U.S. Pregnancy Centers Served Nearly 2 Million People with Free Services in 2017

Together, we have empowered women to rescue their babies, to reject the lies of the abortion industry, and to seek a new way of life.

By Katie Franklin
National Right to Life

Today, a comprehensive report on the work of pregnancy help centers was released, celebrating 50 years of service and examining how the movement has evolved over the last half century.

The 80-page report, “A Half Century of Hope, A Legacy of Life and Love: Pregnancy Center Service Report, Third Edition,” produced by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, presents key findings from 2,600 U.S. pregnancy help centers affiliated with one or more of the three major national networks—Care Net, Heartbeat International, and NIFLA—as well as other parent pregnancy center organizations.

Chief among those findings is that pregnancy centers served nearly 2 million people in the United States with free services in 2017—an estimated community cost savings of at least $161 million.

“Looking at our collective work on a grand scale is simply breathtaking,” said Jor-El Godsey, president of Heartbeat International, a worldwide organization of 2,600 affiliated pregnancy help centers.

 “At pregnancy centers, we bear witness to miracles every day—as it turns out, nearly 2 million times each year—because of dedicated volunteers and generous supporters who feel called to make a difference in people’s lives.”

The bulk of community cost savings comes from the 400,100 ultrasounds performed at pregnancy centers last year. Those services saved communities over $100 million.

Over the last decade, pregnancy help medical clinics offering ultrasound have more than doubled, from approximately 700 centers in 2008 to 1,944 in 2017. Today, more than 7 in 10 centers provide ultrasound.

With the growth of ultrasound, the demand for medical professionals at pregnancy centers has also increased, and thousands have answered.

Registered nurses and medical sonographers contributed over 400,000 hours to pregnancy centers, and a total of 67,400 volunteers—7,500 of which were medical—gave their time to centers in 2017.

In addition to medical services, pregnancy centers have also expanded educational opportunities for clients. In 2017, 87 percent of centers offered parenting and prenatal education programs—an increase from 78 percent of centers in 2010.

Other growing additions to the pregnancy help movement include Abortion Pill Reversal, which has saved over 500 lives since its inception in 2007, and the use of mobile units, 100 of which are now operating across the U.S.

Although 86 percent of pregnancy centers receive no public funding, they have nevertheless earned recognition from multiple levels of government. Resolutions honoring pregnancy centers have been passed in 18 states, and state health departments actively refer to pregnancy centers in at least 18 states.

National Right to Life article continues here

Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link.  Follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest.  Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

Pregnant, need help or know someone who does?  

National Hotline: Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131.

In Southeast Penna:  Call the Community Women's Center at  215-826-8090

If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available.  

Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org.  

Anonymous Post-Abortion Counseling Aims to End Suffering, Shame

By Charlie Butts
One News Now

Post-abortive women will soon be able to work through their emotional problems anonymously.

Many women – especially church-going women – suffer silently after having an abortion, letting very few people know and often suffering shame that holds them down like a weight. That's why Theresa Wilkins of New York's Pregnancy Care Center of Oswego County developed the idea of anonymous counseling: so those women can get information and motivation without identifying themselves. The goal is to end a woman's silent suffering.

Wilkins tells OneNewsNow that the idea came from her experience with teleconferencing. She explains that post-abortive women can phone in, log into the teleconference, "and either just be silent and listen – or they can share their story.

"... We don't have to know who they are," she continues, "but we can still go through the 'Forgiven and Set Free' program* that we have – and they can even ask for a book." 

That resource, Wilkins adds, can be mailed to an address without revealing a name. (See details)

Wilkins, a post-abortive woman herself, learned forgiveness after her confession of faith and found that she was not alone.

"According to Care Net, 37 percent of all abortions happen to churched women – so they are Christian women who are actually having abortions .... Why is that?" she asks. "Because they don't want anybody to know that they have fallen into the sin, right? That's a much more public sin."

The anonymous counseling service will begin soon – and if successful, Wilkins envisions the program spreading nationwide. Meanwhile, she says the Church as a whole could do a better job of identifying its post-abortive women and learning how to work with them to ease the emotional pain.

* "Forgiven and Set Free: A Post-Abortion Bible Study for Women" (Baker Books, 2015), written by Linda Cochrane, was developed out of the author's own experience of being freed from the bondage of guilt and grief that followed her abortion. Cochrane is executive director of Hopeline Pregnancy Resource Center in Connecticut, and co-founder of PACE (Post-Abortion Counseling and Education).

Website: One News Now

What Women Need to Know About Pregnancy Resource Centers

Isn’t it worthwhile to get the real picture about PRCs from women who have actually been there and turned to them?

By Rebecca Downs
Live Action News

Pregnancy resource centers are life-saving places where women experiencing unplanned pregnancies can turn for help. But you won’t likely find accurate information on PRCs in the media. On April 8, John Oliver, host of “Last Week Tonight,” tried to paint a humorous picture of PRCs. 

