.

Of course, the pill will not prevent her from getting an STI, or additional STIs if she already is infected. It does not prevent broken relationships and broken hearts. It will not prevent her from being emotionally or physically abused by her sexual partner(s) or predators. Artificial hormones in the pill have their own health risks and side effects (the pill is listed as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization).

Providing the pill to a woman or girl is no guarantee that she will stay away from Planned Parenthood. After she becomes “committed” to birth control, she may be more likely to end up at Planned Parenthood for an implant or IUD because they are longer-lasting, or even an abortion if and when her contraceptive does NOT contra-cept.

Q: If we are a medical clinic, shouldn’t we provide the widest possible range of medical services for women’s health and aim for the highest medical credibility and accreditation so we gain respect, have broader community support, and gain referrals from other medical providers?

A: The AMA and ACOG, the dominant medical associations in the USA that relate to our work do not support the work of PHOs. In fact, they have published articles and editorials in their medical journals that criticize PHO’s and call our protocols “junk science.” If we try to gain the respect of secular medical providers by modeling some of their programs, such as providing contraceptives, what will they expect us to do as a “next step” to remain in their fold? The medical community at large has an abortion bias. If we try to imitate them, we may ultimately compromise our most foundational principles.

Q: Aren’t we trying to compete with Planned Parenthood for the hearts and minds of women and the culture?

A: We can compete for the hearts, minds, and souls of women, and we must. But providing contraceptives in our centers is totally counterproductive to that noble goal.

To compete with Planned Parenthood does not mean that we provide some or all of the same services but without abortion. We compete, but not like McDonalds and Burger King (that provide very similar products). We are to Planned Parenthood like day is to night. Like the culture of life is to the culture of death. Like flowing water is to the desert. We transcend PP by providing a radically different, a wholistically healthy, a consistently life-affirming – a truly God-inspired – approach to each precious person and to women’s true reproductive health.

Sources:

• https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-united-states
• https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/contraception/index.htm
• https://thewashingtonsentinel.com/study-finds-96-of-biologists-think-life-begins-at-conception/ 
• https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/04/26/bright-flash-of-light-marks-incredible-moment-life-begins-when-s/ 
• https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/pregnancy/how-pregnancy-happens
• https://www.hli.org/2017/10/contraception-leads-abortions/

Additional Resources

• Hormonal Contraception in Women's Health and NaPro Technology
• What May Surprise You About Hormonal Birth Control (affiliates only)
• Basic Bioethics: What Christians should know about abortifacients
• The confusion about contraceptives
• Contraception and Christian ethics 50 years after Humanae Vitae
• Evangelium Vitae
• Contraception, Why Not?
• An Introduction to Church Teaching on ContraceptionAn Introduction to Church Teaching on Contraception

The Leadership Alliance of Pregnancy Care Organizations (LAPCO) created and upholds the national standard of ethical practices known as the “Commitment of Care and Competence.”* This commitment to ethical practices is the core national standard for all major life-affirming pregnancy help affiliate groups in the U.S.

One of the tenets of that agreed standard of affiliation for pregnancy help organizations (PHOs) is “We do not offer, recommend or refer for abortions, abortifacients or contraceptives. We are committed to offering accurate information about related risks and procedures.” [Emphasis added.]

The leaders of the pregnancy care organizations in the USA agree to uphold this standard—that links and rejects abortions, abortifacients, and contraceptives as appropriate services in PHOs because of the sanctity of every human life which begins at the moment of conception.

In fact, 96% of biologists confirm that life begins at conception, the moment of fertilization.

The grandeur of this moment is described as a marvel even by secular scientists: “Human life begins in bright flash of light as a sperm meets an egg, scientists have shown for the first time, after capturing the astonishing ‘fireworks’ on film.  An explosion of tiny sparks erupts from the egg at the exact moment of conception.” 

Science confirms the ancient wisdom of the Bible that describes the wonder of the human person, formed in the womb by the hand of God (Psalm 139, Jeremiah 1:5).

And the eternal truth of the sanctity of human life is consistently reaffirmed and remains the foundational value of all pro-life ministries and organizations. 

