Heartbeat International is honoring women leaders in pregnancy help around the world during Women’s History Month. The special month recognizing women is an annual March U.S. observance celebrating women's contributions.
There are countless women serving around the world in pregnancy help both in leadership and support roles, and Heartbeat released a video honoring female leaders from its Joint Affiliate Network.
Heartbeat is the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. and globally, with around 4,000 affiliates worldwide, pregnancy help organizations in more than 100 countries worldwide on six continents. Of Heartbeat’s 4,000 affiliates, more than 1,400 are international.
It can be easy to be U.S. focused, and while the U.S. accounts for nearly 1M abortions each year, this is still just 2% of all abortions worldwide. Thus, Heartbeat works to strengthen pregnancy help organizations worldwide through training, collaboration, and life-affirming support. To this end, Heartbeat partners with networks to best serve women and families throughout the world.
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Pregnancy help leaders across the world serve women and families every day in very different cultural and legal settings. Many pregnancy help organizations operate with limited resources, minimal training access, and marked cultural pressure - including cultures that do not necessarily welcome new life based upon gender, class, race, or government-mandated laws.
Heartbeat’s Joint Affiliate Network exists to ensure these organizations are not isolated, and instead equipped, connected, and supported.
Along with its more than 2,300 U.S. affiliated locations, Heartbeat serves with 10 Joint Affiliate Networks worldwide.
These include Pregnancy Care Canada (Formerly CAPSS), Centro de Ayuda para la Mujer Latinoamericana (CAM), Movimento per la Vita (MPV), ProVida - Spain, Be'ad Chaim - Israel, Pregnancy Help Network: Association for Life of Africa (AFLA), Pregnancy Support Services of Asia (PSSA), Pregnancy Help Network - South Africa, Pregnancy Help Australia. Heartbeat added the Balkan Network as the 10th international Joint Affiliate Network last year.
Notably, a majority of those Joint Affiliate Networks have women as leaders, hence Heartbeat taking the opportunity of Women’s History Month to celebrate them with its video message.
Tweet This: Women lead in a majority of Heartbeat International's Joint Affiliate Networks across the world.
The video featured Marina Casini with Movimento per la Vita in Italy, Barbara Mwanza with Association For Life of Africa, Svetlana Jovanova with the Balkan Network, Sandy Shoshani with Be'ad Chaim (Hebrew for “Pro-Life”) in Israel, Danièle Gradwell with Pregnancy Help Network (South Africa), Dr. Laura Lewis with Pregnancy Care Canada, Lara Wynyard with Pregnancy Help Australia, Lily Perez with Pregnancy Support Services of Asia (PSSA), Alicia Latorre with ProVida in Spain, and Heartbeat International President emerita and former Board Chair Peggy Hartshorn.
“Celebrating the women who lead the way for pregnancy help around the world,” the video message states. “Empowering women worldwide with hope. Thank you or inspiring generations of women worldwide.”
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
