by Julie Parton, Ph.D.

To:              Jesus Christ, Commander-in-Chief, Spiritual Armed Forces
Subject:      Request for Transfer

Dear Lord:

I am writing this to You to request a transfer to a desk job. I herewith present my reasons:

I began my career as a private, but because of the intensity of the battle, You have quickly moved me up in the ranks. You have made me an officer and have given me a tremendous amount of responsibility. There are many soldiers and recruits under my charge. I am constantly being called upon to dispense wisdom, make judgments, and find solutions to complex problems. You have placed me in a position to function as an officer, when in my heart I know I have only the skills of a private.

I realize that You have promised to supply all I need for the battle. But Sir, I must present you a realistic picture of my equipment. My uniform, once so crisp and starched, is now stained with tears and the blood of those I have tried to assist. The sole of my boots are cracked and worn from the miles I have walked, trying to enlist and encourage troops. My weapons are marred, tarnished, and chipped from constant battle against the Enemy. Even the Book of Regulations I was issued has been torn and tattered from endless use. The words are now smeared.

You have promised You would be with me throughout; but the noise of the battle is so loud and the confusion is so great, I can neither see nor hear you. I feel so alone. I'm tired. I'm discouraged. I have battle fatigue. I would never ask You for a discharge. I love being in Your service. But, I humbly request a demotion and transfer. I'll file papers or clean latrines! Just get me out of the battle, please, Sir.

Your faithful, but tired,
Solider

***********************************************

To:                  Faithful but Tired Soldier, Spiritual Armed Forces
Location:        The Battlefield
Subject:          Transfer Request

Dear Soldier:

Your request for transfer has been denied. I herewith present my reasons:

1. You are needed in this battle.
2. I have selected you, and I will keep My Word to supply your needs.
3. You do not need a demotion & transfer. (Believe me, you'd never cut it on latrine duty!)
4. You need a period of “R&R” - Renewal and Rekindling.

For this reason, I am setting aside a place on the battlefield that is insulated from all sound and fully protected from the enemy. I will meet you there and I will give you rest. I will remove your old equipment and “make all things new.”

You have been wounded in the battle, My soldier. Your wounds are not visible, but you have received grave internal injuries.

You need to be healed. I will heal you. You have been weakened in battle. You need to be strengthened. I will strengthen you and be your strength.

I will instill within you confidence and ability. My words will rekindle you with a renewed love, zeal, and enthusiasm. Report to Me tattered and empty, and I will refill you.

Compassionately,
Your Commander-in-Chief

Heartbeat's International Coordinator Molly Hoepfner shares about her time in Serbia

Walking the Novi Sad streets, Molly Hoepfner and Betty McDowell pass row after row of square, grey buildings—standing monuments that remain 20 years after the breakup of Communist Yugoslavia.

Yet, even amid the seemingly unvaried landscape of drab, graffiti-covered structures that line the busy streets of Serbia’s second-largest city, an occasional flash of color bursts through a new, freshly painted edifice.

Little by little, life is returning to Serbia.

On behalf of Heartbeat International, Molly and Betty were there to see to it that even as life returns, the long-forgotten value of human dignity and life would truly take root.

Molly and Betty led a four-day volunteer training conference Oct. 4-7, hosted by Serbian pregnancy help organization executive director Vesna Radeka, who is one of more than 300 non-U.S. Heartbeat affiliates.

The conference included training on The LOVE Approach™ and Talking About Abortion™, two of Heartbeat’s signature programs, and welcomed a total of 50 attendees from five nations that were part of Yugoslavia as recent as the early 1990s—Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Slovenia and Croatia.

“They got The LOVE Approach, they really got it,” Betty, Heartbeat’s director of ministry services, said. “Vesna had written scenarios that fit the culture, and that was really exciting. It was exciting to see The LOVE Approach really translate, and to see that it works in any language, any setting. It’s truly ‘Love in every language.’”

