A bright spot on the horizon for the pro-life community

by Ellen Foell, Esq.

The pro-life movement delivered a blow to the Health and Human Services birth control mandate Nov. 16, as the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction to prevent the Obama administration from enforcing the requirement on Tyndale House Publishers.

This is a very bright spot on an otherwise dim horizon for the pro-life community.

Challenges to HHS regulations have consistently appeared in the news, and this is the third ruling of its kind since President Barack Obama signed the bill into law March 23, 2010.

The law, in part, demands that all employers—with very limited, narrow exceptions—who offer insurance to their employees either become Obamacare-compliant, including coverage of contraception, abortifacients and elective abortions, or face severe financial penalties.

Since Tyndale House is a for-profit publishing company, it does not fall under the narrow exemption guidelines, even though its books and publications are religious in nature. Tyndale House currently provides its employees with health insurance that specifically does not cover abortifacients, including Plan B and ella.

Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, Tyndale House successfully argued that the mandate’s enforcement would violate its rights under the First and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The court agreed, ruling that enforcement of HHS regulations would substantially burden the organization’s free exercise of religion.

“Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish,” Alliance Defending Freedom’s Matt Bowman said in a statement posted on the legal ministry’s website.

For more information, click here and here.

What is Heartbeat thankful for?

We wish you and your family a very blessed and safe Thanksgiving weekend!

Join the fight for life right now. Help us send 1.2 million red postcards to the President on January 22 urging him to honor life from conception until natural death.

The results of the election are not surprising, given the polls and predictions in advance.  However, they are nonetheless shocking and sobering.  Voters have chosen to confirm an Administration in Washington, D.C. that has undertaken the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe vs. Wade forty years ago.

It is heartbreaking and distressing to see that our nation will continue being driven down this path for another four years; a decision that will, of course, drive the rest of the world more deeply into a culture of death.

This “choice” means that more babies will be killed through abortion and abortifacients, more mothers and fathers will suffer harm, more families will be destroyed, and our nation will slip further away (in national policy matters) from our Christian roots and founding principles—especially the principle that we are endowed with unalienable rights, the first of which is the right to life; and the principle, enshrined as the first right in our Bill of Rights, of freedom of religion.

It is a frightening time. But, as Christians, we know that the Lord has won victory over death.  We know that the Lord is still with us, and that He can do mighty deeds!  We never give up hope, never despair.

Today and going forward, Heartbeat International continues to start, strengthen, defend, and support pregnancy help ministries all over the world. 

Today and going forward, Heartbeat continues to answer the call at Option Line®, 24/7, via the phone (800 712 HELP), internet (OptionLine.org), live chat, and email, connecting those in need to life-saving help in their own community.

Everything we do saves lives and advances a culture of life.  We continue to do what God is calling us to do.

One of my favorite reminders from Holy Scripture is Psalm 20:7, “Some put their hope in horses and chariots, but we put our hope in the Lord our God.”  How seemingly “old-fashioned” to put hope in horse and chariots when we now have atomic weapons and spaceships that explore outer space!  Yet, at one point in the history of the world, horses and chariots were the most powerful war implements imaginable.  The things of this world are ever-changing, including technology and political power.  But God does not change.  He can always bring life from death.

We will continue full speed ahead!  We know the Lord will bring many fruits from our labors, as He always has. We are willing to bear any burden to assert our right, as a Christian organization, to do what we are called to do, even in an increasingly anti-Christian atmosphere. We will continue the fight for LIFE, armed with His love and empowered by His grace.   We covet your continued prayers for courage, wisdom, protection, and success.

You make all of this possible with your support, prayers, and partnership.  Thank you!

One more telemarketer. One more commercial. One more debate. One more biased media pundit spouting forth an opinion.

It is easy to become battle-weary by this time in an election year.

In fact, it is so much easier to turn off the television or computer, flip through the newspaper to the crossword puzzle, and completely ignore the election activities altogether. It is exhausting and discouraging. However, exhaustion and discouragement are not good destinations for the Christian, not to mention for those of us engaged in the pregnancy help movement.

