Can a simple phone call change your life? When it’s with a pregnancy resource center (PRC), it can actually change two lives, and that is exactly the story of a Maryland resident and her daughter who have recently gone viral on the social media platform Tik Tok for their testimony. Impregnated after sexual assault, this pro-life woman scheduled an abortion in her terror, but after spontaneous call with a PRC, she cancelled on Planned Parenthood — and the difference in how she was treated by both facilities is drastic. Here’s what you need to know: 

Angela Harders’ background is one that many in the Pro-Life Generation can identify with: she was raised in a Christian home, taught sexual purity, and deeply pro-life. Her father was even the vice president of a PRC in Maryland. Yet when she became pregnant through sexual assault, she felt terrified.

Rape-related pregnancies like Harders’ and consequent abortions are rare, with studies from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Guttmacher Institute showing they occur only around 1% of the time. However, when Harder found herself in that demographic, she was running scared — straight to Planned Parenthood.

In her video, Harders stated:

“You can imagine my horror when I, the girl who had never dated before, the good Christian girl, found myself pregnant. And even though I was pro-life, my gut reaction was to schedule an appointment at Planned Parenthood for that Friday afternoon.” 

Although an abortion was already on her calendar, Harders decided to randomly called a PRC several states away. Hoping not to be recognized as her family was deeply connected within her own state, she said that “one small unimportant decision” rewrote “the whole trajectory” of her life. 

She continued, “The lady who answered the phone changed my whole life. And the funny thing is – I don’t even know her name… She let me cry, and she just said, ‘Oh, honey, I’m here with you on the phone whenever you’re ready.’”

When Harders finished crying, she told the PRC patient advocate about her background, how she had been sexually assaulted, and how she felt about the situation. The woman’s response changed her mind about the scheduled abortion. 

Harders relayed, “She said to me, ‘Sex doesn’t make babies, God does. And for some reason, God is choosing to give you a life out of this terrible circumstance.” 

That remark gave Harders the peace she had been most needing, and on the morning of her Planned Parenthood appointment, she called to cancel. She was stunned, however, when the abortion facility worker she spoke with attempted to use her Christian faith to convince her to abort. 

She shared, “[The Planned Parenthood worker] knew that I was a Christian, because that was something that I shared with her when I booked the appointment in the first place. She said, ‘Angela, you know that if you go through with [the pregnancy], you will never be able to travel again, or be a missionary, or do any of those other things that you said you wanted to do. We can take care of this problem for you so you can live your life and fulfill all the dreams that God has given you.”

Even as someone raised in the pro-life movement, Harders couldn’t believe the stark contrast between how she was treated. The PRC, which stood nothing to gain by their phone call, had made her feel “hopeful and empowered,” yet the Planned Parenthood facility, which viewed her as a paycheck, left her with the idea that “this baby was a problem to get rid of, not a life to be cherished or enjoyed.” 

Nine years later, Harders rejects that manipulative tactic, saying: 

“Not only am I still able to travel the world and do all the things that the lady at Planned Parenthood said I would never be able to do — now I get to do it with the most incredible human being that I’ve ever known. My daughter is no problem. She is the greatest joy of my life, and I will forever be grateful to the stranger on the other end of the line from a random pregnancy center in New York, who told me I could do it.” 

PRCs continue to be a beacon of light and hope for vulnerable women like Harders who find themselves unexpectedly pregnant and, in the haze of their shock and fear, extremely susceptible to the predatory abortion industry. While Planned Parenthood uses hurting women to help their bottom line, these life-affirming centers truly have her best interests in mind (and they outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities 14 to one). 

Students for Life of America (SFLA) is proud to support PRCs in multiple ways, including enlisting our students from across the nation to volunteer and donate (and some even become PRC employee after graduation) and increasing their outreach through our supportive services initiative Standing With You. 

To learn more about why we promote these centers, click HERE read an op-ed by SFLA press strategist and staffer writer Caroline Wharton entitled “We Love Pregnancy Centers — And So Do the Women They Serve!” 

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