In the days leading up to the 2024 March for Life, Heartbeat arranged a Congressional Staff briefing with pro-life Members of Congress to discuss the power of pregnancy help. More than 20 Congressional and Senate offices were represented and each had an opportunity to ask questions to gain a clearer understanding of pregnancy help as a whole.

Heartbeat President Jor-El Godsey opened the briefing with remarks on the history and foundation of the pregnancy help movement, moving into the current challenges. 

“A concerted effort empowered by abortion proponents and emboldened by political opportunists has been mounted to discredit, to disrupt and even destroy the work of pregnancy help centers,” Godsey said. “The abortion industry has led the charge in calling us fake clinics, and doing so while these pregnancy centers actually have licensed healthcare professionals on staff, and as volunteers, activists.”

See the facts in answer to pro-abortion “fake clinic” claims at PregnancyCenterTruth.com.

He discussed big tech censorship of pregnancy help, the Supreme Court Dobbs ruling, and the prevalence of chemical abortion. Jor-El was followed by Heartbeat International’s Senior Director of Medical Impact Christa Brown, who covered both chemical abortion and Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) for the briefing, enlightening many of them about this shift in the abortion industry.

This opened the opportunity for Katelynn, an APR mom who received immediate and ongoing care through the pregnancy help movement, to share her testimony. Her daughter, Aubrie, was in attendance as proof of the ongoing care and compassionate support that happens in pregnancy centers and maternity homes every day. (Read more about Katelynn and her journey here.)

Since Dobbs, the pregnancy help movement has been the target of increasing hostility, whether through the violence in the early days following Dobbs or now efforts to delegitimize pregnancy centers with accusations the centers are misleading clients, to efforts to enact local ordinances or state laws that are additionally burdensome on the speech rights of centers. Heartbeat's General Counsel, Danielle White, addressed these concerns. 

After the briefing, pregnancy help leaders told their story on Capitol Hill at a Congressional press conference highlighting how pregnancy centers walk with women through pregnancy, serving them and their families with support and compassion.

The press conference took place against the backdrop of a number of pro-life measures either passed or introduced, with the U.S. House of Representatives passing the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act and the Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act that day. The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act was sponsored by Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) and the Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act was sponsored by Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-MN).

Also on Thursday, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) led the introduction of the Pregnancy Center Support Act, and Rep. Smith to introduce the Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act. 

The various measures were to protect women and families in need and also pregnancy help from pro-abortion affronts such as the Biden administration’s proposed rule targeting the use of TANF funding by pregnancy centers and alternatives to abortion programs.

At the press conference, Congressman Chris Smith said the great work that pregnancy centers do is a story that has not been told.

“Eighty-three % of all Americans, 75% of the Democrats in this country support the great work of the women and men and all of those back in the states who are doing the work for these pregnancy centers,” Smith said, citing the latest Knights of Columbus-Marist Poll. 

“It is all about love and what they do, which again, does not get much press,” Smith said. “When a woman does have the abortion, they're there for her as well. When it's the baby and the mother they love them both. When it's just the mother, they still love her and help her with counseling and assistance. It's incredible. Great love in action.”