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In this issue...
Front & Center:
Doing Good with
Good Bucks
Jerry Thacker
Uniform National
Standards of
Care for Pregnancy
Help Centers
Thomas A. Glessner
No Free Lunch?
Patrick McLaughlin
Teaching Abstinence
in Schools
A Different Road
Laura Baker
Reaching Out to Men
Paula E. Smith
Rebuilding Your Life
David J. O'Leary
Marketing 101
Jerry Thacker
Volunteer
Recruitment
Barbara Willsher
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By Thomas A. Glessner, J.D.
Photo by Tom Weigand |
The Pregnancy Help Center Movement historically has been a grassroots movement supported by volunteers and local churches. While various national organizations exist to help facilitate and strengthen the national network of centers, such centers still, for the most part, identify primarily with their local communities.
The role of national pregnancy help center organizations has been to provide counsel, expertise, and resources to strengthen local centers that are governed by independent boards of directors. In such capacity, the major national organizations to which most pregnancy centers belong have come together in unity and adopted national standards of care by which their respective members are asked to abide. This process began in 1993 when leaders of major center organizations met in Washington, D.C., to discuss areas of agreement in philosophy of operations of pregnancy centers. The process was expanded in 2000 to include virtually all national organizations that have pregnancy help centers as members.
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Adopted on Jan. 5, 2001,
by the following organizations:
Baptists for Life, Inc.
Ray Paget, Executive Director
Care Net
Mike Reid, President
Christian Life Resources
Robert Fleischmann, Director
Heartbeat International
Margaret Hartshorn, President
International Life Services
Sister Paula Vandegaer
National Institute of Family
and Life Advocates
Thomas A. Glessner, President
National Life Center
Denise Cocciolone, President
North American Mission Board,
Alternatives for Life
Lura Sheppard, Specialist
Sav-A-Life
Missy Newlin, Executive Director
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On January 5, 2001, the following guidelines were approved by the undersigned national pregnancy help center organizations:
Pregnancy Center Guidelines for Commitment of Care
The undersigned are national pregnancy center organizations that are committed to promoting the sanctity of human life and sexual abstinence outside of marriage. Member centers of these organizations do not provide, recommend or refer for abortions or abortifacients. To assure that the operations of all of their member centers will continue to be conducted with the highest level of integrity, compassion and professionalism, the undersigned pregnancy center organizations jointly adopt the following Guidelines for Commitment of Care:
- Clients of the center are served without regard to age, race, income, nationality, religious affiliation, disability or other arbitrary circumstances.
- Clients of the center are treated with kindness, compassion and in a caring manner.
- Clients of the center always receive honest and open answers.
- Client pregnancy tests are distributed and administered in accordance with all applicable laws.
- Client information is held in strict and absolute confidence. Client information is only disclosed as required by law and when necessary to protect the client or others against imminent harm.
- Clients of the center receive accurate information about pregnancy, fetal development, lifestyle issues, and related concerns.
- This center does not offer, recommend or refer for abortions or abortifacients, but is committed to offering accurate information about abortion procedures and risks.
- All advertising and communications by the center are truthful and honest and accurately describe the services offered by the center.
- All staff and volunteers of the center receive proper training to uphold these standards.
 The establishment of such national standards will enhance the credibility of each center that endorses and abides by them. The subscribing national organizations exhort all pregnancy help centers to adopt these uniform practice standards by a formal resolution at their board meetings and to adhere to them.
At their request, pregnancy help centers which adopt these standards will be provided a certificate reciting these standards. By hanging this certificate in the waiting room, the center will openly announce to its community and clients the high professional, moral, and humanitarian standards by which it abides.
| If your board has adopted these standards and you would like to get a certificate for your center and if your center is a member of one of the listed organizations, contact that organization. For information about membership in the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, contact NIFLA at (540) 785-9853 or visit the web site at www.nifla.org. |
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