South Korea: Women's Hope Center 

Korea’s abortion rate is estimated at 75 percent, driven by the international sex trade and intense cultural pressure to abort pregnancies outside of wedlock. 

Women's Hope Center (WHC) exists to see every life valued from conception and every exploited woman in Korea free, healed and empowered.  

 We currently offer crisis pregnancy and post-abortion counseling nationwide via our online chat and in-person in 5 major cities, as well as educational seminars, long-term housing, and education and job training opportunities. 

We are building a social enterprise to provide safe employment to our clients, and also hope to establish a “safe house” for sexually abused women.

Client Testimony:

This boy’s teen mom saw her baby's heartbeat on an ultrasound at 6 weeks. From then she began to run to save his life. She survived severe beatings before she found WHC, arriving only with the clothes on her back. Once her son was born her parents forced her to give him up for adoption but recently, miraculously, she was allowed to get him back though at the expense of being severed from her parents.  

She chose her son.

She is staying at a short-term shelter close enough to her high school so she can complete her last semester of high school.

Thereafter, in December, they will be returning to the House of Peace (an apartment owned by WHC) for long-term care and support (for job training and potential employment in our future social business).

All financial gifts received designated for our approved “alliance” affiliates will be forwarded to them in a reasonable timeframe (usually upon exceeding $250US). Heartbeat International deducts $30 plus 3% from the transfer, to help defray internal cost for money transfers, currency conversion, clerical costs, bank fees and any processing fees that might be charged. Should any funds be unable to be forwarded – primarily related to the recipient - they may be re-allocated for similar international work.

Serbia

Pregnancy Care Center: A Place for Me

The mission of our Pregnancy Care Center is to affirm LIFE through providing confidential and non-judgmental assistance in a caring and supportive environment to all who are facing unexpected pregnancies, dealing with pregnancy losses or exploring sexual integrity as a lifestyle.

Apart for all the services that we provide in the Counselling Center in 2015 we have also decided to open a Maternity home - The NEST!

We started renting a two-bedroom apartment and so far, 19 women and 18 babies/children have called NEST their temporarily home.

The NEST Maternity home building project 

We joyfully dive into this NEST Maternity Home building project, because today, seven years later, we are even more passionate about helping women who find themselves in this very fragile situation in their lives. We have seen the need and know the difficult road many women are being forced to walk and we want to help as many of those women and babies as we can. The new NEST Maternity Home will allow us to do just that.  

The NEST Maternity Home Mission is to provide different opportunities for pregnant women and their children in a safe and stable faith-based home environment, to empower them and educate in many areas to help eliminate generational cycles of broken relationships, unplanned pregnancies, poverty and the need for community social services. 

Learn more about The NEST Home:

To accomplish this vision, we need partners!

The building project budget is $380,000 and we are $120.000 away from reaching our goal. 

We are very grateful to all who so far have contributed to our dream come true.

Please join our adventure through making a donation now or through helping us in fundraising for the NEST Maternity Home building project in your church, organization or company. We can send a more detailed building proposal. (e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Design of the NEST Maternity home:

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All financial gifts received designated for our approved “alliance” affiliates will be forwarded to them in a reasonable timeframe (usually upon exceeding $250US). Heartbeat International deducts $30 plus 3% from the transfer, to help defray internal cost for money transfers, currency conversion, clerical costs, bank fees and any processing fees that might be charged. Should any funds be unable to be forwarded – primarily related to the recipient - they may be re-allocated for similar international work.

Warning: Hobby Lobby SCOTUS Ruling May Not Apply to Your PHC

In dramatic fashion, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) waited until the very last day of the session to release one of the most anticipated rulings, its decision in Burwell, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., et al. The 5-4 majority found the central argument involved the religious liberty of closely held for-profit corporations, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp in particular.

Warning: a pregnancy help organization (PHO) is not a “closely held for profit corporation.” No, indeed, it is not. However, if it does not have the one thing that will help connect it to this ruling, namely, solid footing that it is intended to be and acts, at least in part, like a religious organization, then the finding today will likely not serve as protection in future government encroachment.

