Going into the fall, it’s at least possible that Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that legalized abortion throughout the country, could finally be overturned. No matter what happens, though, organizations such as Human Coalition are currently hard at work reaching out to women and fighting at the legislative level throughout the country to continue protecting preborn babies, no matter what happens at the nation’s highest courts.

Recently, The Daily Citizen had the opportunity to interview Jeff Bradford, the president of Human Coalition about the organization he leads, how to support women with an unplanned pregnancy and share his own personal abortion story.

“We’re a national organization and our mission is to make abortion unthinkable and unnecessary,” Jeff explained. “And so, we are building a national competitor to Planned Parenthood. One of the major issues of today’s pro-life movement is that there is no true competitor to Planned Parenthood.”

As a pro-abortion business, Planned Parenthood most notably is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the country, while also supposedly providing what it considers health care services at its health centers. But mostly, it focuses on abortion.

Jeff continued, “The women that we work with are in extremely tough circumstances, and so many times they feel like their only option is to abort. And so, we surround them with the hope and the help that they need in order to make an empowered decision to keep their child. We help provide for some of their tangible needs, so that could be housing or employment, education, counseling, or really any type of assistance these women need.”

“So, we’re building a national rescue system that really encompasses the technology and the infrastructure to be able to really help women.”

Human Coalition, according to its website, “is building a pro-life, holistic, comprehensive care network to help rescue these women and their children from abortion.”

It does this through marketing outreach, contact centers, women’s care clinics, communities of care, church outreach and incubation services.

“We work with pregnancy resource centers, and we own and operate nine telecare clinics across the United States, seven of them are brick and mortar,” Jeff explained. “Then we have what we call continuum of care, where we quarterback the best resources already available in a particular city. We work with pregnancy centers across the country, as well as other pro-life organizations like Students for Life. We’re partnering with them, working with Focus on the Family, and looking at ways that we can continue to coalesce and unite the pro-life movement.”

No doubt, the pro-life movement has been growing over the last decade, especially as organizations like Human Coalition and others focus on reaching women through care and support, rather than some of the graphic imagery and aggressive tactics used in the 1990s. It’s been remarkably effective, and young people have been gravitating towards this cause.

However, this season of COVID has been challenging.

“The pandemic hit the world hard, and we saw a drastic uptick in suicide, anxiety and hopelessness” Jeff said. “It was a very difficult season, especially for our clients. In fact, the life decision rate decreased slightly during that time as it was more difficult for women to make a decision for life.

“By God’s grace, though, we had the telecare clinic in place since 2018 and we converted all the clinics that we had that were not fully telecare over to a telecare environment. So, we were able to reach more women than ever before. We were able to stay open and we never shut down.”

Women who are experiencing an unplanned pregnancy often feel trapped. They don’t know who to turn to or where to go, especially if they don’t have much support from their boyfriend/partner, parents, family and friends.

“Seventy-six percent of the women that we work with, those that we would define as planning to abort, say that they would prefer to parent if their circumstances were different. This is why continuum of care is so important in the lives of those women.”

Jeff continued, “How can we stand in the gap and help them with those tangible needs that they have, like housing, education and employment, which are probably the big three for our clients. We help them with employment and resumes, just helping with those biggest needs are a huge factor in making that decision.”

To help women through that process, Human Coalition helped introduce a bill called the Every Mother Matters Act (EMMA), which passed in Arkansas but was unable to pass in Texas during the latest session.

EMMA “is a state program that provides pregnancy support, social services case management, parenting resources, a care plan of resources, and referrals including to health care, pediatric, and post-partum care. This state program prohibits referrals of the pregnant woman to an abortion provider, recommending or advising an abortion. Agencies, subcontractors, or care agents affiliated with this program may not be abortion providers or have performed or been employed by an abortion provider in the last two years.”

Abortion should not be the option immediately offered to a woman who is experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. She needs support, encouragement and mentorship, not a callous abortion referral. That’s what pro-life pregnancy resource centers (PRCs), like the ones Human Coalition and Focus on the Family supports, do, but pro-abortion activists constantly call out those locations as so-called “fake clinics.”

“Women just don’t feel like they have any other choice, but when you present them with real help and hope, they choose life,” Jeff said. “That is why the continuum of care is so important. As a culture and as the body of Christ, we have to come alongside and not only help them make an empowered decision and an informed decision to choose life, but also come around as the body to really help with those tangible and emotional needs that they’re facing.”

For Jeff, the pro-life fight is incredibly personal as well.

“In 2010, I sold my company and we helped start a church. Around that time, my wife and I found ourselves in Christian counseling,” Jeff shared. “And I’ll never forget it. We had closed the door to the counseling office and my wife began to cry just uncontrollably—and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, either our marriage is in way worse shape than I thought or there was something underneath those tears.’

“It came down to a decision she and I made, now almost 28 years ago. We got engaged and during our engagement, we got pregnant. And I went to my father, we grew up as Christians and we were in church, but yet I got really bad advice. Within a few days we ended up at Planned Parenthood, and we took the life of our daughter. We didn’t talk about it for 17 years, we felt like it was the unforgivable sin.”

Jeff continued, “And it wasn’t until one of the cofounders of Human Coalition handed me a card and said, ‘Hey we save babies using the internet.’ Well, that happened to be the same week that my wife and I were in counseling. I just said, ‘Oh Lord, what are you doing?’ I ended up volunteering and started helping grow this little organization, which is now one of the largest pro-life, pro-woman and pro-family organizations in the country.”

And now, Human Coalition reports that it has saved 20,000 babies.

They do this by buying up Google keywords regarding abortion and directing women to pro-life PRCs.

“We try to be best in the world at marketing to those women and get them to call us before they go to the abortion clinic,” Jeff said. “We explain the help and the hope that we can give them. Through telecare where they can talk directly with a nurse, one of the most trusted voices in America. We can start counseling and helping them immediately by offering those tangible services, and really talking to them about why they feel like they have to abort and what those issues are in their lives.”

It’s assistance that Jeff wishes he and his wife had when they were experiencing an unplanned pregnancy.

When asked what advice he would give a young father who finds out that he and his girlfriend are expecting a child, he said: “I think I would encourage people to know the facts, that this is a life and that you can make an empowered decision to choose life for your child. And, looking back on our decision it was such a selfish and uninformed decision, and I wish I had been stronger as a young man to know that I could have chosen courageously for my daughter and for my wife. We need to stand up as men, as Christ followers to support women and mothers. You know, my wife would have never made that decision if I would have stood up.

“I think being informed, knowing who you are in the Lord, and that this is a child. There’s lots of options. Adoption is an incredible option for folks and there are so many amazing stories out there. Just to see what the Lord can do when you take courageous steps.”

Photo from Human Coalition