You may have heard them referred to as “crisis pregnancy centers,” “fake clinics” or worse. But what is the real story on pregnancy help organizations (PHO), the best-kept secret in the pro-life movement?

1. PHOs are committed to true reproductive health care. Offering a spectrum of medical services that range from free pregnancy tests and no-cost ultrasounds to STI testing, Natural Family Planning education, and even perinatal hospice, PHOs approach pregnancy and sexuality not like an illness that needs to be cured, but as a gift to be understood and celebrated.

2. PHOs save thousands of babies in America every week. An estimated 1 million babies are aborted annually in the United States alone, a rate of more than 3,200 each day. Heartbeat International’s nearly 2,000 U.S. affiliated locations—which compose about half of all PHOs in the country—combine to rescue 3,000 babies every week, as women and families make the courageous decision to preserve the lives of their children.

Note: 1 million abortions is an estimate because two states (California and Maryland) don’t require abortion providers to report numbers, while reporting is voluntary in New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. More than 50 million babies are aborted every year worldwide.

3. PHOs perform a wide range of functions and offer a variety of services to the community. Some PHOs offer pregnancy tests and limited ultrasound but focus their energies on peer counseling, material assistance, and educational programs like motherhood/fatherhood or job skills training. Others offer more extensive medical services, including STI testing, prenatal care, abortion pill reversal, fertility care, and well-woman care. Still others house pregnant women during pregnancy and into the early stages of motherhood. Finally, adoption agencies work with women looking to entrust their babies to the care of adoptive parents. About the only shape or size PHOs don’t come in is the cartoonish fake clinics depicted by radical pro-abortion supporters.

4. PHOs offer long-term support and services. While PHOs no doubt focus on a woman who is pregnant, the care doesn’t end in the delivery room. Many centers offer motherhood and fatherhood mentoring programs, as well as “Earn While You Learn” incentive programs, which reward a mother with material goods such as diapers, clothes, and bottles to support her family.

5. PHOs care for a mother and a child. The term, “woman-centered” sums up a PHO’s approach to reaching out and caring for a mother-to-be. PHOs are careful to keep in mind the multifaceted harm done by abortion to women and families, and many offer abortion recovery programs. PHO staff and volunteers learn to listen to a woman and learn her story before helping her to see her options and consider the effect her present decision will have on her life in years to come.

6. PHOs existed before Roe v. Wade. By the time Roe v. Wade made abortion-on-demand the law of the land in the landmark ruling January 22, 1973, at least 130 pregnancy help organizations (including 11 in Canada and one in New Zealand) were collected in a book called the Directory. This was the forerunner to the Heartbeat International Worldwide Directory Desk Reference, which now contains more than 7,000 entries.

7. PHOs are being planted and established in every corner of the globe. Reflecting the worldwide presence of both the church and the tragedy of abortion, Christ-centered PHOs are on the rise in every inhabited continent. Most of these centers are spearheaded by nationals, some of which are active in creative or restricted-access countries for Christian missionaries.

8. PHOs are financed entirely by donations and grants—with few exceptions. Unlike highly profitable abortion businesses that prey upon vulnerable women and families, PHOs keep the lights on and staff their life-saving ministries with funds given by individuals, churches, foundations, and other groups. While some PHOs do receive limited government funds, these funds are designated for specific initiatives geared to bring abstinence and choices education to settings such as public schools.

9. PHOs offer an unparalleled opportunity for relational evangelism. Staff and volunteers at PHOs enjoy a unique opening for the spread of the gospel. Sitting across from a young woman in the throes of perhaps her most trying time, life and death hang in the balance—the life of her baby and the trajectory of her life, though she may not fully appreciate that reality at the time. She needs a thoroughly gospel-saturated response, pairing a Christ-centered offer of hope with a real-world commitment to walk alongside another.

By Caroline Roberts, Strategic Communications Writer at Alliance Defending Freedom

Tina was 35 when she found out she was pregnant. She was working full-time and happily married, but she feared how her employer would respond to the news. So, she decided to get an abortion. But as soon as she started the chemical abortion process, she was filled with regret. She wanted another option, another opportunity to choose life.

