Peggy Hartshorn

Dr. Peggy Hartshorn on Heartbeat International, Pregnancy Resource Centers, and Abortion Pill Reversal

Series
Humanize
Host
Wesley J. Smith
Guest
Peggy Hartshorn
Duration
1:06:14
Download
Audio File (90.95M)

A continual criticism of the pro-life movement is that adherents only care about children before they are born. But is that true? The proliferation of Pregnancy Help Centers throughout the country and the many outreach efforts of the pro-life movement to help women and babies after birth testifies to the lie of the accusation.

Wesley’s guest today has been immersed in these efforts for decades. Peggy Hartshorn Ph.D. and her husband first volunteered to house pregnant girls in their home in 1975. She is now the Chair of Heartbeat International, an international nonprofit Christian organization with a worldwide network of more than 3,000 pro-life pregnancy help centers that provide comprehensive help to women throughout their pregnancies and after the child is born. The goal of Heartbeat International is to offer compassionate support so that no woman ever feels that abortion is her only option. 

Dr. Hartshorn has traveled to 52 countries in support of pregnancy help organizations in Eastern and Western Europe, Australia, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

She is the recipient of many awards for pro-life work, including: the President’s Volunteer Service Award under President George H.W. Bush, the J.C. Penney Golden Rule Award, the Defender of Life Award from Students for Life, the Cardinal John J. O’Connor pro-life award from Legatus International,

Dr. Hartshorn co-founded Heartbeat International’s Option Line in 2002.  It is the only 24/7, bilingual, internet-based, pro-life call center in the world. Option Line handles about a quarter of a million calls for help each year, connecting callers to their community-based pregnancy help center.

Dr. Hartshorn is also the co-author of The Power of Pregnancy Help: The First Fifty Years.

Program Notes:

Home (heartbeatinternational.org)

What is a Pregnancy Center? (heartbeatinternational.org)

Abortion Pill Reversal – Home

Mothers share how crisis pregnancy centers helped them walk away from abortion: ‘huge enlightenment’ | Fox News

More than 100 pro-life orgs, churches attacked since Dobbs leak | Fox News

Wesley J. Smith

Chair and Senior Fellow, Center on Human Exceptionalism
Wesley J. Smith is Chair and Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism. Wesley is a contributor to National Review and is the author of 14 books, in recent years focusing on human dignity, liberty, and equality. Wesley has been recognized as one of America’s premier public intellectuals on bioethics by National Journal and has been honored by the Human Life Foundation as a “Great Defender of Life” for his work against suicide and euthanasia. Wesley’s most recent book is Culture of Death: The Age of “Do Harm” Medicine, a warning about the dangers to patients of the modern bioethics movement.