The conference is believed to be the first of its kind in the region, which has undergone constant political upheaval and deadly clashes between ethnic groups throughout the last century.

The fledgling growth of unity in the Eastern European pro-life movement was one of the highlights for the Heartbeat mini-envoy, particularly considering the deep entrenchment of the culture of death in the post-Communist region.

“We kept promoting the message that, ‘We’re better together,’” Molly, Heartbeat’s international coordinator said. “They really embraced that, even though that’s not how they tend to think.”

With a population of just over 7 million, Serbia reports an average 23,000 abortions every year. However, unofficial data, reported by The Southeastern European Times, estimates the annual average at 150,000 abortions—twice the number of live births—giving Serbia the highest abortion rate in Europe.

As Molly related, one woman who attended the conference said her mother had undergone 10 abortions after giving birth to her older brother and before giving birth to her, which was a tragically common story among the conference’s attendees.

“I’ve read about survivor’s guilt, but to see it so blatant and prevalent in that room was just so painful,” Betty said.

“This is generational,” Molly said. “Woman after woman after woman at this conference—whose average age was 35-40, stood up and said that they were either an unwanted child or that they grew up with abortion as a way of life.”

Abortion on-demand was legalized in its current form in Yugoslavia in 1977, but has been prevalent in the culture since just after World War II, when abortion was legalized in cases citing socio-medical grounds.

The conference’s attendees, many of whom are actively involved in bringing the sanctity of life message to their local public school systems, welcomed further training on how to speak the message of life into culture that has systematically devalued human life for several decades.

In addition to training related to The LOVE Approach and Talking About Abortion, another Heartbeat resource, the Sexual Integrity™ Program, played a major role in the conference training.

“These women are really stepping out in faith because it’s still so opposite of what their culture is saying,” Molly said. “They’re really going into uncharted waters because they’re in the infancy of pregnancy help centers even though their culture is much more entrenched in death than ours was by the time these centers began.”

Each year, November is recognized as National Adoption Awareness Month. While all adoption-related issues are important, the particular focus of this month is the adoption of children currently in foster care.

The first major effort to promote awareness of the need for adoptive families for children in the foster care system came in 1976, when Massachusetts governor Mike Dukakis initiated Adoption Week, an idea that grew in popularity and spread throughout the nation.

President Gerald Ford later made the first National Adoption Week proclamation, and in 1990, the week was expanded to a month due to the number of states participating and the number of events celebrating and promoting adoption.

During the month, states, communities, public and private organizations, businesses, families, and individuals celebrate adoption as a positive way to build families. Activities and observances across the nation, such as recognition dinners, public awareness and recruitment campaigns, and special events shed light on children who are in need of permanent families.

The month also includes National Adoption Day, traditionally a Saturday, which is observed in courthouses across the nation, where thousands of adoptions are finalized simultaneously.

Even in non-election years, elected officials at all levels are supportive of efforts to build adoption awareness. Both current officials and candidates should be receptive to invitations to participate in events with family appeal.

November is the perfect opportunity to make sure adoption is easy to talk about at your organization. One way is to order a subscription for one of Heartbeat's recorded webinars. Effectively Presenting Adoption to Every Client is a great resource for approaching the topic of adoption, and Parenting Choices complements The LOVE Approach Training Manual well while specifically addressing adoption. This kind of training is critical because, as Brittany's testimony makes clear, A Compassionate, Informed Counselor Makes the Difference in adoption.

Building a Culture of Adoption: It Starts at Home holds some practical tips for discussing adoption in a Maternity Home setting as well as our Cultivating a Culture of Adoption webinar.

We encourage you to embrace National Adoption Awareness Month and serve as champions of adoption every day!

As war rages on overseas and natural disasters hit close to home, one thing is certain—women in those affected areas will still need the real support offered by the pregnancy help movement.