The court noted in its ruling that “[T]he Hahns and Greens have a sincere religious belief that life begins at conception.  They therefore object on religious grounds to providing health insurance covering methods of birth control that, as HHS acknowledges may result in the destruction of an embryo.  By requiring the Hahns and Greens and their companies to arrange for such coverage, the HHS mandate demands they engage in conduct that seriously violates their religious beliefs.”

A pregnancy help organization staffed by Christians motivated by biblical faith is likely not enough evidence of being a “religious organization.” So what can a PHO do to position itself appropriately as a “religious organization”? The best evidence must be found entrenched in its own governing documents.

Alliance Defending Freedom, one of the same organizations that championed the Hobby Lobby case to victory at the Supreme Court level, provides insights into how PHOs can best protect themselves. Just two years ago, Joseph Infranco, Senior Counsel at ADF, wrote “To Be or Not to Be a Religious Non-Profit: The Question for all PRCs.” In his article (which is reprinted in full in this issue of Capitol Matters) , Mr. Infranco references LeBoon v. Lancaster Jewish Community Center Ass'n, 503 F.3d 217 (3d Cir.2007) in which the Third Circuit articulated a nine-part test which included #3 “whether the entity's articles of incorporation or other pertinent documents state a religious purpose.”

Do your articles of incorporation, bylaws, and policy and procedure clearly identify your religious nature? If not, making the case you should be afforded “religious liberty” is difficult at best.

The question could be asked, “If your organization were on trial for being religious, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” In order to appropriate the benefit of the First Amendment and the religious liberty flowing from it, we should intentionally plant the evidence of our religious nature. We need to wisely assert the Christian values motivating and informing our missional efforts. Mr. Infranco’s full article tells us why and how it is important.

We are grateful for Hobby Lobby and the Alliance Defending Freedom team for bringing this battle before the Supreme Court. Let’s do our part to position ourselves for future ones!

 Bratislava, Slovakia

23 September to 25 September

Pregnancy help heroes are championing life every day across the European landscape. The venues for such life-affirming efforts vary from telephone/email hotline to actual office space. The daily, compassionate outreach to women (and men) dealing with an unexpected pregnancy is far from the political wrangling. Those called to this work face great challenges in answering the call to champion life. We invite all pregnancy help leaders to gather together to share information and understanding as well as gain insight from others.

Don't miss this opportunity for encouraging, equipping, and envisioning for pregnancy help efforts in Europe.

Who Should Attend?

 Anyone involved in life-affirming pregnancy help – direct service to women facing an unexpected pregnancy – is welcome.

Cost for Registration

89€ includes all registration materials, 3 conference meals and coffee breaks. 

Click here to find hotel reservation information.

 Click here to download an informational Conference flyer

Who's Speaking?

With our focus specifically on and for pregnancy help leaders we have three excellent leaders from the pregnancy help movement as keynotes for the conference next September in Bratislava.

Peggy Hartshorn, Ph.D. - Heartbeat International (United States)

Margaret H. (Peggy) Hartshorn, Ph.D. received her doctorate in English literature and began teaching at Franklin University, Columbus, Ohio in 1974.  Moved by the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade in the United States, which legalized abortion throughout the country in 1973, she and her husband, Michael, began housing pregnant girls in their home in 1974, opened a pregnancy help center (now a medical clinic) in 1981, and became active in pro-life work at the national/international level in 1986.

In 1992 Peggy became the President of Heartbeat International, now the most expansive network of life-affirming pregnancy help ministries in the world, with 1,800 affiliated pregnancy help centers, maternity homes, and nonprofit adoption agencies in 50 countries. She and her husband are parents of two adopted children, now grown and married, and they have 5 grandchildren 

Christina Braüner Nielsen - Heart for Life (Denmark)

Christina Marie Braüner Nielsen is a Registered Midwife BSc, Master of Public Health (MPH) and a PhD Scholar in maternal health at Aarhus University, Denmark.  In 2005, Christina and Kirstine Madsen attended a Heartbeat International conference in Ukraine and learned how to form an NGO. The next year they founded Heart for Life, where the organization has provided nationwide online counseling to more than 2,500 Danish women affected by an unexpected pregnancy, or post abortion problems.  They’ve trained more than 30 professionals as voluntary counselors, and ten voluntary staff members run the administration, fundraising, publicity etc. Just recently they hired their first paid staff member.