Modern medical associations may persistently twist traditional definitions to accommodate the abortion culture and its attending individualistic ideologies. For example, some organizations, like Planned Parenthood, define a pregnancy as not occurring until the tiny embryo implants in the uterus (several days after conception). This false definition turns actual abortifacients like the morning-after pill—that works between fertilization and implantation—into so-called contraceptives (i.e. something that prevents a pregnancy or prevents conception).  

Practically, PHOs should also be mindful that studies show contraceptives can actually contribute to an increase of abortions/abortion rate. 

Adding to that, the “typical” use of contraceptives demonstrates a 7-13% failure rate. This means that providing contraceptives will contribute to producing unplanned, unintended pregnancy amongst the very population—women at-risk for abortion—that we serve. This is confirmed by the Guttmacher Institute shows that more than half (51%) of abortion patients in the United States reported that they had used a contraceptive method in the month they became pregnant. 

How many pregnancies, resulting from failed contraceptives provided by a “pro-life organization,” would then end in abortion?  

A dictionary synonym for contraceptives is birth control. A commitment to a policy of birth control, controlling who should be allowed to reproduce or who should be allowed to be born, has led in recent history to the eugenics movement and to tragedies such as the Holocaust and China’s restrictive birth policy.  

In the United Nations, population planners, led by Planned Parenthood and mainstream medical providers in the USA who, under the guise of “women’s reproductive health”, insist that all the nations of the world adopt their policies and agenda: universal distribution of contraceptives, along with the legalization of abortion. Prescribing contraceptives in pro-life organizations could, unintentionally, be fulfilling such evil agendas.

These realities make the provision of contraceptives anathema to pro-life missional outreach. No perceived gain from marketing or opportunity for government funding is worth compromising a PHOs biblical commission to champion the Gift of Life and the Giver of Life. 

*CCC - Originating in the early 1990s, the “Commitment of Care” was formally adopted by major U.S. pregnancy help affiliation organizations in January 2001. Focusing primarily on positive client care, these ethical codes of practice dispel the abortion activists’ false accusations and form the basis for our consistently strong client services approval ratings. In 2009 long practiced organizational competencies were officially included and the statement was re-titled “Commitment of Care and Competence.” The most recent update occurred in 2019. 

Sources:

• https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-united-states
• https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/contraception/index.htm
• https://thewashingtonsentinel.com/study-finds-96-of-biologists-think-life-begins-at-conception/ 
• https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/04/26/bright-flash-of-light-marks-incredible-moment-life-begins-when-s/ 
• https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/pregnancy/how-pregnancy-happens
• https://www.hli.org/2017/10/contraception-leads-abortions/

Additional Resources

• Hormonal Contraception in Women's Health and NaPro Technology
• What May Surprise You About Hormonal Birth Control (affiliates only)
• Basic Bioethics: What Christians should know about abortifacients
• The confusion about contraceptives
• Contraception and Christian ethics 50 years after Humanae Vitae
• Evangelium Vitae
• Contraception, Why Not?
• An Introduction to Church Teaching on Contraception

On September 30, 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources (HHS) issued an announcement that it will be providing $33.6 million in additional funding for fiscal year 2019 to current Title X grantees in 37 states.

The grant of additional funding is the result of several Title X grantees’ refusal to abide by the requirements that the funding may not be used to refer for abortion as a method of family planning and that Title X grantees may not co-locate with abortion facilities. Part of Title X funding is allowed to go to Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) and Natural Family Planning (NFP) Programs. The grantees of supplemental funding listed below may be able to expand their services to include partnerships with additional entities offering these services.

Interested pregnancy centers are encouraged to reach out to the grantees in their state listed below to see if they would be able to partner under their supplemental grant for their Title X project(s).