Life-affirming organizations are by no means immune to the damage caused by trauma, and yet, they often become rallying points in their communities for aid in addition to their normal functions. Affected pregnancy help centers, maternity homes, non-profit adoption agencies, and abortion recovery programs will need prayer and financial support in the weeks and months to come.

Heartbeat International offers you a way to help, through our Helping Affiliated Life-Affirming Organizations (HALO) fund.

Heartbeat affiliates help each other in many ways, including through our own affiliates’ generous donations. Please consider giving to the HALO fund today, as we come alongside our friends who will struggle to rebuild in order to provide women with the compassionate support they need in order to choose life for their unborn children.

As always, keep an eye on your inbox and check PregnancyHelpNews.com for the most up to date information.

Unless pregnancy help organizations are there to set the standard for true compassion and support for women, someone else will—namely, Planned Parenthood.

In the wake of disasters, Planned Parenthood and abortion activist organizations arrive not with needed material aid, food and shelter, but with abortifacients, including the abortion pill. These pills only increase the death toll in the darkest hours.

There is no better time than now to come alongside your brothers and sisters through the HALO fund. You can give online today.

Heartbeat collects information on organizations potentially in need so that we might be able to direct resources, if available. If you are aware of an Heartbeat affiliated organization in need of support, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with their information and situation.

by Ellen Foell, Legal Counsel

Last month’s article, “The Robe of Restoration”, got me thinking a little about another son who received a robe of restoration.

In Luke 15, we read the familiar story of a prodigal son who received a robe of restoration. Like Joseph, the son of Jacob, this son’s story also involved a robe. As a beloved son of a wealthy man, he probably owned several robes, signifying his honored position.

But unlike Joseph, whose special robe was taken from him, the prodigal son forfeited his robe, selling it for something better, flashier, more trendy. He demanded his inheritance from his father, and left home to pursue wild living.

The end of the story is also familiar: The son returned home, and his lavishly loving father blessed him with the best robe in the house!

As I was reading Luke 15 recently, I was struck by the image of the prodigal son, walking down the homeward path, dreading the moment he’d have to face his father.

As a teenager, the very thought of facing my father after I’d done wrong filled me with terror. Truth be told, the thought of facing my mother filled me with even more terror! I can still remember the pounding of my heart as I walked down the hallway, going to face my parents after I’d failed them.

Like the son in Luke 15, I would rehearse the conversation in my head, and sometimes even in front of a mirror—so as to ensure that my facial expression reflected “sincere” remorse. I would rehearse my approach, come up with words to say how I hadn’t meant to do it, or how it had been an accident, and how I’d never do it again.

Isn’t that what it was like for the son in this story?

Well, if we look at the text, it describes the state of mind of the son: Moving from euphoria to deep depression and disillusionment. When the son left home, had money, he had time, he had no boundaries, he had friends, and he had wild living. But he soon became impoverished. The party died and his so-called friends left him lonely and broken.

Isn’t that often the case? Our sinful tendencytoward God-neglecting self-reliance only leads us to loneliness and spiritual bankruptcy. Without the help of God himself, we find ourselves trapped in a self-perpetuating cycle of joy-robbing, isolating rebellion.

That’s why, even in his initial poverty, the son was not quite desperate enough to face his father. He thought he could help himself by hiring himself out. Again, watch how our self-reliant tendencies only lead to further misery. Try as he might to pull himself up by his sandal straps, the real problem with the prodigal son was always an issue of the heart.

We find it hard, as did the son, to face the father and ask him to change our heart. It seems easier to try and fix ourselves than to confess our short-comings and face our father.

What happens when even our best efforts come to nothing? The story tells us that in the midst of pigsty and slop, the son finally had an “aha” moment. He finally came to his senses, owned up to his hopeless emptiness, and set off to face his father.

But while the son made his way home, dreading the moment he was to face his father, a shocking display of the father’s grace awaited him. Filled with grace and eager to forgive, the father had never given up on his rebellious son.

