The ProLife Team Podcast

▶ Watch the full video on YouTube

Eight years ago, Emily Berning and her husband Nathan sent their last $1,200 to a mom living in her car who had an abortion scheduled. She chose life, and Let Them Live was born. Today the national, fully online nonprofit has helped more than 1,200 women choose life by covering rent, car payments, utilities, groceries, and child care for moms facing abortion because of financial hardship.

Emily explains how Let Them Live partners with pregnancy centers (ultrasounds, in-person care, and referrals both ways), why every mom also gets job help, budgeting, and support groups ("a hand up, not a handout"), and how lifting financial burdens can soften hearts toward the gospel. She also shares the verses behind the work, why they became an openly Christian organization, the daily question she challenges every pro-lifer to ask, and a closing prayer.

Refer a mom, partner, give, or volunteer: letthemlive.org

Send us Fan Mail

Support The Pro Life Team Podcast

Visit our sponsor iRapture.com.

Connect with Jacob to Sponsor The Pro Life Team Podcast

Support the show

▶ Watch the full video on YouTube

In 1968, Carrie Yvette Fischer's mother had an abortion, left the clinic thinking it was over, and later learned she was still pregnant. This time she chose life. Carrie was born in 1969 with physical challenges she attributes to the failed abortion, and she grew up bullied, rejected, and told she'd never be anything more than mediocre.

Carrie tells Jacob how she learned the truth about her mother's abortion, how she came to forgive her, and how God healed her of shame, rejection, and insecurity, including the day a kind stranger in a dressing room helped her love herself for the first time. She shares what "trauma to triumph" means, the verses she holds onto, her new book, and a word of hope for women who have had an abortion and for fellow abortion survivors. Carrie closes in prayer.

Book: Trauma to Triumph: Loving the Mom Who Tried to Abort Me, by Carrie Yvette Fischer (amazon.com/dp/1966744137)

Abortion survivor resources: The Abortion Survivors Network (https://abortionsurvivors.org/)

Send us Fan Mail

Support The Pro Life Team Podcast

Visit our sponsor iRapture.com.

Connect with Jacob to Sponsor The Pro Life Team Podcast

Support the show

▶ Watch the full video on YouTube

Award-winning author Cheryl Krichbaum joins Jacob to talk about the newly revised second edition of Worship to End Abortion: Your Prayer Guide. Drawing on King Jehoshaphat’s story in 2 Chronicles 20, where Judah praised God before the battle and watched Him win it, Cheryl explains what biblical worship and praise really mean, why powerful prayer starts with humility, and why she believes ending abortion has to start inside the church.

Cheryl also shares her own abortion story and how Psalm 32 (“my vitality was drained away”) gave her words for what she’d been carrying, and she and Jacob talk about confession, healing, and why abortion recovery matters for a strong church. Plus: the book’s brand-new chapter on what the Bible says about abortion beyond Psalm 139, and a closing prayer for pregnancy center teams.

Books, speaking, and group pricing (10+ copies): mybodymyworship.com/cherylkrichbaum

Send us Fan Mail

Support The Pro Life Team Podcast

Visit our sponsor iRapture.com.

Connect with Jacob to Sponsor The Pro Life Team Podcast

Support the show

▶ Watch the full video on YouTube

At 21, Claire Culwell met her birth mother to thank her for choosing life. Instead, she learned that her birth mother, Tanya, was just 13 when she was taken for a late-term abortion that ended the life of Claire’s twin, and that Claire survived it.

Jacob walks Claire through the “hot seat” model his church uses for hard stories: the lies she’s had to reject, the questions she still has for God, the forgiveness she chose, and the biblical picture of hope that shapes her ministry today, from speaking around the country to walking alongside single moms through Embrace Grace at her church. The episode closes in prayer for Claire’s birth family.

Claire is the author of Survivor: An Abortion Survivor’s Surprising Story of Choosing Forgiveness and Finding Redemption. Connect with her or request her as a speaker at realclaireculwell.com.

Send us Fan Mail

Support The Pro Life Team Podcast

Visit our sponsor iRapture.com.

Connect with Jacob to Sponsor The Pro Life Team Podcast

Support the show

▶ Watch the full video on YouTube

 At 82, Candy Thompson — author of Feminine Not Feminist: Reclaiming My Womanhood After Abortion — tells Jacob the story she kept secret for decades: three abortions in the 1970s, two marriages, and an "incurable" case of Crohn's disease she says God healed after more than 30 years of believing for it. Candy talks about the lies she believed from the feminist movement, the post-abortion Bible studies that helped her finally process her grief, and why she believes the Bible's picture of womanhood — not feminism — is where real freedom is found. She also shares two stories she still can't tell without tearing up: praying over a stranger's unborn baby, and reconnecting with that family years later. 

Book: Feminine Not Feminist: Reclaiming My Womanhood After Abortion by Candy Thompson (amazon.com/dp/1966744102)

Send us Fan Mail

Support The Pro Life Team Podcast

Visit our sponsor iRapture.com.

Connect with Jacob to Sponsor The Pro Life Team Podcast

Support the show

▶ Watch the full video on YouTube

Laura Messick and Shelley Sumner have each led a Tennessee pregnancy center for 40 years — Portico in Murfreesboro and Life Choices of Memphis — both founded in 1986 and celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. In this episode, Jacob hands them the mic and lets them interview each other.

They talk about how they each answered the call into this work, the mentorship between them (Shelley calls Laura "Queen Laura"), and what they believe is the greatest need in pregnancy center ministry today — not funding, but prayer. They also discuss the fight against abortion-pill misinformation, why unity between centers matters more than competition, and share stories of transformation, including a mother of twins who chose life after a hard conversation with her father and a baptism that turned into three instead of two.