• AL - Alabama Department of Public Health
• AR - Arkansas Department of Health
• AZ - Arizona Family Health Partnership
• CO - Colorado Department of Public Health
• CT - Cornell Scott-Hill Health Corporation
• DC - Unity Health Care Inc.
• DE - Delaware State Department of Health
• FL - Primary Care Medical Services of Poinciana Inc.
• FL - Community Health Centers of Pinellas Inc.
• GA - Neighborhood Improvement Project Inc.
• GA - Family Health Centers of Georgia Inc.
• IA - Family Planning Council of Iowa
• ID - Idaho Department of Health & Welfare
• IL - Aunt Martha's Health and Wellness Inc.
• IN - Indiana Family Health Council Inc.
• KS - Kansas Department of Health & Environment
• KY - Kentucky Cabinet for Health & Family Services
• MA - Action for Boston Community Development Inc.
• MD - The Community Clinic Inc.
• MS - Mississippi State Department of Health
• MN - Ramsey County
• MT - Montana Department of Public Health
• ND - North Dakota Department of Health
• NE - Family Planning Council of Nebraska
• NM - New Mexico Department of Health
• NV - Nevada Primary Care Association
• NV - City of Carson City
• NV - Washoe County
• NV - Southern Nevada Health District
• NY - The Floating Hospital Inc.
• OH - Ohio Department of Health
• OK - Community Health Connection Inc.
• OK - Oklahoma Department of Health
• PA - AccessMatters
• PA - Family Health Council of Central Pennsylvania Inc.
• PA - Maternal and Family Health Services Inc.
• PA - Adagio Health Inc.
• RI - Rhode Island Department of Health
• SC - South Carolina State Department of Health
• SD - South Dakota Department of Health
• TN - Tennessee Department of Health
• TX - Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas
• TX - City of El Paso
• WI - Wisconsin Department of Health Services
• WV - West Virginia Department of HHS
• WY - Wyoming Health Council

To learn more about Title X, please see: Ten Truths About Title X

Thank you for listening to the Pregnancy Help Podcast—Another way Heartbeat International connects you to the Pregnancy Help Community. Subscribe today!

Here you will find resources mentioned within the various podcasts. 

What is the Abortion Pill Rescue Network? (10/09/2018)

The Abortion Pill Rescue Network (APRN) gives women a second chance to choose life for her baby. With more than 500 lives saved since 2012, it is important for pregnancy centers to understand what it is and how it works. Join Heartbeat International Medical Specialist and APR Coordinator Christa Brown, BSN, RN, as she walks us through the process to provide a better understanding.

Additional Resources: 

• Episode Notes
• AbortionPillReversal.com
• Pregnancy Help Organizations: Join the Abortion Pill Rescue Network
• Medical Professionals: Join our Medical Network

Pregnancy Center Life Launch Grant (09/24/2018) 

• Information on the program
• Life Launch AssessmentLife Launch Assessment

Maternity Homes and the Pregnancy Center Service Report (09/14/2018)

• Standards of Practice
• Pregnancy Center Service Report
• National Maternity Housing Coalition Website

Using the Pregnancy Center Services to Connect with Politicians (09/12/2018)

• Episode Notes
• Pregnancy Center Service Report
• Babies Go to Congress
• Webinar: Public Speaking Anxiety
• (Affiliates Only) Guidelines for Political Activities of Not-for-Profit Organizations
• (Affiliates Only) Community Impact Report Example

5 Action Items Following Pregnancy Center Service Report (09/11/2018)

• Download Kirk's recommended 10 Takeaways for use with your community.
• Pregnancy Center Service Report

Trauma Informed Care (series began 08/20/2018)

• Purchase full episodes on issues surrounding trauma informed care.

For news within the Pregnancy Help Community as it happens, subscribe to both PregnancyHelpNews.com and the Pregnancy Help Podcast. 

To discuss Heartbeat International resources available to startup organizations, contact Heartbeat International’s Affiliate Services Specialist, Sara Dominguez, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

WHAT IS THE LIFE LAUNCH GRANT?

Life Launch, a Pregnancy Help Center Start-Up Grant, is dedicated to inspiring a new season of pregnancy help center start-ups by supporting individuals and/or established organizations open in underserved communities. Qualified candidates will initially be considered for $10,000 in in-kind resources. Additionally, Life Launch candidates who have been accepted as full recipients may also be considered for operational grant opportunities. Qualified candidates will be considered based on available funding for the Life Launch Grant Program.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE THE LIFE LAUNCH GRANT?

