Heartbeat International

Pregnancy help organizations, maternity homes, medical and resource help centers, and adoption agencies provide heroic services every day to anyone in need, Bishop Daniel Thomas of Toledo said in an October 27th statement.

The annual observance was created by Heartbeat International, an interdenominational Christian association founded in 1971 to support faith-based pregnancy resource centers, medical clinics, maternity homes, and adoption agencies.

According to the USCCB, about 2,750 pregnancy help centers across the country offer life-affirming support to women in need.

Bishop Thomas also highlighted Walking with Moms in Need, a parish-based initiative launched by the bishops in 2020 to serve vulnerable, pregnant, and parenting women.

Today we're talking about abortion pill reversal, free speech, and the legal battle over whether women will have access to information about life-affirming alternatives, let's say life-saving alternatives, also after beginning a chemical abortion campaign.

Our guest is Danielle White, General Counsel for Heartbeat International, a global network of pregnancy help organizations.

Danielle has been at the center of efforts to defend abortion pill reversal information and the right of pregnancy help ministries to share that message.

Great conversation for you all today.

Excellent.

Well, we're going to have a good conversation around what's going on out in California.

And is Heartbeat International the sole defendant? Is that the right word? That is the right

word.

It's very simple terminology, and yet our political betters, certainly in the Republican Party, unfortunately, and many of our pro-life intellectuals and leaders disagree with that.

And these groups, if you're new to this conversation, include National Right to Life, Students for Life, Concerned Women for America, March for Life, Heartbeat International, Texas Alliance for Life, Georgia Alliance for Life, Florida Right to Life, South Dakota Right to Life.

I mean, the list kind of just goes on and on and on.

Susan B. Anthony List, one of the larger pro-life organizations in the entire country.

But I'm curious your take on them as a legislator.

So we're hearing from folks like Tennessee Right to Life, from Heartbeat International.

I think their president said, like, how could the same organization, meaning pregnancy centers, how could the same organization that... says we're here to love and support you, simultaneously be the same organization threatening to turn you into the officials.

He said something like that.

And it's an open letter on Heartbeat International's website, basically saying to the pregnancy centers that follow them, don't support or fiercely oppose the bills that Jodi is trying to pass.

The culture's not with us, they say, Jody.

The time's not now.

It was clearly not food poisoning.

And thankfully, I called a pregnancy hotline number with Heartbeat International, and they walked me through what's called an abortion pill reversal, which is to take progesterone to counteract the depletion of hormones.

I listened to my gut in the middle of domestic violence because a lot of times women wait too long.

They're so hopeful that the person they trust and love wouldn't hurt them, that it's hard to see things with clarity.

From the dust of poverty to the seat of nobility, let's embark on another empowering journey together.

Aspire to Serve the Difficult Cases, by Valerie Lindsey from Heartbeat International.

Every ministry must decide who it can serve.

Maternity homes, transitional housing programs, mentoring ministries, and residential programs all need admission criteria.

There's a challenge by some Christian organizations on the campus of Virginia State University to what looks like an effort to consolidate all religious organizations into one under the school's campus ministry program.

And then we're going to finish up with a brief update on the continued fight between Heartbeat International and the state of California and talk about some of the potential nationwide ramifications that this case might have depending on the outcome.

So let's start in North Carolina.

So this is a case involving a small church.

And now we will finish in, well, kind of California, but California and beyond.

So we've covered this issue and the particular litigation before.

Most of our listeners are probably familiar with Heartbeat International for several reasons.

First, because they do amazing work to save babies from abortion.

You might say, well, why is that going to impact anything when it comes to pro-life? Well, we've seen in some pro-choice states where there's been pro-choice attorney generals or pro-choice governors like California and New York.

You have Heartbeat International that is being sued under some of these laws that are standing.

They're being sued for offering abortion pill reversal to women, saying that that violates some consumer protection laws.

Now, so the levers of power can be used for good or they can be used.

So that was more affirmation to us about the work that we need to do because people are not aware.

Yet we have, according to the Abortion Pill Reversal Network, which is operated by Heartbeat International, which is the largest organization for pregnancy resource centers, They're saying there's over 7,000 success stories from the APR.

So we have 7,000 children walking the earth because of this.

And it's not fake.