I love the description of this scene: “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him” (Luke 15:20, NASB).

What was the father waiting for?

Did he wait for his son to return in order to get an accounting of how he’d spent the inheritance?

Did he wait in hope for a blow-by-blow retelling of every stupid decision?

Did he yearn for a well-rehearsed apology for every poor attitude and wounding word spoken?

No, the father waited in hope that his son would one day break the horizon, and come on home.

To be sure, something changed in the pigsty. But the real point is how everything changed when the son experienced his father’s undeserved, intimate, and unbreakable embrace.

In that moment—experiencing true grace and forgiveness—the son’s heart was changed, and he finally understood what had been in his father’s heart all along: Unconditional love.

Have you experienced the unconditional love of our God, who doesn’t demand an accounting, but instead, rejoices to demonstrate his incredibly patient love and mercy toward the children he loves?

This is a love that frees us to live joyfully, as we remember that our God is a father who delights to do good to his children—especially when we don’t deserve it.

By Betty McDowell

“Responsibility for learning belongs to the student, regardless of age.” Robert Martin

One of the joys of working at Heartbeat is that I am always learning. I love learning, which is a good thing, especially since I serve in a ministry that is always changing, growing, and being challenged.

Next month is Heartbeat’s annual Institute for Center Effectiveness℠ (Nov. 27–30 in Columbus, Ohio). One of the key principles we teach each year is that we are always functioning in one of two modes: judger or learner.

How do you know which mode you’re functioning in right now? Ask yourself, “What questions am I asking?”

You see, we talk to ourselves on a regular basis, and we’re constantly asking ourselves questions. When you look in a mirror, for instance, you are undoubtedly able to say something about yourself. It may be a derogatory remark about your looks or perhaps “a thumbs-up”, but it might also be a question about what you expect the coming day to bring. If the question you’d ask yourself has to do with your looks, you’re in “judging” mode, but if your question has to do with the upcoming day, you’re in “learning” mode. In other words, your self-talk tells you which mode you’re in. 

Besides self-talk, we are also in one of these two modes when we’re dealing with other people. Do you find yourself thinking, “How can I prove I am right?”, or is the question your asking yourself more of, “How can I better understand what he/she is saying?” The first of these indicates you’re in “judging” mode, while the second shows you’re in “learning” mode.

If you work in a life-affirming ministry, you need to become a student of the clients you serve. Stay in learning mode and you’ll become a better listener, which will put you in a position to be of much more help to another person. Ask yourself inquisitive learning questions, rather than deciding you already know everything you need to know about a person and their situation.

The best leaders are always the best learners.

Like an inquisitive child, start to enjoy the process of learning again. Begin to examine your self-talk and the questions you ask yourself on a regular basis, and begin forming better questions about the people you are talking with and the situations you find yourself facing.

You’re never too old to become a learner.

To think more about this, pick up Change your Questions, Change your Life, a book by Marilee Adams, and attend ourInstitute for Center Effectiveness this November.

by Ellen Foell, Heartbeat International Legal Counsel

This sounds like a trick question a Pharisee might ask to entrap Jesus.

The answer seems fairly straightforward. The patient is anyone who receives medical services from a physician.[1] But then, there is a follow-up question: "When is my patient no longer my patient?" In other words, when does the legal obligation to the patient end?

The physician and the clients who walk through the center’s doors are indispensable to its existence as a medical pregnancy clinic. Without the client-patients, there would be no need for the medical center to exist. Without the medical director, the center has no legal authority to provide any of its critical life-changing medical services, including ultrasounds and sexually transmitted infection and disease testing.

The medical director’s presence in name, policy-setting, procedure, and writing standing orders creates a patient-physician relationship. It runs between the physician and every client who walks through your doors to receive medical service.

However, much like ambulatory care clinics, the relationship between the physician in a medical pregnancy center and patient is limited in time and treatment, so the center must set distinct parameters to avoid confusion for the patient and liability for the center. Failure of the center to be clear in setting and communicating those parameters to the patient can create liability-laden situations.