The Life Launch Grant is designed to support new pregnancy help center start-ups open their doors, advancing pregnancy help in those underserved communities. In some select cases, existing pregnancy help centers planning to open a new satellite location or pregnancy help centers who have opened their doors no more than 6 months prior to submitting their grant application may be eligible. Maternity homes and non-profit adoption agencies are excluded from this grant program.

HOW CAN I BE CONSIDERED?

Qualified candidates will be considered based on available funding for the Life Launch Grant Program. To be considered for the Life Launch Grant Program, complete the initial qualification assessment. The qualification assessment will help to identify if your center qualifies as a start-up pregnancy help center in an underserved community. The Heartbeat team will then review all submitted qualification assessments and invite eligible centers to apply for the Life Launch grant based on available funding.

WHAT IS AVAILABLE UPON ACCEPTANCE INTO THE GRANT PROGRAM?

Upon acceptance into the Life Launch grant program, grant recipients will receive $10,000 in in-kind resources including their first of three years of Heartbeat Affiliation, Heartbeat International’s Pregnancy Help Starter Kit, access to Heartbeat International’s fundraising webinars (fundraising 101, fundraising 102, and fundraising for matching grants), their first of two years of Extend Web Services (both client and donor websites are included), and their first two years of Next Level CMS intake and data collection services. Grant recipients will also receive a scholarship to attend Pregnancy Help Institute at Heartbeat International’s headquarters in Columbus in July as well as an on-site Board of Directors Training by a Heartbeat specialist.

To discuss Heartbeat International resources available to startup organizations, contact Heartbeat International’s Affiliate Services Specialist, Sara Dominguez, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Pregnancy Help Center Life Launch Grant is designed to inspire a new season of pregnancy help center start-ups by supporting individuals opening brand-new centers in areas primed for more life-saving outreach. The grant is created to help start-up centers open their doors and advance pregnancy help to new communities throughout the U.S. Qualified candidates will initially be considered for $10,000 in in-kind resources. Additionally, Life Launch candidates who have been accepted as full recipients may also be considered for operational grant opportunities. Qualified candidates will be considered based on available funding for the Life Launch Grant Program. To discuss Heartbeat International resources available to startup organizations, please contact Heartbeat International’s Affiliate Services Specialist, Sara Dominguez, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

If you are ready to learn more, review the Frequently Asked Questions regarding the Life Launch Grant and take the assessment. To discuss Heartbeat International resources available to startup organizations, contact Heartbeat International’s Affiliate Services Specialist, Sara Dominguez, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

As of today, the Hyatt Regency is completely sold out.  We apologize for the inconvenience. 

Heartbeat has compiled a list of hotels to make your travel planning a little easier.  

Explore Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) – The DART contains stops at area hotels and should help make your travel.  The Hyatt Regency is located on the DART line and has a stop within the hotel.  

Hyatt Regency - SOLD OUT
300 Reunion Boulevard,
Dallas, TX 75207
Phone: (214) 651-1234

Hyatt Uptown - SOLD OUT
2914 Harry Hines Blvd.
Dallas, TX 75201
214-965-9990

SpringHill Suites Dallas Downtown/West End‎ - on the DART line OR 4 minute drive
1907 N Lamar St
Dallas, TX 75202
(214) 999-0500
marriott.com‎
Rates starting at $135.00 (plus tax)

Crowne Plaza Dallas Downtown‎ - on the DART line OR 4 minute drive
1015 Elm St
Dallas, TX 75202
(214) 742-5678
crowneplaza.com
Rates starting at $132.00 (plus tax)‎

Holiday Inn Dallas Market Center‎ - 1 block from the Marketplace DART OR 8 minute drive
4500 Harry Hines Blvd
Dallas, TX 75219
(214) 219-3333
holidayinn.com‎
Rates starting at $106.00 (plus tax)

by Leslie Malek, Heartbeat International Editor

Human dignity and sexual wholeness are intimately linked. Today, the dignity of women is under heavy attack worldwide, especially when it comes to children and sexuality. Unfortunately, TV, movies, and music often portray a warped view of love, romance, and sexuality that robs women of dignity.

Decades ago, Peggy Hartshorn, Heartbeat International® President with over 40 years of experience helping pregnant women choose life, recognized that our highly sexualized culture leads women into a lifestyle of life-and-death choices. That recognition drove Peggy on a search to understand the cause and find a cure.

