Pregnancy Centers Can’t Help Women and Say They Should be Jailed for Abortions

The pregnancy help movement by its very nature is about rescue, rescuing women facing unintended pregnancy and rescuing their unborn children. This is done by engaging with these women and others in their lives about the dynamics in their lives and meeting relational and/or material needs. All of this is accomplished through human connection, not political power or legal enforcement, recognizing on a fundamental level that the best answer to abortion is often another human being letting a woman in need know that she is not alone.

Regardless of the status of local or national laws, abortion has continued, and pregnancy help organizations have continued, as they have for over 50 years, to reach and rescue women and their children in the womb.

Heartbeat International has reaffirmed its commitment to compassion, support, and hope for women facing an unexpected pregnancy with a statement on the renewed debate over whether women should face criminal penalties for seeking or undergoing abortions.

Heartbeat is the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the United States and globally, with nearly 4,000 affiliates in more than 100 countries worldwide and more than 2,100 affiliated pregnancy help locations in the U.S.

In releasing the statement on the call to criminalize women for abortion Heartbeat International President Jor-El Godsey said:

Pregnancy help organizations cannot both openly advocate for criminalizing women and remain safe harbors for them. Our mission is rooted in personal, confidential, and nonjudgmental care, meeting women in moments of crisis and empowering them to choose life.

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Criminalizing women would likely erode the trust and safe spaces that often allow women to seek help and choose life for their children.

Abortion must end, but the path to life is built through compassion, hope, and support – not punishment.

Restating its vision to make abortion unwanted today and unthinkable for future generations, the pregnancy help network said, “Our method matters.”

Among Heartbeat’s stated principles is one affirming that all pregnancy help services are personal, confidential, and nonjudgmental, and this principle is essential Heartbeat said, in supporting and safeguarding the invitation for women to explore life-affirming choices without fear of condemnation or retribution.

The statement warned that the anti-abortion approach of criminalizing women threatens the very work of pregnancy help.

“Pregnancy help is a compassionate outreach to women who would otherwise feel unable to consider any option other than abortion,” it said. “Pregnancy help organizations cannot both openly advocate for criminalizing women and remain safe harbors for them in their valley of decision between the life and death of their unborn child. Political advocacy for criminalization will almost certainly undercut our efforts to offer effective and compassionate care.”

Responding with compassion and not condemnation is what Christ did when He encountered women who were actively in sin, Heartbeat said, and while the acts at hand would have been criminal either in civil or religious courts of the time, Jesus extended grace and mercy. The statement offered direct Scripture references underscoring this.

“The political and cultural war on life that excuses and promotes abortion requires a myriad of prophetic and practical responses,” it said. Even if value for the sanctity of life returns to prominence in society “having a law that abolishes abortion will not bring about the abolition of wounded women and men,” it added.

Heartbeat International agrees that abortion should be abolished, “because it destroys (at least) one created in the image of God and wounds (at least) one other (the mother).”

Everyone in pro-life movement longs for the day when abortion is not just illegal, but unthinkable, the pregnancy help network said, when every woman is surrounded by support, and every life is protected by love.

“But that vision cannot be realized through condemnation alone,” it said.

“Compassion, not punishment, is the path that leads women in unplanned pregnancies to healing, restoration, and life,” Heartbeat International concluded. “Pregnancy help is where that path begins, offering hope in place of fear, support in place of shame, and life in place of death.”

The full statement is available HERE.

LifeNews Note: Lisa Bourne is Managing Editor of Pregnancy Help News and Content Writer for Heartbeat International. This originally appeared at Pregnancy Help News.