The stakes are high, and those who come behind us are looking to us to do what the Lord is calling us to do. So how do we shake off the ever-heavier blanket of despondency and discouragement? Perhaps we can all take a page out of a playbook I have come to trust and rely upon.

Along with many others, I had waited with much anticipation for the ruling of the Supreme Court in the case challenging the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”), National Federation Of Independent Business Et Al. v. Sebelius, Secretary Of Health And Human Services, Et Al., (No. 11–393, June 28, 2012).

The morning the ruling was to be announced, I delayed going to work because I wanted to hear the report live. Not being able to focus at home, I finally got in the car and I heard the commentaries begin.

I was frustrated, floored, furious and frankly, befuddled. Like many attorneys, I could have predicted the vote for most of the judges. However, I was not in any way prepared for the vote of Chief Justice Roberts, not to mention his majority opinion that upheld the PPACA as a tax. I felt betrayed and dejected. I was so disheartened.

However, that night, as I read my daily devotionals, I came across the following verses in Psalm 11, written thousands of years earlier, but in strangely similar times:

Flee as a bird to your mountain;
For, behold, the wicked bend the bow,
They make ready their arrow upon the string
To shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.
If the foundations are destroyed,
What can the righteous do?

David, the writer of the psalm, had the obvious pointed out to him—the foundations are destroyed. Flee!

King Saul had attempted to kill David many times. Imagine the tragedy of Saul, the very king of Israel, handpicked by God, constantly seeking to destroy the Lord’s anointed. What could David do? To whom could he appeal?

David’s appeal was to the Lord, the King of Kings and the Captain of the Hosts: 

In the Lord I take refuge

The Lord is in His holy temple;

The Lord’s throne is in heaven;

His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.
The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked,
And the one who loves violence His soul hates.
Upon the wicked He will rain snares;
Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup.
For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness;
The upright will behold His face.

In a way, I felt as if the very foundations had been destroyed. If the Supreme Court could not see the unconstitutionality of the PPACA, what recourse was there? As I was taught in law school, the Supreme Court is the court of last resort not because it is always right; rather, it is right because it is the court of last resort.

So now what? My natural reaction was to flee. Surely Antarctica could use a decent lawyer. But no…fleeing was not an option. Ignoring the whole process was not an option, either. Dedicated ostriching is not a possibility. My main temptation was to give up. What could one person do? What could even the entire united church do?

But in the end, I was encouraged by the truth that God reigns. The Lord is sovereign. Yes, he reigns over even the heart of the king. “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes.” (Proverbs 21:1 )

If we honestly believe God is sovereignty in control, then even when we grow battle-weary, we will not give up. We will rise up. God is still on the throne. Even when it seems the foundations are being destroyed, God is an unshakable refuge for His people.

We, as those who find our righteousness in God’s anointed—the Son of David—will one day behold His face. We have a solid, unshakable hope, but it’s not one merely set aside for the by-and-by. It has implications for us in the here and now.

What is in our hands to do? Right now it is the election. Beloved, we need to vote, get out the vote and speak truthfully to those who look to us for guidance.

The Lord, who tests the hearts of the righteous and the wicked, loves righteousness, and He loves to see righteousness done—in every facet of life and at every level of private and public life.

People of God, don’t give up. Rise up!

Pregnancy help centers are good for America.

This true and essential message is now being touted by Rick Santorum through his political advocacy group, Patriot Voices.

Launched in June, Patriot Voices brings awareness to one charity per month, and “crisis pregnancy centers” are in its sights for the month of October. In speaking of the pregnancy help movement, Patriot Voices specifically refers its audience to Heartbeat International’s Option Line®, and www.OptionLine.org.

Every woman deserves to be loved and supported during an unexpected pregnancy, and pregnancy help centers do just that, valuing the life and health of both mothers and their precious babies.

