Research shows that roughly 60% of women who have had abortions say they would have chosen life if they had more support at the time, according to Anna Stephens of Her PLAN, a pro-life safety net organization that provides practical support to mothers experiencing crisis and for years afterward.
"Abortion says to women: 'You can't be a good mom.' It's a lie," she said. "The pro-life movement says the opposite."
The organization connects services that already exist within communities so that pregnant women and new mothers who want to choose life can receive the practical support they need.
"At Her PLAN, we do the 'life' piece of the pro-life movement," Stephens said. "We help moms to choose life, and to sustain it."
With the approach of the U.S. bishops' Pregnancy Help Appreciation Week from Nov. 9–13, Stephens, marketing and communications director at Her PLAN, spoke with EWTN News about the organization's mission and how her faith informs her work there.
Her PLAN, founded in 2020 and headquartered in Virginia, assesses women's needs across seven key areas, aiming to strengthen community-based resources that can meet those needs at the time of a crisis pregnancy and for years afterward.
The seven areas are women's health; care coordination and pregnancy support; prenatal diagnosis; material or legal support; finances, work, and education; recovery and mental health; and care for children.
"How can we provide those things to her in that moment of crisis and years down the road, so that she can make the choice for life?" Stephens said.
The organization does not provide direct services itself. Instead, it identifies assets already present in local communities, building a directory of life-affirming, credentialed, and trustworthy providers. It also looks for gaps in needed services, such as transportation, housing, or childcare, and then works with communities to fill those gaps.
Her PLAN's directory currently spans 29 states and contains more than 8,000 listings of vetted, life-affirming providers, Stephens said. The organization has coordinators on the ground in nine states: Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Nebraska. There, they meet community stakeholders, facilitate workshops, and help identify needs and existing resources.
In states without a coordinator, the Pathways platform, launched in June, offers a 10-question quiz that gives those with a desire to help mothers in need a place to begin.
"People often want to help in a concrete way but don't know where to start," Stephens said. "The problem feels too big, and they might think: 'I can't open a maternity home, so I won't do anything.'"
The Pathways platform offers practical ideas so individuals and parishes can start helping mothers in concrete ways, whether with a support group, a food pantry, job assistance or financial help, or a day of free car maintenance.
Stephens said that transportation is one of the biggest barriers many mothers face: "If they don't have a working car, they can't get to work or drive their children to school."
She described car maintenance days, an effort supported by Her PLAN, where mechanics volunteer their time, often with the assistance of a local church, as "a practical way everyday people can use their skills and expertise" to help mothers with a very real need.
Stephens, who keeps St. John Paul II's quote "Be not afraid!" up in her office, said her Catholic faith shapes her work and mission. "I've always had a heart for this. I always recognized, from my parents, the intimate beauty and worth every human life has. I've always wanted to protect that."
Her PLAN is a project of the SBA Pro-Life America Education Fund and is a secular group, but Stephens said "the pro-life work we do here is inherently Catholic in many ways" because of its "fundamental belief in the worth of every human being."
She said the group also offers churches a 30-day prayer guide to assist them in discerning what needs mothers have and how to help them.
The U.S. bishops recently recognized the "heroic" work of pregnancy help centers and resource help centers such as Her PLAN.
In a statement issued Oct. 27 in anticipation of Pregnancy Help Appreciation Week, Bishop Daniel E. Thomas, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, thanked those who provide "necessary resources to women, babies, and families during pregnancy and beyond."