Disinformation about fertility, overpopulation, and sexuality, combined with lack of support for pregnancy and family, are prime factors in this crisis. In fact and contrary to media and “scientific” spin promoted by “overpopulation gurus,” declining birthrates and a warped view of love are now deeply embedded in cultures everywhere. This further contributes to the decline in families and devaluation of children and women.

Says Peggy, “For a culture to value women, children and families, women have to value their gift of fertility and their nurturing natures. The roles of wife and mother are intimately linked with womanhood just as the role of husband and father are intimately linked with manhood.”

Peggy is convinced that sexual wholeness is an important part of the cure in the process of reclaiming the dignity of women. The cure has a name: Heartbeat’s Sexual Integrity™ Program (SIP), a tool that affiliates can use to help the women who come into pregnancy help centers. This program helps women find new dignity in themselves by understanding God's plan for sexuality and fertility.

The Sexual Integrity Program draws inspiration from the “Theology of the Body,” Pope John Paul II's integrated vision of the human person, body, soul, and spirit. According to John Paul II, the physical human body has a specific meaning that answers fundamental questions about us and our lives.

The Sexual Integrity Program has become one of Heartbeat's most popular offerings. For details on the Sexual Integrity program, click here.

The dignity of women and Sexual Integrity

The need has never been greater for renewed efforts to restore the dignity of women. Organizations like Planned Parenthood, the most lucrative abortion provider in the United States, target students, young adults, and even children with campaigns designed to "liberate" young people sexually. Planned Parenthood even launched a Valentine's Day campaign proclaiming "National Condom Week." The campaign encourages youths to be sexually promiscuous and use "safe sex," a blatant contradiction of terms!

The HHS (U. S. Health and Human Services) mandate is another far-reaching assault on the dignity of women through the sexploitation of "healthcare." Bureaucrats have declared that pregnancy is a treatable disease that government must combat through preventive “healthcare.” Tragically, the HHS mandate actually undermines healthcare reform by inextricably linking it to the zealotry of pro-abortion bureaucrats. This mandate further institutionalizes, at the highest level of government and alongside abortion, the cultural attack on women.

Campaigns like this degrade the dignity of women and men, young and old. Instead of liberation, the people who fall into the trap of sexploitation find themselves emotionally wounded and sexually broken.  They also become highly vulnerable to contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

Heartbeat's SIP helps women learn how to respect their own body, know the ingredients for a healthy relationship, become sexually whole, and gain deeper understanding of the value of human life.

Through SIP, Heartbeat affiliated centers empower women by sharing the truth about who God created them to be. Centers also introduce women to the dignity of sexual wholeness with its freedom and peace.

As the phone center manager for Pregnancy Resource Center of Gwinnett, Georgia, Lana Duffell has very little time to call her own.

Without the persistent effort put forth by Lana and her co-laborers, the call from a local woman or girl facing the desperate circumstance of an unexpected pregnancy might fall through the cracks, and cause her to choose abortion as the only option she can see at the moment.

So most days, Lana keeps her nose to the grindstone and her ear to the phone.

But when Lana and her staff decided to take time off during this Christmas season, she had no concerns about the calls and contacts that were sure to come in. Lana and her staff had full confidence that, even if they wouldn’t be there to answer the phone, Heartbeat International’s Option Line® would.

While Lana and her staff rested and reenergized for the coming year, the staff at Option Line routed a total of 39 calls and contacts to Pregnancy Resource Center, ensuring that not one woman seeking help fell through the cracks.

“Option Line has been there for us on a 24/7 basis, when we are in meetings and also when our phone lines are overwhelming,” Lana says. “With Option Line, we are at peace, knowing that our callers will get a live person who can offer them information about abortion alternatives or set an appointment so that we can do further counseling.

“Option Line answers our calls when we are not available, making the difference between losing a life and saving it.”

Since it opened shop in 2003, Option Line has answered the call more than 1.5 million times, in addition to 2.5 million unique visitors to its website, www.OptionLine.org.

That translates to a staggering amount of birthdays, which otherwise would never have been. For now, we’ll celebrate just one: Happy 10th Birthday, Option Line!