The best way for centers to avoid liability issues is to be up-front in communicating the parameters of the patient-physician relationship with each client. In the eyes of the law, the physician-patient relationship continues if the following three factors are present, with the third factor posing the most relevance for pregnancy help centers:

1. The client-patient needs follow-up treatment from a physician,
2. The client-patient has a reasonable expectation of continued treatment, and
   
3. The physician has not clearly and explicitly ended the relationship.

It is easy to see how a client-patient could leave a center with the impression that she and the medical director have now established a continuous patient-physician relationship. Treatment and care for a pregnant woman typically involves multiple doctor visits, additional ultrasounds, and can include additional procedures as well.

Further, since many of the women coming to a medical pregnancy clinic may not have an existing relationship with a physician, a client-patient might naturally conclude that the relationship would continue beyond the parameters of that place (the center) and time (the appointment).

That is, the client-patient might have a reasonable expectation of continued services because she clearly requires continued treatment. The question is, “From whom?” That question can and must be addressed in the context of clear and explicit communication to the client that the patient-physician relationship is terminated upon her leaving the pregnancy medical clinic, and—if needed—receipt of referrals for obstetrician-gynecologists, in keeping with standard pregnancy medical center practice. 

If the client is clearly and explicitly informed—verbally and in writing—that no continuing patient-physician relationship continues after the verification of pregnancy and/or ultrasound, then the center and its medical director will have fulfilled their legal duty to the client. In fact, most pregnancy medical centers have a Consent and Release Form for the client to sign, indicating this agreement.

Heartbeat International was recently asked whether giving a regimen of prenatal vitamins or prescribing prenatal vitamins constituted a continuation of the patient-physician relationship, possibly exposing the center to liability. The question was raised for obvious reasons: Prenatal vitamins tend to be something pregnant women take throughout the course of their pregnancy, implying continuing treatment.

Arguably, prescribing the vitamins could be interpreted to constitute action taken pursuant to the patient-physician relationship. Thus, a center will want to ensure that its Consent and Release Form is broad enough to encompass the prescription for vitamins.

Pregnancy help medical clinics daily provide excellent and caring life-saving services. In the event that a client-patient is pregnant, she should be given referrals for other service providers.

Centers should have an attorney draft a Consent and Release Form, which should be given and explained to the client-patient. This paperwork should clearly state that no follow-up care will be provided, and that the patient-physician relationship is terminated.

That form must be signed by both center staff and the client-patient, with a signed copy given to the client-patient and a copy kept in the client-patient’s medical file. In following these guidelines, a center will have fulfilled its obligation to the client-patient, and to the law.

Go and do likewise!

What would you do if a client contacted you and said she had taken the first dose of the RU-486 regimen and now regretted it?

There is help!

Because of the critical time factor involved in attempting a reversal, Dr. George Delgado and Culture of Life Family Services have launched AbortionPillReversal.com.

This website and its associated hotline (877-558-0333) will serve as a means to rapidly connect women who have taken mifepristone (brand name Mifeprex, a.k.a. RU-486) to a nationwide network of medical providers who can attempt reversal of the drug with progesterone.

In a recent presentation to the American Association of Prolife Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), Dr. George Delgado described a series of seven patients where a reversal of RU-486 was attempted. The majority of the babies survived, and were born full-term with no apparent anomalies.

Mifepristone causes abortion because it is a progesterone receptor blocker. Progesterone is an essential hormone during pregnancy, which allows the placenta to grow, flourish, and nourish the baby. Blocking the action of progesterone (as mifepristone does) causes placental failure, which in turn, leads to the death of the unborn baby.

Supplemental progesterone, if given early enough, can out-compete the mifepristone and prevent the progesterone receptor-blocking action. By out-competing the mifepristone on a molecular and receptor level, the progesterone serves as an antidote to the mifepristone.