In her spare time, Christina has travelled on short-term mission trips to countries like Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Uganda. Her heart is to spread the gospel to unreached nations, and to share Christ’s love to those in need of medical care.

Vesna Radeka - Choose Life Center (Serbia)

Vesna Radeka, a native of Novi Sad, Serbia, is the president of the pro-life ministry, Choose Life Center, a life-affirming outreach with prevention, intervention and reconciliation services to the Novi Sad community.

Vesna attended Philosophical College, and she received a degree in Serbian Literature and Language. In 2009 Vesna has finished Graduate academic studies at the Novi Sad Theological Seminary. Vesna is also helping her husband Nenad in establishing the Nexus Church in Novi Sad, Serbia. They have three children, Danilo, David, and Anastasija.

Schedule Breakout Forum Topics 

Dynamic Workshops and Forums

Along with plenary sessions that will inspire and inform, there will be breakout forums on vital topics that challenge all pregnancy help efforts – leadership, fundraising and technology. These breakouts will be participatory in nature. As you plan which ones to attend, please come prepared to share your knowledge as well. Breakouts will be facilitated discussions with interaction among attendees.

Conference Schedule  

Click here to view Heartbeat International's Annual Report 2014

God is faithful!

Wow! What an amazing week! 

As the dust settles from our largest Conference to date, we are amazed at all God did last week!

Over 900 gathered in Charleston, SC to be trained, equipped, and inspired as we celebrated the fact that "Love is Our Language" in the pregnancy help movement all around the world. 

None of this would have been possible without YOUR generous support! You have been a blessing to our frontline lifesavers and we thank you for your obedience to God! 

We offered 13 dynamic workshop tracks to educate and train our participants.

We were blessed by amazing keynote speakers such as Dr. Ravi Zacharias,  Fr. Agustino Torres, Kirk Walden, Terri Green, and  many more!

We were also honored to host 32 international guests from 17 countries, representing all six inhabited continents! 

We want to share a special thank you video from them to you! (Click the image to play).

You can see pictures and highlights from the Conference by following us on Facebook today! 

Thank you again for all you do for LIFE! 

On one hand, it’s encouraging to see the international community’s outrage over the weekend at what can only be described as the euthanasia of a perfectly healthy, yet—tragically “unwanted”—resident of Copenhagen, Denmark named Marius.

On the other hand, the fact that Marius was an 11-foot-tall giraffe puts things into perspective.

Marius, a giraffe born in captivity, found himself in the lethal position of “unwantedness” by possessing what Animal Rights Sweden called, not “interesting enough,” genes, and his very existence posed the potential threat of inbreeding, which if you’re running a zoo, is apparently problematic.

Despite attempts to spare Marius’ life that included lucrative offers by individuals and at least one European wildlife park, along with “Save Marius” petition that garnered 27,000 signatures, “Marius was fed some rye bread at 9.15am and was killed shortly after by a shot in the head with a bolt gun,” to quote The Guardian of London.

But the kind of civility shown in these rescue efforts—and reflected in the kind of sentence in one of the world’s most respected newspapers that indirectly humanizes a giraffe—was also matched by multiple death threats against zoo officials, one of which threatened the children of two zoo administrators.

It appears the world isn’t buying into the whole idea of “unwanted” after all. At least not where giraffes are concerned.

Two and half years ago, 56 exotic animals broke loose from a private citizen’s backyard in Zanesville, Ohio, leading to what has become known as the “Zanesville Animal Massacre,” which included the killing of 18 rare Bengal tigers.

I was working at a restaurant with a friend of mine that night, and I remember being floored, not so much by the news, but by her reaction. It was the kind of reaction a person and a society tends to have at pivotal moments in history: the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the assassination of President Kennedy, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Might I remind you, Marius and the Zanesville Animal Massacre are both stories about animals.

Is there no corresponding outrage when it comes to human beings?

