Karen's daughter, Victoria marching in the March for Life before the change in Constitutional law.
After Roe -by Founder Karen Patota
I was 11 years old when Roe v. Wade passed and my generation was the first to feel the impact of that decision. I knew friends who found themselves pregnant and having abortions. It was upsetting because an unborn baby was no longer considered a person to be protected and cherished. I was too young to do anything about it and even after learning of a close friend’s abortion in college, I was not able to help. It wasn’t until the birth of my first child that I decided I had to do something to speak out about abortion. I tried a number of different ways to help until finally starting A Baby’s Breath in 2000.
In creating A Baby’s Breath, I tried to have solutions to the reasons why someone would consider an abortion. We offered GED courses directly. We had a system where clients would earn credits towards achieving goals of distributing the baby items equitably and with dignity. In five years, our center grew from one center to three help centers offering counseling, classes and baby items. Then, in 2009, we started a leadership course to train leaders for two new centers, renewing procedures and transitioning volunteer leaders, and then in 2010, expanded our services to include offering free ultrasounds. In 2016, we began offering free housing to clients who were homeless and pregnant, and a financial disbursement program called the Independence program.
In 2020, our way of doing things were challenged by COVID and lockdowns. Our system does not allow for government funding, so we were immune to the government shutdown of other centers that did depend on it. After the Dobbs decision in 2022, we were elated that the Constitution no longer protected legal abortion, but our system did not change. We continued to do all that we do for abortion-minded and other clients who just needed help with their crisis pregnancies.
The direction we would like to take “… to help a mother to see her child take his/her first breath” is to expand to anyone who needs our services. With the economy the way that it is, we must support life being chosen for anyone who embraces that challenge. If you know anyone who needs help with budgets, job finding, credit analysis, Natural family planning classes, parenting and prenatal classes, our services are available to them. Please share our website and contact information with those in need.
Our leadership course is now available to other organizations who want to learn more about our approach and transition from government-based funding to our system of volunteer-based with no government funding accepted.
Linked below is the Impact Report for the last 12 years to show how effective our systems can be.
Mark your Calendars for April 20th
Join us for a day of learning and inspiration from renowned speakers Dr. John Haas, founder of the International Institute for Culture, and Barbara Cassidy of A Baby’s Breath, as they share their insights, followed by targeted breakout sessions to explore the topics closest to your role:
- Directors (Advocates & Parenting Class Coordinators): *(if you are a person who likes to work with people, attend this breakout):
- Applying the A Baby’s Breath system – Catherine Fry, Warminster Director
- Finding Resources – Julie Carys, Phoenixville Director
- Creating the Parenting Class agenda – Karen Reidlmeier & Star Prieto, Parenting Class Coordinators, Jeffersonville
- Donation Coordinators: *(if you are someone who likes to work on the computer, attend this breakout)
- Doug Paida, Phoenixville Donations Coordinator
- Contributing to the E-news, Christine O’Reilly,
- Wayne Donations Coordinator,
- Updating the Database from the E-mail notifications, Josh Patota, CFO of A Baby’s Breath
- General Manager: (if you like to build budgets and help to fulfill the financial goals of the center/service, attend this breakout)
- Advertising plans & the Sponsorship programs, Anne Ruegner, GM of Warminster, Pete Rawson, GM of Jeffersonville
- Building your center/service budget – Karen Patota,
- Joanne Bryson, CPA, Best Quickbooking Practices
- Nurses (Ultrasound Service): *(if you are a registered nurse or someone who’d like top learn our approach of offering free ultrasounds OR would like to learn about our prenatal classes, please attend this breakout)
- Susan McInerney, RN, Ultrasound Nurse – Roles for a Nurse at ABB, Cell Phone Holder Training
Stick around for networking and lunch, and join us for additional sessions afterward.
Cost: $25.00 for non-volunteers.
FREE for active A Baby’s Breath volunteers and clergy.