Since Ella and other “morning after pills” are also progesterone blockers like mifepristone, they also have the potential to be reversed by an emergency progesterone intervention.

The fact is that many women regret their choice to abort their babies. After a surgical abortion, of course, there is no going back. But, when a woman begins the process of a medical abortion and changes her mind, there is a window of opportunity to reverse the effects of an abortion-causing agent.

Please take a look at this website, and keep this information handy, should one of your clients come looking for help.

• How knowledgeable are you about RU-486?
• How much information does your staff have to skillfully discuss RU-486 with a client?
• Are you looking for a great educational piece for a staff in-service or training?

Director of Education and Research for the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund Randall K. O’Bannon Ph.D and Director of Research and Public Policy for the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists Dr. Donna Harrison have written a duo of fantastic articles that you can read and download in their entirety at http://www.abortionresearch.us/images/Vol24No1.pdf for use in your centers as well as education for your staff.

• The Introduction and Use of the Abortifacient Mifepristone (RU-486) in the United States
• The Introduction and Use of the Abortifacient Mifepristone (RU-486) in the Developing World

Let me whet your appetite with a few excerpts from the 12 page well-referenced articles…

The Introduction and Use of the Abortifacient Mifepristone (RU-486) in the United States

By Randall K. O’Bannon Ph.D,  Director of Education and Research for the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund

“The discovery of the pregnancy hormones progesterone (1929) and estrogen (1934) opened up whole new possibilities. Gregory Pincus, one of the co-inventors of the oral contraceptive pill, theorized that “anti-progestins should be implantation inhibitors,”

“Etienne-Emile Baulieu visited Pincus in Puerto Rico, where trials were being conducted of the new birth control pill, and came away determined to devote his life to steroid research, believing Chemical contraception central to women’s health and to control of the world’s population (Lader, RU-486, 29-30, Baulieu, 69).

“He returned to France and began working as a consultant to French pharmaceutical giant Roussel Uclaf…”

“Normally in pregnancy, progesterone, produced by the corpus luteum, functions to build and maintain the endometrium, which welcomes and then sustains the developing child in his or her earliest days. As pregnancy progresses, the placenta takes over progesterone production, but those critical first weeks are crucial to the establishment of the child’s nurturing and protective environment.”

“Anti-progestins bind to the same receptor sites as progesterone, but then do not carry out the same tasks. With the progesterone signal effectively blocked, the endometrial lining decays and sloughs off, depriving the developing child of essential nutrients, essentially starving her or him to death as the protective environment around her or him collapses.”

“Ultimately, under what The New York Times termed “sustained political pressure from the Clinton administration, a deal was struck granting U.S. licensing rights to the Population Council of New York in May of 1994. Roussel agreed to turn over all rights and responsibilities connected to the drug to the Population Council for free, hoping to avoid becoming a boycott target.”

“A common medical issue in many of these deaths is how difficult it is, for both patients and doctors, to distinguish between the ordinary side effects of chemical abortion, which are often severe, and the signs of a serious problem like hemorrhage, ruptured ectopic pregnancy, or infection.”

“Women are told to expect heavy bleeding, akin to a heavy period, and understand that the abortion will be painful. When these occur, they assume that they are related to the abortion process. If the pain and bleeding become so substantial that they call the clinic or go to the emergency room, even the medical professional may consider the events to be abortion-related. Brenda Vise called the clinic repeatedly and was told that her considerable pelvic pain was normal. The doctor at the ER did a physical exam of Holly Patterson and sent her home with more pain medication. Both were dead before the week was out.”

“Many abortion clinics are ignoring the FDA protocol, changing doses of the drugs extending the cutoff date from 49 days to 63, eliminating the second visit and letting women take the misoprostol at home (San Francisco Chronicle, 12/5/11), or even going so far as to prescribe the drugs via webcams, eliminating all direct physical contact between doctor and patient entirely (KCCI, 5/1910; Sioux City Journal, 10/8/10). Failures and complications are not only common, but more problematic, as women are farther removed from the careful medical monitoring that is essential to this process.”

