Pregnancy help organizations cannot both openly advocate for criminalizing women and remain safe harbors for them.

“Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.” – Proverbs 24:11

Rescue is exactly what the pregnancy help movement is all about. Not through political power or legal enforcement, but by engaging directly in the dynamics of individual lives.

We often rescue a mother facing an unintended pregnancy from the fear she now feels, as her life has changed in an instant. We rescue by helping her see the truth about the life within, often through an ultrasound of her baby. We rescue by helping meet relational and material needs that can overwhelm and create obstacles to saying "yes" to her child's future. We do this with material assistance and connecting her with resources that, without us, she would have never known were available. These are the legal, and sometimes only, means that can help dissuade her from an abortion she doesn’t want.

National or local laws may openly allow for abortion or be largely ineffectual in preventing it. In either instance, pregnancy help organizations have offered a successful way to rescue many who would otherwise have been led to slaughter. Not all, for sure, but many. Our movement has helped millions of moms make the courageous choice to rescue their own baby from a life-ending decision.

But some abortion opponents, though guided by a desire to rescue, aggressively focus on the political and legislative realm. Among these are self-described "abolitionists" who specifically direct their energies toward the immediate, absolute abolition of abortion, pursued by leveraging the power of government to criminalize every aspect of abortion. These “immediatists” support the call for criminalizing women who would feel coerced or are forced into an abortion.

At Heartbeat, our vision is to make abortion unwanted today and unthinkable for future generations. And our method matters. Our Heartbeat principles affirm that all services are personal, confidential, and nonjudgmental. Such a principle is an essential posture that supports and safeguards our invitation for women to explore life-affirming choices without fear of condemnation or retribution.

Pregnancy help is a compassionate outreach to women who would otherwise feel unable to consider any option other than abortion. Pregnancy help organizations cannot both openly advocate for criminalizing women and remain safe harbors for them in their valley of decision between the life and death of their unborn child. Political advocacy for criminalization will almost certainly undercut our efforts to offer effective and compassionate care.

Jesus, similarly, responded with compassion and not condemnation when presented with or orchestrating interactions with women who were actively in sin. Even though the acts involved would have been criminal – either in civil or religious courts of that day – and leaders of the time approached Him calling for justice, Jesus extended grace and mercy.

In John 4, Jesus made Himself accessible to the woman at the well even though she was socially outcast for violating the covenant of marriage. He did not convict her of her marital status (or lack thereof) but extended the living water of salvation to her.

Then there was the woman with the issue of blood in Luke 8, who violated Jewish law by even being in the crowd in her “unclean” condition. More egregiously, according to religious laws, she reached out and touched the hem of the rabbi, Jesus. This action would have been an affront to any Jewish man, making Him ceremonially unclean and opening her to severe punishment. Yet not only did healing proceed from Jesus, but He also openly praised her faith.

Adultery was a criminal offense worthy of death for the woman we see in John 8. As a just God, He had every right and reason to exact justice. But Jesus did not condemn her. He showed mercy and even advocated for her against those who were prepared to stone her for her offense. 

The political and cultural war on life that excuses and promotes abortion requires a myriad of prophetic and practical responses. Amid war, the battlefield still tragically produces casualties even as political and diplomatic processes may be underway elsewhere to stop the fighting altogether. There is a need for medics and ministers alike serving the victims on the battlefield. In this way, pregnancy help is similar to the corps of medics who bring care and comfort to those wounded by the battle. The battlefield between the culture of death and the culture of life will cause casualties until the value for the sanctity of life carries the day.

Even then, having a law that abolishes abortion will not bring about the abolition of wounded women and men.

Presently, 21 countries prohibit abortions outright¹. Abortions are still being secured in these countries through travel, underground services, or failure (willful or otherwise) to enforce existing law. The life-saving mission of pregnancy help is practically necessary regardless of the legal status of abortion.

Abortion should, indeed, be abolished because it destroys (at least) one created in the image of God and wounds (at least) one other (the mother). All those leading the pro-life movement long for the day when abortion is not just illegal, but unthinkable—when every woman is surrounded by support and every life is protected by love. But that vision cannot be realized through condemnation alone.

Compassion, not punishment, is the path that leads women in unplanned pregnancies to healing, restoration, and life. Pregnancy help is where that path begins, offering hope in place of fear, support in place of shame, and life in place of death.

Resources for pregnancy help

• Picking Your Battles in the Boardroom
• “Our method matters” - Pregnancy help organizations cannot advocate for criminalizing women and be safe harbors for them

¹ https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-where-abortion-is-illegal