Pregnancy help was front and center during a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) panel discussion focused on serving moms and families.
On Mother's Day HHS launched Moms.gov, a website that support new and expecting mothers and their families with resources and information to foster the wellbeing of mothers and healthy American families. Moms.gov also has particular focus on pregnancy help, providing a direct link to the pro-life contact center Option Line.
A Mother’s Day Roundtable was held in conjunction with the website launch, at which Trump Cabinet and administration personnel spoke, along with others, including members of the pregnancy help community.
“Pregnancy help centers didn't just show up,” Heartbeat International President Jor-El Godsey told the panel participants and viewers. “We've actually been around for more than 50 years, standing in the background, serving in communities all across the United States.”
“There are nearly 3,000 pregnancy centers that are serving in communities, large and small, in ways great and small,” Godsey said.
“Some are as simple as a small building, a few rooms that are able to help people walk through their personal situation,” he said. “Others are those that have great medical services, providing many different services, many varieties of programs, and about 70% of them are actually providing ultrasound.”
Tweet This: Pregnancy help centers have been around for more than 50 years, serving in communities all across the United States.
Moms.gov gives information about resources for women and parents, Federally Qualified Health Centers, nutritional guidance, and numerous other topics related to raising children and parenting.
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The site also gives information that “supports expecting parents who are navigating difficult or unexpected pregnancies.”
Moms.gov features information about pregnancy centers and links to OptionLine.org, the 24/7 bilingual pro-life contact center managed by Heartbeat International, the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. and the world.
Heartbeat welcomed the creation of Moms.gov, and Godsey likewise welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with the project supporting mothers, children, and families.
"The statistics tell us it's about 3,000 women every single day, who wake up and they're not sure that they want to be moms, even as they find out that they are one,” he said. “And that's what pregnancy help centers have been all about, helping serve women, step into those situations, walk through those very temporary moments of fear and concern, and help see what really lies ahead, help them show that there are those in their community willing and ready to help them every single day.”
“With Option Line, we get to answer those calls all day long, every day, even on holidays,” Godsey said.
He expressed gratitude for the opportunity to partner with Moms.gov and help mothers to step into the lives of their children.
In addition to Godsey, the panel also heard from Tonya Baker Nelson, founder and CEO of Hand of Hope Pregnancy Centers in North Carolina, who gave a rundown of her organization’s many services.
In the process Baker noted the significance of ultrasound in pregnancy help.
“When a woman comes in to see us, and she gets a positive pregnancy test, common sense tells her that she knows that she's pregnant with a baby,” she said. “But what that ultrasound does is, it introduces her to her baby.”
“And so, we're able to walk alongside her during that whole process,” said Baker, “and then we continue our relationship with her, if she lets us, throughout the entire pregnancy.”
Baker continued to detail Hand of Hope’s pregnancy help services and material aid.
“It's very easy to tell a mom, ‘Hey, we're right here with you, we want to empower you to choose life. Go do that and let us know how it turns out’” Baker said. “But the hard part is coming alongside her and really, truly giving her that financial support that she's going to need for the first few years of the baby's life, especially.”
“Every state in the country has pregnancy centers,” she told the roundtable. “They're in our most populated counties. They are in our least populated counties. My challenge to you would be to go to Moms.gov and click on that Option Line link and find the closest one to you.”
“Volunteers are the backbone to a lot of those pregnancy centers,” Baker added. “A lot of us do have paid medical staff as well. But this is how we change America.”
Hand of Hope client Samantha Jo followed Nelson, sharing in detail how the pregnancy help organization assisted and supported her.
“I'm so grateful for all of you sitting here today just for taking time to help support women like me and those (other) moms,” she said.
Also appearing at the HHS Mother’s Day Roundtable were HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, HHS Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff of the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos, HHS Director of Global Affairs Bethany Kozma, Director of HHS’s Office on Women’s Health Dr. Dorothy Fink, Administration for Children and Families Assistant Secretary Alex Adams, Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration Thomas Engels, founder of the Maternal and Child Health Center for Policy and Practice at Heartland Forward Olivia Walton, U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger, political advisor and podcaster Katie Miller, political activist and former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines, and podcaster Isabel Brown.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
