Help Her Be Brave: Amy Ford on Faith, Grace, and Unexpected Pregnancy

Amy Ford, founder of Embrace Grace, joined Not On My Watch to share how her organization is transforming the way churches respond to women facing unexpected pregnancies. With support groups now operating in more than 1,200 churches across all 50 states, Embrace Grace equips local congregations to provide practical, emotional, and spiritual support to mothers and fathers navigating unplanned pregnancies. Ford emphasized that many women fear judgment from the church during a crisis pregnancy, but her mission is to ensure that every woman has a safe place to turn for grace, encouragement, community, and hope.

Drawing from her own experience of becoming unexpectedly pregnant at age 19, Ford shared the powerful story that inspired her to launch the ministry. She spoke candidly about the fear, shame, and isolation many women experience, while reminding listeners that an unexpected pregnancy does not mean the end of their dreams. Through church-based support groups, baby showers, mentorship, and discipleship programs for both mothers and fathers, Embrace Grace seeks to demonstrate God's love in tangible ways. Ford's message was clear: no woman should walk through an unexpected pregnancy alone, and every child is a gift worthy of celebration.

Visit https://www.embracegrace.com/ to learn more. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Hello and welcome to Not on My Watch. I'm your host, April Moss. When we talk about protecting children, we often focus on the dangers that happen after birth: human trafficking, exploitation, online predators, or attacks on the family. But today we're talking about a child whose life hangs in the balance before they're even born. For many women facing an unexpected pregnancy, fear can be overwhelming. Fear of rejection, of financial hardship, fear of disappointing family or friends, and sometimes they feel as though they have nowhere to turn and no one who will stand beside them. As a society, we have become very good at offering quick solutions, but not always compassionate support. What if the answer isn't judgment or abandonment? What if it's love? What if it's community? What if churches across America stepped in to walk alongside these women with practical help, encouragement, and hope? Today's guest has dedicated her life to making that vision a reality. Amy Ford is the founder and president of Embrace Grace, a ministry that equips churches across America to support women experiencing unexpected pregnancies with open arms rather than closed doors. Through more than 1,200 church-based groups, she is helping women discover that they are not alone and that both they and their babies are deeply valued. She is also the author of Help Her Be Brave. Discover Your Place in the Pro-Life Movement. And her message is transforming the way communities respond to women in crisis. Joining us today is Amy Ford. Amy, thank you so much for joining us today for Not On My Watch. It's a pleasure to have you here. And Embrace Grace is so important for uh society today in general. Tell us a little bit about your mission.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Well, Embrace Grace, we inspire and equip the church to love unsingle and pregnant young women and their families. And so we want the church to be engaged and involved in the movement. And we want the church to be one of the first places a girl runs to when she finds out she's unexpectedly pregnant instead of the last because of shame and guilt. We have over 300,000 churches in America. And if we could get involved in the movement, we really could make abortion unthinkable. So we have support groups in churches all over the nation for women with unexpected pregnancies. The local pregnancy centers refer their clients to the churches and they have a 12-week support group and they get a baby shower. They're just discipled, they're loved on, they meet other women going through similar situations. So they find community within the church and the church is walking alongside them. And plus, it's just cool to see how the church, you know, not just necessarily the building, the church is me and you. And so how the church walks alongside or with our gifts and our strengths and our talents that God put inside of us, whether we are um uh we have a do HR for a living, we can help a single mom find a better job, or if we're great with kids, we can help babysit. Um, or if we're great at accounting, we can help a mom with um credit scores. A lot of them don't know about that kind of stuff. Maybe they never had a dad that would taught them. There's something that God put inside of us, and not just so we can have a better job, but it's to do the good works that God's called us to do. And so, what can we do to help make abortion unthinkable for the women in our own community? And so that's what we're trying to do. We're in over 1,200 churches in all 50 states, but our goal is to get to 23,400 churches all strategically placed around the United States so that every mom would have a church to go to in her local area for practical, spiritual, and emotional support.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

I think that's a fantastic endeavor. And, you know, I've heard a lot of women say when they're in a situation with an unplanned pregnancy, especially when you look at teenagers today, you know, they're afraid to walk into a church after an unexpected pregnancy because they expect judgment instead of grace. And how can people change that perception? How does embrace grace change that perception?

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Well, I think even just having an embraced grace group changes that perspective. Um, because why would if a church was going to shame you or make you feel bad, why would they have a support group to walk alongside you? A lot of, you know, that that that makes it a safe place. But it's true, I've invited so many women that are pregnant to an embraced grace group, and they always kind of look like, you know, if there's there's something crazy that might happen or that there's something fishy about this, and they think that they have to clean up their life before they walk into the church, and the churches be become known sometimes more for what we're against than what we're for. And a lot of times the women think the church is about behavior modification when really the church should be about a heart transformation. And so that's what we are trying to do. We're not, we're not setting up these groups because we're trying to fix people. We want these women to fall in love with Jesus. We want them to feel empowered. We want to, we want to make sure that no single mom ever walks alone in this. And so um we, we're we're inviting these girls in, and it's it's cool to see how sometimes they come in, it's and sometimes they think it's just for the baby shower that they want to get some gifts and come in. So they'll brace themselves to be, you know, told what a piece of crap they are or whatever. That's what the the things that they think in their head. And then they walk in and they're met with so much love and meeting other leaders that have said, This is my story, whether they had an unplanned story or not, we all have a story of how God took our messes and turned them into miracles. And so when the leaders are vulnerable and authentic and sharing their own story, then that woman is like, oh, you know, I that was way worse than my story. And if God did that for her, then maybe God will do that for me too. And then all of a sudden, their walls that they've built up, their defensiveness, it all starts coming down because they realize this is a safe place and that there's hope there that maybe they can find a savior like these other leaders have, and you know, and then that's why they're doing it because they're passionate and they want other people to know about Christ, their their savior.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

You know, having this amazing goal of increasing to 23,000 churches, even just to be in all 50 states, is a huge accomplishment. But what makes it a reality for a church to say, okay, we don't have something like Embrace Grace currently, but we want to bring that in. What would they need to do?