Worldwide unrest occurs overnight when a zoo takes “unwanted” life. Society shudders at the thought of “massacring” animals that, now on the loose, pose a lethal and immediate threat to human life. Death threats against children are made in the name of the protection of animals.

And yet, the value we set on a human life rests solely on her mother’s decision. “Is my child wanted?”

We don’t allow ourselves the personal and societal outrage that this “choice” by a mother (and often by influences other than the mother herself) leads to the death of over 3,000 human beings every day in the United States alone, but we do allow ourselves outrage when it comes to giraffes and Bengal tigers.

Let me add the caveat here that I love animals. At one point in my life, I proudly subscribed to Cat Fancy, and I’m about 10 times more excited than my 3-year-old daughter every time we visit the Columbus Zoo—where we have an annual pass. I hope she and her baby sister will learn to see every window into God’s glory that giraffes, Bengal tigers, and whitetail deer have to offer. I hope they learn that from me.

Deeper than that, as a believer, I’m convinced by Scripture that my treatment of animals has plenty to say about my heart. I’m thinking here about Proverbs 12:10, which says, “Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.”

But I am bound and determined to make the most of opportunities like Marius’ afford us, to expose the fact that the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes. The elephant is in the room, whether you want him there or not.

Wantedness didn’t change the fact that Marius was a giraffe. Wantedness didn’t determine Marius’ inherent giraffeness. Unwantedness didn’t un-giraffe him, it led to his execution.

If you, Planned Parenthood, or my congressman can explain to me how wantedness determines humanness, I’d like to hear it. Until then, let’s do everything we possibly can to protect life—starting with the humans.

About Heartbeat International

Heartbeat International is the first network of pro-life pregnancy help organizations founded in the U.S. (1971), and now the largest and most expansive network in the world. With 1,800 affiliated pregnancy help locations—including pregnancy help medical clinics (with ultrasound), resource centers, maternity homes, and adoption agencies—Heartbeat serves on all six inhabited continents to provide alternatives to abortion. For more information, see www.HeartbeatInternational.org.

www.Facebook.com/HeartbeatInternational

by Jay Hobbs, Communications Assistant

Did you hear the one about the lawyer who traveled overseas and taught a bunch of U.S. military families how to better serve women facing unexpected pregnancies?

Fair enough, there’s not much promise for a joke in that question, but you have to admit, the latest Heartbeat International international training does sound a bit peculiar when you first hear about it.

The story took place October 25, when Ellen Foell, Heartbeat’s legal counsel, taught a day-long session of The LOVE Approach™ to a group of 28 staff, volunteers, and potential volunteers at Heartbeat Crisis Pregnancy Center in Ramstein, Germany.

The center, under the direction of Carrie Beliles, primarily serves U.S. military personnel and their families stationed at Ramstein Air Base, home of the 86th Airlift Wing and headquarters of U.S. Air Forces Europe.

“It was the first time teaching this material, so I really didn’t quite know what to expect,” Foell, who has been with Heartbeat International since 2012, said. “God really put two things on my heart that I tried to express to the group: The first was to encourage them to embrace their unique, God-given giftedness, and the second was to allow themselves to be released to really exercise that giftedness as they sought to serve women coming to the center.”

“It really was great to watch this group wrestle through how to apply The LOVE Approach to the real situations involving real human beings they are dealing with every day.”

While the majority of attendees were Americans connected to the military community in Ramstein, one participant came from another part of Germany with the hope to launch a pregnancy help organization in another part of Germany.

According to Heartbeat International’s Worldwide Directory, there are currently 114 pregnancy help organizations in Germany, although Heartbeat Crisis Pregnancy Center is the only Heartbeat International affiliate.

“These servants learned how to handle a great tool, and that was encouraging to see,” Foell said. “I was really impressed by the cross-section of ages and generations, and thrilled to see the seeds of more pregnancy help organizations being planted in Germany.”

Foell was joined by Heartbeat International Vice President Jor-El Godsey, who keynoted the center’s annual banquet and facilitated a meeting with European pro-life leaders during a three-day span Oct. 24-26 in Ramstein.