About Us
Peggy Hartshorn, Ph.D.
President, Heartbeat International
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Heartbeat International is the first network of pro-life pregnancy centers founded in the United States and is the largest group of centers in the world.
We are a nonprofit, interdenominational Christian association of faith-based pregnancy resource centers, medical clinics, maternity homes, and nonprofit adoption agencies endorsed by Christian leaders nationwide.
Heartbeat's Life-Saving Vision is to help create a world where every new life is welcomed and children are nurtured within strong families, according to God’s Plan, so that abortion is unthinkable.
We REACH those who are abortion-vulnerable through Option Line's® 24-hour call center and cutting-edge website, www.pregnancycenters.org.
"Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me..." - Psalm 144:7
Option Line®:
Option Line is the country’s first and only call center and cutting edge website staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, by paid consultants trained in pregnancy, abortion, and post-abortion issues. Option Line connects to 80% of the pregnancy centers in the United States and Canada.
The Option Line website (www.optionline.org) has 1 million visitors (visitors locate local pregnancy centers online) and receives 200,000 phone calls, emails and instant messages (74% considering abortion) annually. Option Line operates as a unique partnership in conjunction with Care Net, another network of pro-life ministries.
 “If you’re facing an unplanned pregnancy,” the announcer said, “you have options. You don’t have to be alone.
Call 1-800-395-HELP. Our services are totally confidential and free. If you’re pregnant, call now. There is help.”
Click here to view Option Line® commercial.
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- Toll-free number, 1-800-395-HELP, connects callers throughout the U.S. to their local pregnancy center
- Call Center open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- Website leads callers to their closest center www.pregnancycenters.org
- Over 200,000 calls and emails from individuals seeking abortion information answered in 2006 (74% of those were abortion-minded)
- Nearly 1 million visitors annually to the Option Line® website (where they can contact their local pregnancy center)
- Over 1,800 pregnancy centers to link clients to
- Owned and operated jointly with Care Net
Goals:
- To provide a 24/7 telephone and Internet contact source that takes a compassionate and non-judgmental approach to persons in crisis pregnancy situations.
- To provide a national referral service that connects clients immediately with helping ministries in their home communities.
Option Line® Clients Reached:
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We RESCUE those who are reached through our life-support network of pregnancy centers providing true reproductive health care, ministry, education, and social services where lives are saved and changed.
"Rescue me, O Lord, from evil men; protect me from men of violence. " - Psalm 140:1
Heartbeat's Pregnancy Center Network:
Heartbeat strengthens, starts and strengthens nearly 1,100 pregnancy centers in 41 countries to provide alternatives to abortion.
- Our affiliates are pregnancy resource centers, medical clinics, maternity homes, and non-profit adoption agencies that abide by Our Commitment of Care
- Nearly 1,100 affiliates in 47 states and in 42 other countries are in our network
- Approximately 2,000 babies a week are saved through our affiliates
- About 1 million clients per year are ministered to by our affiliates and Option Line
- Our affiliates are ready to serve in prevention (sexual integrity), crisis, and healing (post-abortion)
- 410 of our affiliates are medical centers and have ultrasound machines
- 75-80% of abortion-vulnerable clients who see their babies or hear their babies' heartbeats through ultrasound choose life.
Christ-Centered Resources and Trainings to Strengthen and Professionalize Affiliated Centers.
We endeavor to bring envisioning, encouraging, and equipping to Christian leaders in pregnancy center related ministries to effectively reach, rescue, and renew their communities for life. Heartbeat provides our affiliates with cutting-edge resources, best practices, and trainings for Boards, staff, and volunteers:
- Consultations
- Manuals
- New Director Training
- Distance Learning Courses
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- Major Conferences
- Videos
- Roundtables/Symposiums
- Heartbeat Institute Courses
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We RENEW broken cities around the world, by developing pregnancy centers where abortion clinics are the only alternative for abortion-vulnerable women.
"He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted...to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor... They will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations." - Isaiah 61:1-4
Heartbeat's Urban Initiative:
The mission of the Urban Initiative is to end abortion by establishing the medical/ ultrasound model of Pregnancy Resource Centers (PRC’s) in cities currently subject to the highest concentrations of abortion and having the fewest PRC resources. In America’s major cities, it is time to challenge the stronghold of the culture of death with the life-saving, life-changing Gospel of Life.
Renew broken cities that abortion providers target:
- Although 94% of abortion facilities are now located in urban areas, most pro-life pregnancy centers are in small towns, rural areas, and/or suburbs.
- Through the Urban Initiative, Heartbeat pinpoints cities which have few or no pregnancy centers in comparison to abortion facilities, then strategically opens PRC’s in those cities to offer life-saving options to women.
- Heartbeat's Urban Initiative also targets cities in the U.S. where abortion is likely to remain legal and funded by public money even if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
- Target additional cities in the U.S. where abortion is likely to remain legal and funded by public money even if Roe v. Wade is overturned
Welcome Heartbeat of Miami:
- "Urban Initiative" Pilot Project: Heartbeat of Miami opens strategically located pregnancy centers
- Hispanics and African Americans make up 24% of the population, but submit to 55% of U.S. abortions
- Miami was selected as the first city because, at the time, only one pregnancy center challenged nearly 40 abortion providers. On July 6, 2007, the first ultra-sound equipped Heartbeat of Miami center opened. At least two more centers in the Miami area are to follow.
- On October 23, 2007, the first baby saved by Heartbeat of Miami was born.
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