Embryo Advocates

Morgan Reece was once a high school student who passionately believed that the world needed a two-child policy and forced abortion. One day, she encountered an image of an abortion victim, and her life was changed. Morgan saw the suffering of the unborn child and began researching abortion "like a mad woman," going down every rabbit hole imaginable to see if there was any justification she could manufacture that would make the violence of abortion acceptable. Her deep research on embryonic development, fetal pain, neonatal health problems, critical illness in pregnancy, and pro-choice philosophy all brought her to the conclusion that abortion is a human rights violation in every case. After becoming pro-life, she eventually went on to join the staff of Students for Life of America, where she now works full-time as a Campus Activist, spreading the anti-abortion message to any student open to hearing it.Morgan's story serves as a testimony that any heart or mind can be transformed from pro-choice to pro-life.

What our culture believes about human sexuality has the power to fuel abortion or end it. Today, we are talking with Joel and Kate Feldpausch about how to live a life of chastity and what it means to glorify God with our bodies and desires.

The health of an organization's culture can make or break an activist's experience working at any given pro-life corporation. Today, we are joined by international missionary Victoria Johns for a discussion about workplace culture in ministry jobs. We talk about the impact of harmful leaders in Christian workplaces and how narcissism can creep in, even in environments that have important objectives they are setting out to achieve. Cassidy makes a case that if we do not hold unhealthy leaders accountable within the anti-abortion movement, the entire pro-life cause will have its greatest goals held back from achievement. How can we end abortion on a global scale if pro-life organizations are hurting their staff members through damaging leadership and unhealthy workplace cultures? Cassidy argues that a significant aspect of ending abortion requires each individual activist to search their own heart and motivations, cultivate their personal walk with God, and have the will to lead differently from the dysfunctional patterns we may have seen modeled before us in the past. Those around us — at work and in volunteer settings of the anti-abortion cause — deserve our best advocacy and leadership, not ego-driven behaviors that can cause trauma in staff, volunteers, and activists. This episode invites each of us to consider the health of our private relationship with God, to examine what healthy and unhealthy leadership look like, and offers tips for handling bad experiences in the pro-life movement.

Racheal Holloway knew from a young age that she wanted to help women facing unplanned pregnancies. Eventually, she helped run a pregnancy center, and later went on to write her own curriculum and facilitate a support group for ladies who had become unexpectedly pregnant. This ministry initiative, which she did in partnership with her local church, impacted many women and children and provided a community for them in a vulnerable season of life.In this episode, Racheal also shares about her personal journey of becoming a mother, facing miscarriage, and deciding to welcome foster children into her and her husband's home.

The legacy media tends to take a pro-abortion slant in its reporting, but the unborn deserve better representation in journalistic reporting than this erasure and dehumanization. That's why people like Leah Savas and organizations like WORLD News are so important. Prenatal human beings must be fairly represented, and a light must be shone on the enormous ways they suffer in abortion. In today's episode, Leah Savas tells us why she became a journalist and how each of us can become better communicators of the pro-life message.

When we consider history, we can see that abortion was not always around like some kind of “women’s secret” as the pro-choice side in the Roe v. Wade case argued. Since the medical establishment did not know about the importance of hand washing to prevent the transmission of diseases until 1847, women who attempted to have abortions before this discovery typically died right alongside their unborn child from preventable infections. Instead of having an abortion that might have killed them, women would typically complete their pregnancies when they did not want the baby, and would instead practice infantacide to get rid of the child they considered to be “unwanted.” Many precious infants were killed through exposure, abandonment, or other kinds of harm because of the faulty ideology adults around them had. Unwantedness is a problem of the adult holding the view that a child should not be accepted — it is not a problem of the nature of the infant described as “unwanted.” Every child is made intentionally by God and absolutely is wanted, even if their parents tragically fail to value them. A baby’s supposed “unwantedness” never justifies violence against them through infanticide or abortion. Instead, our society must provide help and support for people who become parents in difficult situations so they can face the task of raising a baby in an unexpected scenario well and with great love. If the parent of a child is not able to raise the baby, adoption into a loving family is a humane alternative to infanticide or abortion.Historically, it was often the Christians of a society who would rescue these “unwanted” infants from exposure. As we look at our modern era and the 73 million abortions that take place around the world every year, we still have a massive problem with children being dehumanized and devalued. Like the Christians of societies of the past who went out to save the devalued infants that would have otherwise died as a result of infanticide, may we today rescue children from the violence of abortion and overcome the faulty ideologies that lead to children being dehumanized and discarded.

