by: Patty Knap​
The work done by men in the pro-life movement is critical.

There’s no shortage of stories surrounding us of men behaving badly — abandoning their children, pressuring their girlfriends to abort, trafficking young girls, making pornography. While these depressing reports bombard us, we seldom hear about the heroic men.

No one knows just how many men are involved in the pro-life movement but the work they do, usually behind the scenes, is crucial.

Pat is one of those men. He started helping out at the local pregnancy center a couple of years ago and looks around for anything needing to be done. He’s one of our “pick-up guys,” driving around to pick up cribs, car seats, strollers, Pack ’n Plays, etc., that folks want to donate but can’t fit in their car. Pat sets up a time to go pick up the things and bring them in to our office. There everything has to be checked for safety and cleanliness and then put in our ‘equipment room,’ until the next client comes along that needs it. Packing up his truck and then unloading and carrying the donations into our office is physically demanding and time-consuming but the things he brings in can be expensive when they’re new and they’re appreciated by our moms with young children. Thanks, Pat.

by Kirstie Piper
Raised in a Christian home, under the leadership of a prominent Christian minister, Greg Smalley understood that his life choices would affect more lives than his own. In his early twenties, under the misconception that it would salvage his future, his girlfriend’s future, and the future of his father’s ministry, Smalley became a post-abortive father. 
“This is thirty years ago, for me,” says Smalley, “and it still hurts.”
Smalley describes the day of the abortion with as much triggering detail as is provided by many post-abortive women.
“I can remember sitting in the waiting room. There’s a fish aquarium,” he raises his left hand as though the tank is still beside him, “and then there was music being piped in. I can’t tell you the name of the songs,” Smalley grows silent as he remembers. “but if they come on, and I hear them on the radio… I will have a sick reaction. My stomach literally churns.”

​By Richard C. Dujardin 
Originally published April 14, 2002 in the "Providence Sunday Journal" and republished on RachelsVineyard.org

Nicole Cunningham says she wasn’t always a subscriber to the Saturday newspaper, so when an edition landed on her doorstep a year ago, she figured it was a mistake. But looking back, the 30-year-old Cranston resident and native of Salt Lake City wonders if the “mistake” was part of God’s plan to help her heal.

The paper that day carried an item announcing the Roman Catholic Diocese’s sponsorship of a retreat for people in need of emotional or spiritual assistance after an abortion. Having been diagnosed with major depression in 1997 and still haunted by thought of suicide, Cunningham says she immediately recognized it was something she needed. More of a Christmas and Easter Catholic when it came to attending Mass, Cunningham has see much of her world go awry after that first semester in college in 1990 when she became pregnant and, about six weeks later had an abortion. She had been to confession and had been assured by the priest that her sins were forgiven. But 10 years later, doubts remained. Would a retreat assuage her feelings of guilt?

by Brittany Farmer, MSSA, MSW
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​What brought me to PAC? I truly feel that God led me to Pregnancy Aid Clinic. I have always had the passion for advocacy work. I loved building girls and women self-esteem through, resources, mentoring, classes, groups and case management services. My experience has been working with children, youth and families who have experienced trauma. 

by Kirk Walden, originally published 12/31/2020 on PregnancyHelpNews.com
As we reach the end of what we can judiciously call an “interesting” year, we can choose one of two options.

One option? Simply thank God 2020 is almost over and pray 2021 is better for all of us. 

Option two? Let’s value what we learned in 2020 and apply every lesson toward a breakout year in 2021.

Let’s choose the second option, because we may look back on 2020—tremendously challenging and even tragic for many of us—and find we learned new ways to grow and build our organizations and ministries.  

Let’s consider three ways: 

1) We learned to re-imagine 
This term caught fire with me when the leadership at Heartbeat International was forced to rethink our conference in April, moving from an in-person event in Seattle to a virtual, world-wide conference. In less than two weeks, I watched a looming disaster turn into an amazing opportunity to pull the pregnancy help community together.