It was both humorless and deceptive. According to Roland Warren, President of Care Net, the show’s producers reached out to his organization for background, but producers didn’t use it. (Apparently, Oliver’s show also contacted pro-lifer and former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson for comment, and producers neglected to use her statements as well.)

As Warren so aptly notes, Oliver “should seriously consider doing the same [critiquing] to the abortion industry,” particularly when it comes to:

• Raising the alarm over some states publicly funding PRCs, while ignoring how Planned Parenthood is federally funded, and funded in most states
• Suggesting PRCs come close to breaking the law, while ignoring how Planned Parenthood has been documented breaking the law
• Expressing concern for PRCs having supposedly “intercepted” Internet searches, while failing to acknowledge that PRCs have been censored by Google
• Ignoring the safety concerns of abortion, while repeating the myth that childbirth is more dangerous
• Referring to PRCs as “disingenuous and predatory,” which could be truly said about Planned Parenthood when it comes to their treatment of victims of sexual assault and sex trafficking, and according to testimony from former employees and former clients

Here are five worthwhile facts — things John Oliver didn’t report — about pregnancy resource centers:

1. PRCs Provide Services Free of Charge

Unlike Planned Parenthood, pregnancy resource centers do not have an interest in selling services for profit. “Care Net affiliated centers provide all their services completely free of charge–we have no financial interest in any one choice over another,” Warren said.

PRCs exist because they want to help and love women, and their babies. PRCs do not commit or refer for abortions. But there are plenty of long-term and life-affirming resources they provide for pregnant and parenting women, through material aid, follow-ups with a pregnancy center employee, and referrals.

Adoption.com mentions how these centers “have a lot of resources to offer,” and refer to how their services “can be really beneficial,” noting that “there are numerous services to be taken advantage of at zero cost to [the woman].”

In contrast, Planned Parenthood gives women ultrasounds only if they plan to abort:

2. PRCs Can Provide or Refer for a Free Ultrasound

For those pregnancy resource centers which perform ultrasounds, Americans United for Life notes that centers “that offer ultrasounds and/or other medical services use medically trained staff and comply with state and federal regulations regarding licensing and certification.”

These ultrasounds are a chance for the woman to see her baby. It’s an exciting, empowering, and life-changing moment for the mother. Seeing an ultrasound image encourages some women to choose life.

State health departments have advertised PRC services, so that women may be more aware of these free ultrasounds.

3. Women are Happy with Their Experiences at PRCs

Of the women who filled out written exit surveys about their Care Net experiences, 97 percent of surveys had a positive experience, according to Warren.

Those women, families, and children who have been helped by PRCs also attend Babies Go to Congress events, organized by Heartbeat International, as personal testimonies of their positive experiences.

You can read more about non-judgmental PRCs in this op-ed.

4. PRCs Offers an Array of Options

Pregnancy resource centers offer another option besides parenting, though they will assist women with that. Many centers offer adoption referrals. Adoption.org notes that:

A crisis pregnancy center may be an excellent resource for you. Their counseling practices often center on helping you give birth to your child and setting you up for success after delivery, whether that be through parenting or adoption. 

If you’re thinking about adoption placement, you can learn more about what modern adoption looks like at a CPC. They can also help you find out more about adoption resources or give you referrals to recommended agencies.

PRCs, like Care Net, also have clear standards when it comes to adoption. These PRCs do more than adoption services or referrals for mothers who choose life. 

“If you need to find local resources to help you parent your child, a CPC can help get you in touch with the right people and help explain what’s available to you. That way, you can come up with a plan that makes you feel more in control,” Adoption.org noted.

In an interview with FaithWire, Virginia Davison Madden spoke about interning at the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center. “Women are invited to come back at a certain point before the baby is born for clothes, diapers, formula and food. Many also take supplies for their older children. There are maternity clothes as well to choose from,” she said.

Then there is the emotional support:

The centers also provide opportunities for counseling. Some come monthly, Madden said, while others check in more often, finally filling what was once a void of healthy relationships in their lives. Even if women had been to the center months or years prior for supplies, Madden explained, she might still call back for emotional support, after recalling a previous positive experience she had with the center.

5. PRCs are for Women Even if They Choose to Abort

These life-affirming centers do not refer women for abortion, and they make that clear while going over the various risks of abortion. But this does not mean a woman isn’t free to make her own decision, or that she’s less likely to be helped at a PRC.

When it comes to information and discussions about sex, this is done “in a helpful and informative way, but with women making decisions for themselves, rather than the pregnancy center telling women what they should do,” Madden also said.

Post-abortive resources are offered at many pregnancy resource centers. Warren put it simply but best when he said that “even if a woman decides to abort, we will love her and support her nonetheless.”

Isn’t it worthwhile to get the real picture about PRCs from women who have actually been there and turned to them? In doing so, it paints a beautiful, and hopeful picture in complete opposition to the lies of the abortion industry.

Website: Live Action News

Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link.  Follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest.  Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

Pregnant, need help or know someone who does?  

National Hotline: Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131.
In Southeast Penna:  Call the Community Women's Center at  215-826-8090

If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available.  

Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org.