Fatherhood
Care Net’s research into abortion found that the father of the baby was the most influential voice in a woman’s pregnancy decision. Care Net wants to equip your pregnancy center to reach fathers with the transformational power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and empower them to choose life for their unborn children and abundant life for their families.
This page contains cutting-edge resources and curricula designed to strengthen your center’s existing fatherhood program or enable you to create one. As you serve the women and men in your community, we pray these tools will help you save more lives, build stronger marriages, and connect more clients to local churches for life-long transformation and discipleship.
“We have had an increase of 317% this past year in reaching our fathers. We are doing this by engaging the moms in more questions upfront about the father of the baby, and also by thinking outside of the box and doing classes at a state prison for dads who are getting ready to reenter.” -Michele, Choices PRC Chattanooga, TN
Our biggest success story is a teenage father who was pressuring his girlfriend to abort, they came to Care Net she refused to abort and they both plugged into our newly acquired EWYL material for fathers. He completed every lesson we had and once their son was born the mother said he was the best dad ever! I think the sweetest moment was when I happen to run into the father at the mall with some of his buddies and he had his son with him, those guys were enjoying and taking great care of that toddler! He went from abortion to best dad ever! Only God can do that!!” -Kate, Care Net PC of Central Indiana
What others are saying about our free resources...
Having been pregnant and unmarried when my sister had an abortion, I can say that the advice in '10 Things' is great advice. I would have liked to hear some of those things at the time.
I thought these daily devotions with the stories used by workers in the industry were awe-inspiring. So much so - I have found the ONLY pregnancy support service in my city and offered my assistance.
What does your company offer that will improve or solve a problem? Explain the pain point being alleviated.
Stories of Impact
Research
Free Resources
Before She Decides
Before She Decides is an informative resource for the man in your pregnant client’s life. It helps men engage in the pregnancy decision making process, understand the facts about fetal development and abortion, and commit to supporting their partner and becoming the best dad.
New Dad's Pocket Guide
It's never been easier to give new dads the resources they need to get involved right from the start! This handy guide has essential hints, tips, and strategies that every new dad needs to know. With key health and safety information, the New Dad's Pocket Guide™ increases health literacy and equips men with a handy guide they can reference at any time.
Fatherhood Store
Care Net's Abundant Life Blog
Our culture struggles to understand the importance of marriage, family, and the value of every human life. Will you become part of the conversation?
Activate your free blog subscription to get exclusive pro abundant life news, analysis, and updates in your inbox every time a new post is published. These stories give you the knowledge and encouragement you need to engage your community with compassion, hope, and truth.
Roland Warren's Blog
Care Net's President and CEO Roland C. Warren writes about fatherhood, marriage, abortion, and other issues facing our culture today.
His insightful posts challenge readers to think deeper about their faith and about their lives.
Blogs
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“One thing that I have seen some success with, in regards to men who are abortions vulnerable, is a change of focus in the counseling room. I have seen men still want an abortion, even when given lots of information about their unborn child. But when I shift the discussion to the impact on their partner, or their relationship with her, they often change their mind. So many on our side of things focus solely on the unborn child.
This is important. But the client in front of me is the one who impacts that life. He is the one in crisis. If I can address what is happening with him, he will make the choice for life. I help him to see his role with his partner and see past his circumstances. I provide care, and resources, and encouragement for him, in this huge thing. I help him to see her value, and how much impact he has on her. When this happens, he chooses to support her in the pregnancy, and she is more likely to choose life for her child. They then become a whole and healthy couple, into which the child comes. They choose not just life, but abundant life. Then, we don’t just see them choose life over abortion. We see a whole family unit, that can impact our culture.”
-Kevin Pierce, Director of Men’s Services, Care Net PS of the Treasure Coast
Defending your pro-life beliefs
View all Fatherhood Products
Check out all of our cutting-edge products for reaching fathers at our online store.
7 Keys to Connecting With Dads
How well does your pregnancy center connect with dads?
Connecting with dads can be hard, especially if you don't have many male volunteers at your center. To help you better connect with dads at your center, we assembled some of the best insights from our 1,100 affiliated pregnancy centers for serving men in one convenient eBook.
Making Life Disciples
Research shows that 5 out of 10 men whose partner had an abortion were attending church regularly at the time of their first one.
Volunteers are equipping churches to create ministries for parents facing unplanned pregnancies by showing love in practical ways.
Would you like to help start a life-saving ministry in your local church?
Welcoming Him (Sample)
This is the foundational resource you've been waiting for to jumpstart the Men's Ministry at your center!
You'll learn why it's critical to:
> Establish the importance of the fathers influence in pregnancy decisions made by women.
