These attacks were a response to the Dobbs decision in the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade and that anger has now spilled out toward these pregnancy health clinics. Heartbeat of Miami is just one of about a hundred or more pregnancy centers that have been spray painted, fire bombed, bricks thrown through windows and everything else. But it’s also an example for us of what the Scripture says. Let me just remind you in Psalm 7, verses 14 and 15, we read: “The wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. He makes a pit, digging it out and falls into the hole that he has made.” I think of this verse because this guilty plea came about because of the FACE Act. The FACE Act was passed during the Clinton administration about 30 years ago and refers to the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Bill. It was designed to protect every abortion clinic in the country from anyone going there to pray, to sit down, or block the door, or even to offer counseling to women approaching the building, even if it’s on a public sidewalk. So this is the bill now that has been used against these people attacking pregnancy health clinics because the FACE Act is designed to protect all organizations that provide reproductive health services. Well, there’s no one in the country that provides reproductive health services better than the pregnancy health clinics that offer pregnancy testing, ultrasound, counseling, connection to long-term health, and their entire mission is to help mothers have a healthy pregnancy and baby. And so now that they have been protected, there will be a settlement that I hope will put an end to these attacks against our pregnancy centers.
If you want to respond in any practical way, I would really encourage you to contact the Heartbeat of Miami on their website and thank them for standing strong. Martha Avila is the President there. The Board had to find a lot of courage to go ahead through the legal process. We should also thank the organization First Liberty that really took up the Heartbeat of Miami case and defended them and has pursued the defense for all of us to have the ability to stand for life. Finally, we should really thank the Attorney General of Florida, Ashley Moody. She’s the one who said the FACE Act protects pregnancy help centers as well as abortion clinics and has brought about this conviction that took some courage and guts.
All that is to say that it’s really important for us to continue to stand for life without apologies and without intimidation and for us to continue to work to expand. I learned through the Heartbeat of Miami how to work cross-culturally. It was in Miami that we worked with Haitians and Hispanics from all over Latin America, which then expanded into going to other parts of the world and spreading the Pregnancy Help Movement worldwide. So we’re thankful for what happened there over the weekend and we really want to commend them and their courage as well as to encourage you to be thankful, recognizing that abortion in the U. S. really is only 3 percent of the worldwide abortion annually. That means that 97 percent of all abortion in the world is a world missions challenge, going outside our borders to bring pregnancy help centers to where they’re needed most. That’s where we need you. We need to stand strong, be confident, be bold, be generous, be prayerful, and be enduring. Thanks so much.