Drinklings is proud to announce that the long-term giving aspect of our LIFE coffee is official, with a partnership with Care-Net. We began our LIFE roast with partnering with Avenues for Women, a Kentucky based Crisis Pregnancy Center affiliated with Care-Net. As we began looking for who to connect with as a long term partner, Care-Net as an organization stood at the top with a shared vision, specifically in their focus to be abundant life focused. Any purchase of our LIFE coffees will donate $1/bag to Care-Net and any purchase of the LIFE mug will still go to support the work of Avenues and Assurance, two local Care-Net centers we know well!
According to the most recent data, there were over 926,000 abortions in the United States in 2014 and over 58 million since the Roe v Wade decision in 1973. To put this in perspective, 58 million is almost 7 million more than the combined populations of California, Oregon, and Washington. That is 58 million people who could have directly, or through their offspring, discovered a cure for diseases, invented new technologies, negotiated peace in war-torn countries, or accomplished some other world changing feat.
Founded in 1975, Care Net is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that supports one of the largest networks of pregnancy centers in North America and operates the nation’s only real-time call center providing pregnancy decision coaching. Each year, Care Net saves about 66,000 babies from becoming the next victims of abortion. Yet despite our efforts, and the efforts of the broader pro-life movement, the number of abortions per year in the United States has barely changed – it has remained close to one million for many years.
One of the primary reasons for this minimal change is that pro-life organizations have largely ignored the issues contributing to and affected by abortion, choosing to focus almost exclusively on saving unborn babies. Saving unborn babies is clearly a God-honoring, noble, and necessary goal, but abortion does not exist in isolation. It is linked to issues around the breakdown of marriage, the absence of fathers from family life, and the breakdown of trust in and support for religious institutions.
Challenged by this realization, in 2012, Care Net leadership sensed God was calling the organization to embrace a bigger vision -- to go beyond being just “pro-life” to being “Pro ABUNDANT Life.” In the Pro Abundant Life movement, we are creating, we are linking -- both programmatically and rhetorically – the need to not only save lives, but to help people build strong families, have healthy marriages, be better parents, and have thriving faith lives. We are moving from a transactional ministry (helping someone choose life for their unborn child) to a transformational ministry (helping them choose life for their unborn children AND choose abundant life for their families).
Much of this work plays out in Care Nets 1,100 affiliated pregnancy centers - local organizations that minister compassion, hope, and help to women and men considering abortion. Through these centers, we are addressing not only the immediate crisis – a baby in danger of being aborted – but also the family, relationship, spiritual, and parenting issues that the mother and father of the baby face.
Accordingly, since 2008, Care Net-affiliated centers have saved the lives of over 531,000 unborn babies and delivered the following services:
- 823,186 free ultrasound scans
- 3 million free pregnancy tests
- Over 940,000 mothers and fathers received parenting support and education
- More than 1.3 million people heard the Gospel
- Nearly 1.4 million people received material resources
Indeed, Pregnancy Centers do an amazing job serving their communities. But, their work typically ends shortly after the birth of a child…and life decisions require life support. As a Pro Abundant Life organization, Care Net is committed to providing ongoing support to families that choose life.
To that end, Care Net believes the Church is God ordained and uniquely equipped to provide this ongoing support. However, the Church has been largely silent on the abortion issue for years --allowing the culture to define abortion as a political issue versus a spiritual issue. As a result of this silence, a significant abortion problem has developed within the Church. Care Net’s research found 4 out of 10 women were regularly attending church at the time of their first abortion. This means approximately 400,000 abortions in the United States are being carried out by churchgoing people.
To address this problem, in July of 2016, Care Net launched a groundbreaking curriculum that frames the abortion issue around the primary mission of the Church – to make disciples for Jesus Christ. Making Life Disciples equips the Church to provide compassion, hope, help, AND discipleship to women and men within their congregations who are facing difficult pregnancy decisions. In addition, Making Life Disciples equips churches to form partnerships with local Pregnancy Centers in order to provide ongoing support and discipleship to Pregnancy Center clients.