“I hated what I had done. I stayed up all night worrying that I made the wrong choice,” she writes. “I started praying. The next morning I frantically looked online to see if I had any options to save my baby. I found the abortion pill reversal website and called the hotline.”

Thankfully, Tina was connected with a clinic who was able to administer progesterone in an attempt to stop the abortive process—and it worked.

“After receiving progesterone for a week, I came back for an ultrasound to see if the baby survived. He did. He was alive and well. He was saved… Without the option of the abortion pill reversal, he would not be here today.”

Tina’s story is a hopeful one. Because she sought out more information about all her options, she was able to choose life for her son. And she isn’t alone. Statistics show 1,000 women have successfully chosen to stop their chemical abortions, saving their pregnancies. But what would have happened if Tina hadn’t found the hotline? What if she had been unable to learn about additional options? Tina deserved to know from the start that abortion pill reversal was possible.

Women have the right to be fully informed about their medical procedures. They should have complete disclosure of the process, the risks, and what’s at stake—especially when it’s a life.

Thankfully, the state of North Dakota agrees.

North Dakota has a crucial informed-consent law that ensures women who are considering abortion know two accurate, relevant things:

1. That choosing abortion ends “the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.”
2. That if the woman chooses, a chemical abortion may be stopped early in the process with the aid of Abortion Pill Reversal.

When women are given this information, they have a better understanding of the procedure and all their options. It’s their right to know.

But the American Medical Association (AMA) wants to keep women in the dark. It doesn’t want women to know that abortion takes a life or that they might have a second chance at choosing life for their babies if a chemical abortion is treated quickly.

In fact, the AMA so desperately doesn’t want women to have this information that it’s taking North Dakota to court. In June 2019, the AMA filed a lawsuit challenging North Dakota’s informed-consent statute and trying to strike down these two provisions that give women critical medical information. AMA—which has been hijacked by pro-abortion interests--doesn’t want women to have all the scientific facts.

The AMA claims that requiring doctors to inform women of all their options surrounding an abortion violates the free speech rights of medical professionals. Apparently, the AMA doesn’t understand informed consent.

That’s why Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) client, Heartbeat International, intervened in this case to support North Dakota’s statute—and the right of women everywhere to make decisions with all the facts.

“Every woman deserves to know the whole truth about abortion, and that includes the facts about her child and the choices she can make every step of the way,” ADF Legal Counsel Denise Harle said. “The American Medical Association, which ought to support providing patients with as much information as possible, instead wants to keep vulnerable women in the dark about vital information about fetal development and their pregnancy options prior to an abortion. Women deserve to know the truth.”

How many women like Tina would jump at the chance to reverse the effects of their chemical abortions if given the option? And how many more women like Tina have wanted to make that choice in the past—but didn’t know they had it?

“I am thankful I found the information readily available online and for the caring nurse who talked to me and to the doctor,” Tina recalls. “She is my son’s angel. Thank you for giving us a second chance.”

The bottom line is that women have the right to know all the details and options available to them during any medical procedure. Why should abortions be any different?

This article originally appeared on adflegal.org.

>> Learn more about the Abortion Pill Rescue Network and how it is saving lives!

You can change the outcome for real women and men you know. You can help change the attitudes and values of our culture. You can help make abortion unwanted today and unthinkable for future generations by what you say and do! 

For the first time in decades, the Supreme Court of the United States has the chance to be comprised primarily of Constitutionalists. As defined by Stanford University, "Constitutionalism is the idea, often associated with the political theories of John Locke and the founders of the American republic, that government can and should be legally limited in its powers, and that its authority or legitimacy depends on its observing these limitations."

“For such a time as this…” Esther 4:14

The nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett not only demonstrates to the Supreme Court faith in the vision and values put in writing by our nation's founders, but also provides our nation's youth with a role model which embodies the truth that we in the pregnancy help movement have known for years; Women do not need to choose between a career and a family.

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