NIFLA Leadership Summit Encourages and Equips Hundreds of Pregnancy Center Staff

The annual conference of NIFLA (National Institute of Family and Life Advocates), a coalition of some 1800 pregnancy centers around the nation, has been taking place these last few days in Williamsburg, VA.

The Leadership Summit, as it is called, is one of several major conferences each year that bring pregnancy center directors/staff together with leading pro-life experts and organizations that can help sharpen their skills and provide them with relationships and resources that strengthen their work throughout the year.

Pregnancy Centers can affiliate with one or more of the national networks, including NIFLA, Heartbeat International, and Care Net. Such affiliation provides both training and also alignment with best practices that increase the confidence of those who support the centers and utilize their services.

Please follow LifeNews on Rumble for the latest pro-life videos.

Of the 1800 NIFLA centers, 1600 are medical clinics. Enabling pregnancy centers to become medical clinics has been a key contribution that NIFLA has made throughout the years. Thomas Glessner, the pro-life attorney who leads NIFLA, founded it in 1993 in the aftermath of what he reminded attendees this week was a deep disappointment for him and the whole movement when the Supreme Court upheld Roe v. Wade the previous year. Many expected that Planned Parenthood vs. Casey would in fact reverse Roe; but we would have to work and pray for another 30 years for that to happen.

On the road to Dobbs, however, NIFLA won other significant court victories, and several of the presentations at the conference highlighted these, as well as current court cases that will impact the whole movement.

In 2018, NIFLA vs. Becerra was a Supreme Court victory in which the pregnancy centers successfully defended their right not to say things that violate their conscience.  California, and other states, were trying to force them to post for clients information about the availability of abortion (the very thing the centers are trying to help them avoid!!)

The current cases, both in California and New York, that NIFLA is engaged in, have to do with defending their right to promote abortion pill reversal, which has saved thousands of babies. The abortion industry is trying to prevent such promotion, claiming that this is false and misleading information. Presenters at the conference expressed confidence in victory in these cases as well.

The NIFLA Leadership Summit this year placed a special emphasis on pastors and Churches, with special presentations on this theme, a special invitation for pastors’ participation in the conference, and a special luncheon just for clergy.

I was one of the speakers on a panel that addressed very practical questions of how pregnancy centers should engage local churches. I brought to their attention the numerous resources and projects at www.ProLife.Church, and advised that in approaching Churches, the pastor may not be the best one to ask at first. Instead, the best point of entry may be other ministry leaders in the Church with whom you already have a relationship of trust and communication.

NIFLA promoted during the Summit the idea of chaplains for the pregnancy centers, who would visit the center regularly, provide pastoral services, and be an effective bridge with the local churches.

The Summit was marked by daily worship, and on the first night, held a beautiful memorial service for the unborn, led by a Virginia-based team of Rachel’s Vineyard, the world’s largest ministry for healing after abortion. As Pastoral Director of that ministry, I shared with the participants that all of us as pro-life activists are wounded by the abortions we could not prevent, and need to grieve those children daily, renewing our trust in God’s mercy and in his grace working through us to save many others.

During the conference a beautiful gala banquet was held, and several pro-life pioneers were honored. Attorney Tom Brejcha (of the Thomas More Society), who for 28 years let the fight in the ultimately victorious NOW vs. Scheidler case which went to the Supreme Court three separate times, received a Lifetime Achievement Award. I have known him since the start of that case and, sitting next to him at the gala, saw yet again the spirit of humility and perseverance that has always marked his work.

Pro-life Attorney Allan Parker was also honored with the Prolife Champion Award. Allan leads The Justice Foundation, which engages in many groundbreaking judicial efforts, including bringing the voices of women harmed by abortion into Court proceedings. Currently Allan is promoting awareness that the right to life is explicit in our Constitution in the 5^th and 14^th Amendments.

A third award, the Mildred Jefferson Courageous Servant Award, was presented to Jeanneane Maxon, J.D., who now works with NIFLA and has served groups like Care Net and American United for Life over her decades of pro-life service. She has been a courageous cancer survivor for the past decade.

NIFLA also announced a joint “life initiative” with Care Net, whose National Medical Director, Dr. Sandy Christiansen, who was present at the Summit, will also serve as Associate Medical Director for NIFLA. Both Care Net and NIFLA will continue to operate independently, but with more of a strategic collaboration.

NIFLA and its leader Tom Glessner have long spoken, written, and worked for what they call an “Abortion-Free America.” This doesn’t mean that zero abortions will occur. It does mean, however, that America can and will reject the abortion industry, and the distortion of morality and law that make it possible. This week’s Summit – which was conducted under the Biblical theme that “the battle belongs to the Lord” (1 Sam. 17:47) — was a reminder that NIFLA goes a long way in getting us to that day, and an encouragement to us all to work harder than ever for victory.

LifeNews.com Note:  Frank Pavone is the national director for Priests for Life.