CV NEWS FEED // A new pro-life initiative is seeking to bring greater coordination, efficiency, and strategic focus to the movement, addressing longstanding concerns about redundancies and lack of collaboration among organizations, David Bereit told CatholicVote.
Veteran pro-life leader Bereit and other prominent pro-life figures are backing the Life Leadership Conference, which will serve as a hub for coordinating efforts, refining messaging, and strategically allocating resources to further the movement. Launched alongside it, the Joint Pro-Life Venture Fund has secured an initial $30 million to support collaborative projects, with additional funding expected.
Bereit, who will serve as executive director, said the effort comes at a critical time, as the pro-life movement struggles to adapt in the post-Dobbs era.
“We lost on 14 out of 17 times when abortion was on state ballots,” Bereit said in an interview with CatholicVote. “Abortions are still the leading cause of death in America.”
The organization aims to ensure financial support is used for maximum impact and not diluted by redundancy, an approach many pro-life benefactors have specifically requested, according to Bereit.
Pro-abortion groups have been highly organized in expanding abortion services, particularly through social media influence, ballot initiatives, and increased distribution of abortion pills. The pro-life movement, Bereit said, must take a more unified and strategic approach if it hopes to turn the tide toward life.
Bereit, a convert to the Catholic faith, admitted that before this initiative began, he had considered stepping away from pro-life work entirely. After spending more than two decades in the movement — including leading 40 Days for Life, advising pro-life leaders across the country, and helping raise more than $100 million for various organizations — he had grown frustrated with the movement’s lack of unity and efficiency.
“On January 1st of this year, when I was just thinking and praying through kind of New Year’s resolutions, I wrote in my journal that I didn’t feel like I wanted to be as directly involved in the pro-life movement going forward because it was so frustrating,” he said. “And it was literally a week after that that I was at meetings with other leaders and philanthropists where all of this began to develop, and it gave me that renewed sense of hope.”
The initiative aims to ensure measurable progress in the pro-life movement by tracking specific metrics, including a decrease in abortion rates, fewer abortion facilities and providers, increased public support for pregnancy help centers, greater restrictions on abortion pills, and a cultural shift toward embracing life.
Bereit stressed that the movement must be intentional about tracking its impact and ensuring its efforts are truly making a difference.
“That’s the opportunity that we’re seizing right now to get more united, to be more strategic, to be better stewards of the resources that are being put into the movement,” Bereit said, “so that we can actually measure the progress that we are making to drive down both the supply of abortion, as well as the perceived demand for abortion, while also measuring the actual influence on the culture.”
Beyond legislative efforts, Bereit highlighted two focus areas for the organization: raising awareness about pregnancy help centers to extend their reach and impact, and amplifying voices that can effectively influence public opinion in favor of life.
Bereit cited research showing that six in 10 women who had abortions would have chosen life if they had been aware of available support. Additionally, most people hold a favorable view of pregnancy help centers once they know they exist.
“When women and the general public learn about pregnancy help centers and maternity ministries, they have over an 83% favorable view of these organizations,” Bereit said. “The problem is, many of them don’t even know about them.”
By strengthening outreach and coordinating messaging across the movement, Bereit hopes to dispel the misconception that abortion is a woman’s only option while helping more people recognize their alignment with pro-life values.
“We want to illuminate the fact that these organizations are there, that there is real help and real practical support that doesn’t come with a lifetime of regrets, and then strengthen these organizations so they can do a better job of serving more mothers and more children,” Bereit said. “That’s going to be an imperative. That’s something that we know is critically needed at this moment in time.”
A second goal of the organization will be to identify and elevate the most credible and persuasive pro-life messengers.
Citing internal polling data, Bereit explained that the two groups of people the public is most likely to trust on abortion are medical professionals and those with lived experience, such as women who have had abortions and regret them or mothers who chose life despite difficult circumstances.
“The two audiences they really don’t trust are politicians and activists,” Bereit noted. “So people like me.”
He explained that young people, in particular, are far more likely to be moved by the testimony of a medical professional or a woman who once considered abortion than by pro-life leaders or elected officials.
With that in mind, the initiative will work to elevate the voices of doctors, nurses, and women who have chosen life, ensuring they have the platform and resources to share their stories effectively. By shifting the focus to authentic, credible messengers, Bereit believes the movement can change more hearts and minds.
Social media remains a battleground where pro-abortion organizations dominate the conversation, and Bereit said that must change. The Life Leadership Conference also plans to focus on training and equipping young pro-life influencers who can effectively communicate the message to their peers.
“Identifying and raising up more young influential figures who have the voice, giving them the right message, and making sure they’re an effective messenger so that they can reach their peers [is] a very high priority that the Life Leadership Conference is going to be directly engaged in,” Bereit said.
While these two priorities will be central to the initiative’s efforts, Bereit emphasized that the broader goal is to increase coordination, unify messaging, and deploy resources more effectively.
With significant financial backing, a renewed strategic vision, and a focus on measurable impact, organizers of the initiative hope to create a stronger, more effective movement in the post-Roe era.
Bereit acknowledged that setbacks in recent elections have frustrated many pro-life advocates, but he believes this new effort will provide a clear path forward. He added that he can relate to others who have been working in the movement for years and feel like giving up.
“Hopefully, together we can renew one another in hope — hope in our world and hope in the possibilities of progress,” he said, “and that together we can achieve things that, on our own, would continue to have diluted impact and nowhere near the level of life-saving results that we can achieve through collaboration and trust in God.”
The post CV interview: Head of $30M pro-life coalition shares mission to unite, strengthen pro-life movement appeared first on CatholicVote org.