“The Guttmacher Institute estimated that in 2008, more than a quarter of all abortions done at 9 weeks gestation or earlier were chemical abortions and both the overall percentage of chemical abortions and the number of clinics offering these abortions have been steadily increasing. If things continue trending as they are, it means that we can expect more women will die, along with tens of thousands more of their unborn children.”

The Use of the Abortifacient Mifepristone (RU-486) in the Developing World

By Donna Harrison, M.D,, Director of Research and Public Policy, American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists

“The use of non-surgical (medical) abortion in the developing world has had great appeal for abortion advocates. Surgical procedures in third world countries with poor medical infrastructure, lack of dependable transportation to emergency centers, and even inadequate water supplies pose health risks for patients electing to have a surgical abortion. On the other hand, simply taking a pill to undo the pregnancy appears to be a good solution for third world women. “

“The reality is that surgical abortions are still necessary in a number of cases because the pill fails; medical abortions are being attempted in settings with inadequate backup to care for complications; and hemorrhaging, a common side-effect of RU-486 abortions, is harder to control in third world environments. Unfortunately, there is a tendency to disregard such problems by enthusiastic abortion advocates, eager to expand abortion use in these countries.”

“In a moment of unguarded honesty, an ironic article, entitled Medical abortion: Is it a blessing or curse for the developing nations?, was published in the medical literature in 2011 ... [T]his article gives a rare glimpse into the reality of willy-nilly access to drugs which can end a pregnancy … The abstract opens with this statement:

"Medical abortion is definitely a safer and a better option, but in developing countries, its widespread misuse has led to partial or septic abortion thereby increasing maternal mortality and morbidity.”

“When the medical methods of abortion were launched in developing countries like India it was thought that frequency of illegal unsafe abortions by local dais and unregistered practitioners will decrease to a large extent and it will help in managing such unwanted pregnancies through safe and legalized abortions in peripheral health centres (PHCs), community health centres (CHCs), and civil hospitals. No doubt, though unsafe surgical abortions have decreased largely due to strict legislations but these have been replaced by increasing number of unsafe medical abortions.”

“Because medical abortion is being used increasingly in several countries, it is likely to result in an elevated incidence of overall morbidity related to termination of pregnancy.”

Download both articles in their entirety: http://www.abortionresearch.us/images/Vol24No1.pdf.

Based on biblical principles found in the book of Genesis, The Sexual Integrity Program (SIP) also draws inspiration from on The Theology of the Body and Pope John Paul II's Encyclical, Humanae Vitae.

SIP, designed for use inside the pregnancy help center, teaches women how to walk in sexual wholeness in all areas of their life – physical, emotional, social, intellectual, and spiritual.

Four Biblical Pillars form the foundation of the program.

• Pillar One: A Focus on Relationships (Genesis 1:27)
• Pillar Two: A Focus on Marriage (Genesis 2:24)
• Pillar Three: A Focus on Fertility (Genesis 1:28)
• Pillar Four: A Focus on Wholeness (Genesis 2:25)

Centers that offer SIP have more effective client outcomes. The ability to continue building the relationship with clients week after week by offering them a new way of living leads to a reduction in the number of return pregnancy tests visits per client.

Women who learn about sexual wholeness feel empowered. They have the new knowledge that helps them make healthier choices with their bodies, reducing sexual activity outside of marriage.

Other outcomes that centers see when the use SIP include Evangelization opportunities that increase as centers spend more time with clients sharing God’s blueprint for sexual integrity. The center’s reputation is enhanced as a provider of more complete reproductive health education. Volunteers become more knowledgeable on the major topics related to sexual activity, and, therefore, more confident in their interaction with all clients.

Learn more about what The Sexual Integrity Program can offer your center.