> Establish the importance of both dads and moms in their children’s lives.
Though our society says that "abortion is between a woman and her doctor," it effects women, men, and their unborn children. Research shows that men can suffer negative emotional and psychological effects after a partner's abortion. Yet, there are few resources that address abortion's impact on men or help them deal with the negative consequences of a past abortion.
Guy Condon and David Hazard's book Fatherhood Aborted shows you the far-reaching impact of abortion on men and how to minister to a post-abortive man, or find healing yourself.
Fatherhood Aborted
Welcoming Him
This is the foundational resource you've been waiting for to jumpstart the Men's Ministry at your center!
You'll learn why it's critical to:
> Establish the importance of the fathers influence in pregnancy decisions made by women.
> Establish the importance of both dads and moms in their children’s lives.
Interested in starting a Fatherhood ministry in your church or pregnancy center?
A successful fatherhood program is built on four pillars.
1. Culture - The need for everyone from the Board chair of your center to the volunteer who dedicates there time once a week at the center, the need for the culture of the center to be geared on reaching men and women dealing with a crisis pregnancy is essential to the center being willing to be used of God to reach both men and women effectively.
2. Personnel - Be confident in what you feel that your center can do. Whether you can have a full-time Fatherhood Coordinator on staff at the center, or if there is a passionate volunteer that can give you one day a week, the key is to do what your center can do, and be prayerful that God will supply your needs and grow you from that point.
3. Programming - Having the right approach to how to handle the men that come in your center and ultimately leave your center is crucial. There are two aspects of how we deal with the men, the first being the men in the pregnancy center that we want to serve well in a time of crisis and need. Second, we want to be able to connect those men with solid leaders in the community, preferably the local church to be able to walk with men who are dealing with life and who need community to continue to grow.
4. Community Engagement - Being visible is huge when wanting to reach men. Sometimes those in your community just don’t know that you all serve men, or that you have avenues to connect men with other willing men wanting to walk with men going through difficult times. Letting your community know what you specifically provide is key, and promoting your men’s effort in different ways in the community can help you reach those who had no idea who you were, but now have comfort in knowing you are there.
Positive interaction with either parent contributes to a child’s well-being. Yet research consistently shows that children who have positive experiences with only their mothers lack the nurturing and life skills that come when both parents are involved in their lives.
Once a child is born, the absence—or presence—of a dad affects virtually every aspect of his or her life. Father absence increases the likelihood of infant mortality, abuse, dropping out of high school, running away from home, behavioral problems, drug use, prison, poverty, teen pregnancy, and obesity. When a center engages a dad, it gives him the opportunity to get involved in his child’s life so that he can: reduce the likelihood that his child is abused, watch his child graduate high school or college, see his child flourish in life at home, encourage his child to say no to drugs, give his child the opportunity to earn a stable income, teach his child self-control, and encourage his child to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Consider the impact of dads on the following key measures of well-being. These documented benefits of responsible, committed fatherhood show that when pregnancy centers encourage dads’ involvement with their children and support the development of positive parenting skills, they can make a multi-generational difference in client families.
Several years ago, my youngest son and I began a regular practice of packing several backpacks with packaged food, toiletries, and small Bibles, and heading to downtown Washington, DC to pass them out to the homeless. Most of the people we met were men and soon I discovered something that truly surprised me.
Most of these men were fathers.
The objectives of this quantitative study of 1,000 men whose partners had an abortion were:
• To measure specifically what percentage of men were attending church at the time their partner/spouse's abortion,
• To understand men’s opinions about the unplanned pregnancy and the influence they had partner/spouse, and
• To understand the opinions of men whose partner/spouse has had an abortion
There is a father absence crisis in America.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 19.7 million children, more than 1 in 4, live without a father in the home. Consequently, there is a father factor in nearly all social ills facing America today.
Get the research to learn more!
Research from the National Fatherhood Initiative
The Looming Crisis Family-Less Fathers and its Cost to Society
Care Net Study of Men and Abortion
"I did get the Welcoming Him resource soon after starting at my position and it both reaffirmed some of our initial ideas and offered great additional insights. I printed the book and underlined it like crazy. I remember it covering a lot about getting the staff and board to support the idea of including men, and I was blessed to have a very smooth start in that way. The staff already knew me from the board and trusted me, and already understood and experienced the need to reach young men. I really appreciated the part about seeing men not as an obstacle to life decisions, but as a part of the solution. When I first presented the new program at a staff meeting I shared a few quotes and ideas from Welcoming Him and they helped get us all on the same page." -Alex, Men's Services Director, Women's Choice Network