Learn more: porticostory.org and lifechoicesmemphis.org

Send us Fan Mail

Support The Pro Life Team Podcast

Visit our sponsor iRapture.com.

Connect with Jacob to Sponsor The Pro Life Team Podcast

Support the show

▶ Watch the full video on YouTube

Monica Kelsey first saw a baby box built into the wall of a church in Cape Town, South Africa, on a speaking trip with Pam Stenzel. Both women were conceived in rape, and both know what it means to be the child "everybody says doesn't matter." Today Monica's Safe Haven Baby Boxes are installed in fire stations and hospitals across the country, giving a mom in crisis a safe, anonymous way to surrender her newborn instead of abandoning the baby. In Texas alone, seven babies have been placed in the boxes in two years, and face-to-face surrenders have risen as awareness of the Safe Haven law has grown.

Monica and Pam explain how a baby box works (including its backup alarms), the 24/7 hotline Pam answered for about eight years, why every hospital in America is a Safe Haven location, and the free pamphlets and rack cards your pregnancy center can hand out. They also share the story of the first box in Georgia, how churches, fire chiefs, and pregnancy centers fit together, and the organization's greatest need: funding to get the word out whenever a newborn is found abandoned.

Guests: Monica Kelsey, founder of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, and Pam Stenzel, speaker and pro-life advocate.
Safe Haven law education and resources: safehavened.org
Parents in crisis: call the Safe Haven Baby Boxes hotline, 1-866-99BABY1.

Send us Fan Mail

Support The Pro Life Team Podcast

Visit our sponsor iRapture.com.

Connect with Jacob to Sponsor The Pro Life Team Podcast

Support the show

▶ Watch the full video on YouTube

For about 15 years, Astrid Bennett and her team at Los Angeles Pregnancy Services have offered abortion-minded clients the chance to watch Live Action's Abortion Procedures videos, in which Dr. Anthony Levatino, a physician who once performed abortions, explains what each procedure involves. They serve a predominantly Hispanic community in Los Angeles that has been disproportionately targeted for abortion. As she puts it, when abortion remains an abstraction, the conversation just goes in circles.

Astrid explains how her team offers the videos (always with consent, in a private counseling room, and now by text link), what a short consent form says, why the Spanish versions feel natural, and how the videos help fathers and grandparents understand what's at stake. She also shares what she learned from the late Sister Paula Vandegaer, why 80 percent of post-abortive women say one person's help could have changed their decision, and simple ways anyone can start: volunteer, give monthly, or become your church's liaison to your local center.

Guest: Astrid Bennett, Los Angeles Pregnancy Services
Live Action’s abortion procedure videos: liveaction.org/what-is-abortion
Live Action: liveaction.org

If you are a pregnancy center leader or a pro-life advocate, please share this video with your team to help equip them with these powerful tools. Subscribe to our channel for more interviews and strategies on how to build a culture of life in your community.

#prolife #pregnancycenter #liveaction #chooselife #ministry

Send us Fan Mail

Support The Pro Life Team Podcast

Visit our sponsor iRapture.com.

Connect with Jacob to Sponsor The Pro Life Team Podcast

Support the show

▶ Watch the full video on YouTube

One of Robin Fuller's coaches once told her that, in his estimation, only about 10 percent of ministry leaders finish well: they hand off the baton without even a blip on the screen. Robin led pregnancy centers for years, nearly quit from burnout before a coach helped her, and now coaches ministry leaders herself. In this episode she shares her new book, Finish Well: Succession Planning for the Ministry You Love, written for leaders of small and mid-size ministries.

Robin explains why pregnancy center leadership tends to change every four to twelve years, how a ministry can quietly become an idol, why a true succession plan is a one-to-two-page document built with the board, and the identity shift she felt after leaving (she missed holding the babies most of all). She and Jacob also talk about founders letting go, second-chair leaders, Moses handing off to Joshua, why "clarity is kindness," and making pleasing God the real job description.

Guest: Robin Fuller, ministry leadership coach: robinfuller.coach
📖 Finish Well: Succession Planning for the Ministry You Love: book.robinfuller.coach
Succession Planning Mastermind: robinfuller.coach/succession

#prolife #ministryleadership #successionplanning #pregnancycenter #finishwell

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

▶ Watch the full video on YouTube

When the Dobbs decision came down, many people thought the pro-life work was done. Dr. Marc Newman, a retired university professor who speaks at about 20 pregnancy center banquets a year, says the opposite is true. Abortion pills shipped into pro-life states have moved the "sidewalk" into bathrooms, bedrooms, and dorm rooms, and abortions have gone up, not down. In his new book, Pivot, Marc lays out five strategic shifts the movement needs to make to win the battle for life.

Marc and Jacob walk through those shifts: calling abortion what it is ("intentional child killing"), education that starts in the church (including a staff apologist for pregnancy centers), legislation and shield laws in pro-life states, taking the message into abortion states, and moving from intention to action. They also talk about why criminalizing women is the wrong path, why Marc won't put the movement in the hands of an algorithm, what's happening to free speech in the UK, and how just 20 percent of pro-lifers giving $8.33 a month could unleash over a billion dollars for pregnancy centers.

Guest: Dr. Marc Newman, Speaker for Life
📖 Pivot: Five Strategic Shifts to Win the State-by-State Battle for Life: Amazon
Marc’s speaking schedule: speakerforlife.com/schedule

#prolife #prolifemovement #apologetics #pregnancycenter #marcnewman

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show