Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, the pro-choice movement has been more active than ever trying to restore abortion rights and access. The White House has been part of that effort, unfortunately. They recently announced funding for a national reproductive healthcare hotline. But when you read more about this hotline, it’s clear that the focus is on abortion referrals.
So instead of it being something that's objective, where a woman can call and ask questions about what to do, this hotline has defined abortion as “healthcare.” Therefore, it's not difficult to see where the referrals will go. This is the newest episode of CareCast, Care Net’s podcast for family, faith, and life with Roland Warren, President and CEO, and Vincent DiCaro, Care Net’s Chief Outreach Officer. Let's listen in on what Roland and Vince have for us on this CareCast as they discuss The National Abortion Hotline vs. Care Net’s Pregnancy Decision Line.
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If you look at the announcement from the Department of Health and Human Services regarding this funding opportunity, you see the thinly veiled language that suggests that pro-life organizations will not be included. There have been many attacks by the federal government against pro-life organizations—that they're deceptive, they lie to people, they don't provide holistic information, and they're fake clinics.
The other not-so-subtle hint is that this hotline is being funded out of Title 10 —which has become a funding stream for the abortion industry in recent years. All the signals are there. It's incredibly problematic and certainly not a good use of taxpayer dollars. From our perspective at Care Net, the National Abortion Hotline is a challenge to the work we do, through our network of 1,200+ pregnancy centers. And it's a challenge to our Pregnancy Decision Line.
It’s a challenge to the work we do at Care Net, through our network of 1200+ pregnancy centers, to try to steer clients away from our pregnancy centers. When someone is looking to make a pregnancy decision, they will direct them to their service and away from anyone who would give them a full understanding or life-affirming options. Also, it's a challenge to our pregnancy decision line (PDL). Our PDL, which we’ve been doing for nearly a decade, is focused on offering women and men compassion, hope, and help when they're facing pregnancy decisions.
We have a team of people who answer calls from women facing pregnancy decisions. This national hotline will make that work more difficult. It will make the need for that work even more important. Obviously, the federal government has the power to tax, so they have almost an infinite amount of resources they can pour into an initiative like this.
At the end of the day, the way you reach people online, you must pay for those eyes—either by paying for advertising online or paying for an expensive website that is constantly being updated with new information. This takes marketing experts and large budgets to have websites rank high in an online search. All of this takes people, expertise, time, and funding. It’s scary that if the federal government, with its bias toward abortion, is funding a project like this, you can easily see the challenge the pro-life movement faces.
Roland and Vince dig deeper into the differences between this National Abortion Hotline and Care Net’s Pregnancy Decision Line. They point out many of the challenges and contrasts between these two types of support. Well, one is supported and one is not. But you can listen in for yourself. Listen and Vince and Roland discuss:
- Pregnancy Decision Line's work – how they take calls, coach, and how they help callers.
- How PDL provides trained staff who give truly holistic help including spiritual support and community resources
- How PDL staff guide and give information on development, and help callers consider the factors that lead to considering abortion
- How God is using the PDL to have gospel-transforming conversations daily
- How PDL helps connect callers facing pregnancy decisions to local churches in order to help transform those who are currently struggling, to become disciples who make disciples.
Find more details about Care Net’s Pregnancy Decision Line.
Sign the pledge against the federal government's taxpayer funded abortion hotline.
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