Option Line serves as a vital connection point between women experiencing an unexpected pregnancy and their local pregnancy help centers. As Patriot Voices points out in its recent correspondence, Option Line is also an excellent way to find a nearby pregnancy help center that needs your support and involvement.

Visit www.OptionLine.org and find your local pregnancy help center today!

Investigating the pregnancy help movement

Known abortion advocate and self-proclaimed investigative reporter Katie Stack has recently gone undercover to more than 30 pregnancy help organizations (PHO) in attempt to smear the work of the pregnancy help movement.

Honored by organizations such as NARAL and NOW, Stack has consistently spoken out against the work of our movement, and the information we provide.  Unfortunately, she has received publicity on the national level, including an opinion piece in The New York Times that criticizes both PHOs and Heartbeat's Babies Go to Congress event.  This event gives our affiliates the opportunity to share stories with their local congressmen of moms and babies helped by centers in their communities.

There continues to be a concerted effort by the opposition to publish negative reports and use potentially viral videos – especially among young people – to spout falsehoods, misinformation, and spurious allegations attempting to discredit PHOs. Stack has made it her mission to spread the false information NARAL and others so readily tout. 

Heartbeat has created tools to help shield our affiliates from these attacks.  We cannot guarantee that Stack and others like her will not enter our centers.  We can tell you, however, that if our affiliate organizations follow the Commitment of Care and Competence, they are doing their part to protect their center and the women they serve.

Our Commitment of Care and Competence was designed to dispel the abortion activists’ false accusations, and to form the basis for strong client-services approval ratings. This commitment is the standard for affiliation with Heartbeat. 

Heartbeat is here for our affiliates.  Remember, our first response is always to join you in prayer, remembering that God will work all things together for our good.

“The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?”
- Psalm 27:1

A Family Legacy For LIFE                         

Hi, our names are Ken and Cathy Clark and we serve on the Heartbeat Board of Directors. We attended our first Heartbeat Conference in 2000 after co-founding a Birth Choice pregnancy center in Orange County, California.

Anyone who has attended a Heartbeat Conference (as a Heartbeat donor/partner or through an affiliate's board, staff or volunteer) has witnessed firsthand God's Spirit and His movement within the pro-life community. It was this Spirit of God in Heartbeat that touched our hearts to make a difference, not only at our local level but with Heartbeat on a world-wide level. We urge you to attend the next conference in Dallas, April 2-5, 2013. You will be awed and blessed by what God is doing there through Heartbeat.

We are the parents of two daughters and we're happy to say that our family of four has become a family of 11 (including our two sons-in-law and our five amazing grandsons!). We give thanks to God for these gifts entrusted to us. We consider our faith, our family, and our passion for life (born and preborn) as our most precious gifts. And, a great joy for us is that our daughter now works for Birth Choice, so building this legacy for the next generation continues in our family!

We have answered Heartbeat International's challenge to change the culture of our country and our world. Our goal is to replace death with LIFE, a culture of life. Our hope – and the hope of all future generations – depends on what we are willing to invest (our time, our talent, and our treasure).   We thank you for your partnership with Heartbeat International and for being part of the solution to this tragedy of abortion.

Get out the Vote: 5 Free Downloads!

We are less than 30 days away from the election … is anyone else tired of campaign commercials?

It seems that the ads get more malicious and frequent every election season. As pro-life voters, we must strive to see past the “smoke screens” and educate ourselves on the issues. We have pulled together many free resources and educational tools for you to use leading up to November 6. These tools will inform you about where the candidates stand on issues like abortion and the sanctity of human life.

No matter the outcome of the election on November 6th, there will still be a great need for pregnancy help organizations. No politician can reach and rescue lives from abortion in their own communities like a pregnancy help center can! More than policies, women need a personal touch from someone who cares.

With your support, Heartbeat International comes alongside these centers to provide the help and support they need to save as many lives as possible. We can’t do this life-saving work without you! Help us connect women to their pregnancy help organization one life at a time by partnering with us today.