How are feminism and the sexual revolution connected to each other? Dr. Carrie Gress makes a case from documented historical facts that feminism and the sexual revolution are one and the same. Dr. Gress has written three books on the history of feminism — focusing much of her study on early feminists and feminism's first wave. Her work looks at the fruit of the ideology by examining the questions, "What results has feminism produced in our world?" and "Has feminism provided what it claimed it would give women?" Dr. Gress shared in her book, "The End of Woman," examples of feminists from the first wave who were involved in the free love movement and who had abortions in the late 1800s to cover up their extramarital relationships. She shows us through her work that feminism is not an ideology that we can "rinse clean" of the aspects we don't like — such as the occult or sexual deviance — Dr. Gress makes a case that feminism is rotten to its core. If the pro-life movement wants to bring about a total, global end to abortion, we must honestly examine the role that feminism has played in changing people's views around men, women, children, the family, work, and human sexuality. When we look at history, we find that feminism isn't part of the solution to ending legal abortion. Instead, feminism itself is actually responsible for the international toll of over two billion abortions that have taken place on the global stage. If this is the case, we need to adjust our approach to ending abortion — stopping the promotion of feminism, and choosing to promote Christianity as the "women's movement" and the movement that generally uplifts human dignity and human value in a world that destroys thousands of preborn people every day. What if feminism isn't the solution to the abortion crisis, but Christianity is?

Do you know the story of how our nation adopted legal abortion? It all started with the sexual revolution. Today's guest, activist and author Jonathon Van Maren, joins the show to discuss the historic events that took place in the 1960s-1970s and beyond that transformed our culture by degrading sexual morals. The pathway to creating a world free from the violence of abortion requires that we help our society heal from the immense wounds that porn, abortion, birth control, divorce, and sexual immorality have created. All of us are impacted by the harm ushered in by the sexual revolution — 1/4 women will have an abortion in their lifetime. All of us know someone impacted by abortion, and we are each personally touched by abortion, even if we're not yet aware of it.

Today, we are joined by Abby Gillmore, an expert in fundraising for pro-life organizations. In today's episode, Abby shares about her journey of being influenced from a young age to protect the unborn, and how that initial passion led her to study philanthropy in college, participate in a rescue, and run a community engagement department for a nonprofit. Abby also shares about transitioning from being a working single woman to eventually getting married and changing her work schedule to prioritize being present for her three young children. Abby's authenticity, depth, and insight will inspire you to consider God's faithfulness and presence in your own life story.

Kim Smeenk is an ER nurse with a passion to serve her patients with the love of Christ. Along her medical journey, she began to examine the issue of abortion — if it could be justified to prevent medical complications that might otherwise result from illegal abortion attempts. Kim discovered the book, "Unexpected Choice: An Abortion Doctor's Journey to Pro-Life," by Patti Giebink, and her mind changed on the issue. Kim became fully pro-life in all cases. This eventually led her to become involved in serving women facing unplanned pregnancies. Kim connected with Family Life Center maternity home — helping women who were either homeless or who faced housing insecurity of some kind while pregnant. Today, Kim works in a new role at the Family Life Center, supporting men and women who have experienced miscarriage. Having miscarried four of her own babies and having three live births, Kim brings a wealth of knowledge, support, and understanding to couples grieving the loss of a child in the womb.Kim's testimony provides a wealth of medical knowledge and practical support for women facing unplanned pregnancy, housing insecurity, or miscarriage. Her journey to becoming fully pro-life after doubting the position will strengthen your resolve to protect preborn lives in all cases.

Women need to know about the help that is available to them when facing a crisis pregnancy. One way to share these resources with them is by offering pro-life help outside your local abortion clinic through sidewalk counseling. Today, we are joined by Edna May, a wife, mom, and grandmother who devoted nearly ten years to sidewalk counseling in Grand Rapids and saw many lives saved.

Abortion causes a profound psychological impact on many men and women. Join Embryo Advocates for a discussion on how to support people in our communities who have been harmed by abortion with the Executive Director of Michigan's chapter of Deeper Still, who also serves with Justice for All — Kaitlyn Donahue.Read our blog post summarizing some of Kaitlyn's recommendations for engaging with post-abortive people here: https://www.embryoadvocates.com/2026/01/support-post-abortive-parents.html

What would you do if a respected colleague asked you to participate in an act that could destroy a human life? Leta Gerber found herself in this situation when a renowned OBGYN asked for her help performing a saline infusion abortion in the hospital unit where she was employed. A day later, she saw the body of a fully-formed little boy in a bucket with a burned body in a hospital closet. It was then that she felt incredibly convicted that her participation in abortion was morally wrong and destroyed a precious baby. This occurred in the 1970s in Michigan before Roe v. Wade was passed — two psychiatrists had determined the mother was suicidal and should therefore abort, making a legal exception to destroy her preborn son. When Leta made her way to the bedside, she found a woman who was not actively suicidal or engaging in self-harm behaviors; instead, the woman appeared to be using abortion as a form of birth control — this was the woman's 3rd or 4th abortion.In this episode, we talk about Leta's story of becoming pro-life, what she would say to other medical professionals who have helped perform abortions, the ethics of "mental health of the mother" exceptions in abortion laws that can justify the killing of babies in situations that may not have any physiological danger to the mother, and what gave Leta the boldness to share her story in her conservative community.