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Well, anyone can start a group. Like it doesn't have to be a pastor, it doesn't have to, you know, we have we people call and they're like, well, I don't have a theological degree or, you know, all it does, you don't have to have that. And we, in fact, all of our curriculum is digital. So we have book curriculum too, but for teaching, you don't have to prepare a lesson. You just press play. The teachings are done for you. And then these local pregnancy centers in our community are referring their clients to the churches. So that we do need a pastor approval. And the pastor just approves that church to be listed on our directory. That pastor approves that leader to lead a group who that's one of his congregants that has said, Hey, I want to lead this here. And the pastor says yes. So he has something that he has to sign saying he approves it. And once we have that, then it's listed on our website so that women in that community can put in their zip code and all of the churches in her local area that are offering the support group can go to it. It's just like if a church has celebrate recovery or other programs like this, it's a it's a plug-and-play model that any church can have. And it's 12 weeks long. You could do it once a year, you could do it twice a year. But these women, then once they get their foot in the door and they realize that this is a safe place, it's cool to see they start growing roots there at that church. They start bringing maybe baby dad or maybe their parents and they start coming and being a part. And then we've seen some girls even turn around and lead, you know, after they have their babies, and they were so affected and moved by this ministry and that were so transformed by it that they want to be the person that was there for them for someone else. And so they come back and lead in that same church. So it's a beautiful program to bring women outside that are outside the doors of the church, bringing them in, but also the abortion rate is the same inside the church as it is outside. There's no difference. There's women in our pews that are getting pregnant. And so we also need to be vocal about hey, if something like that happens in our congregation, please know this is a safe place to go to. We'll pray with you, we'll point you in the right direction, we'll walk with you, and we have a support group just for you if you go through something like that. And then that way they know, and they're not just going straight to the abortion clinic, thinking the church is in a safe place, or if they only knew, you know, let me just take care of it and have an abortion and experience the trauma around abortion because they didn't feel like the church was a place they could talk to, or they didn't know that there's free uh pregnancy centers in our area. Uh and all and there's over several thousand pregnancy centers, way more than uh abortion clinics that are free. They give you free ultrasounds and they give you free resources on how to empower you in your life decision. And so churches need to know about which ones are in their local area so that they know how to resource these moms that may come to them and say, I'm pregnant and I don't know what to do.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Well, you know, one of the things that really stood out to me when I was spending some time learning about Embrace Grace is not only do you have resources for uh the females, the mothers, but also for the young fathers too. Can you share a little bit about how you try to um create a space for the dads so that they are a part of the love and the resources that you guys are offering?

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Yeah, so we have embraced legacy for fathers. And so um the the baby dads that are a part, and you know, sometimes these moms are totally walking alone. Sometimes they are with the baby dads, or maybe they're in a place where they're trying to co-parent and do it in a way that's honoring to God and not fighting and things like that. And so we have a program for fathers where a lot of times it's a lot smaller than the girls' group. If we have seven moms in an embraced grace group, we might have two or three. Um, but it looks like more one-on-one discipleship it can be. A lot of times it's the leaders' husbands that actually kind of step up and say, Hey, you know, a guy showed up. How great. And so that leader's husband is like, hey, I'll walk with him. And it's 12 weeks as well. So it's kind of modeling the same program, but from a male's perspective. And um it's really great. It's about identity and value and discipling. And um, and it just really kind of helps set them up in the right way. I mean, I've seen it look a lot more custom because they're so much smaller. So I've seen where contractor, you know, a leader's husband that maybe is a contractor and and the guy always had a dream of doing something like that. You know, they take him under his wing, so it's even more like doing life together and really doing discipleship even outside the walls, which is really cool. So it's, you know, if we had more dads in the world actually fathering, we the world would be changed. It would be uh so much more better. But a lot of times these dads never had dads themselves. They don't even know what it looks like, so they're nervous about it. And they just need a godly father figure or man to speak life into them and point them the way on how to do it. And it doesn't have to be perfect, but that they can be uh create an awesome legacy for their children, whether they stay with that mom or not, they can still be intentional in their fathering and really make a difference in their kids' lives.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

And I feel like that is one of the most important things, especially with the statistics where when there is a father uh who is absent from the child's life, there's the increase of going to prison and being involved with drugs and and all kinds of things that would be negatively impacting your life. It's all centers back to what's happening at the home and um not having a father is um critical for a child's life. For sure. Can you share a little bit about your personal experience? What um made you uh be so passionate about providing this type of resource and atmosphere for young moms and unplanned pregnancies and and really trying to provide a great alternative to uh abortion?

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Yeah, well, it's it's tied to my own story. I had an unplanned pregnancy when I was 19. I grew up in church, had an amazing family, but I didn't have a relationship with the Lord. I just went to church because my parents made me. And so I found out I was pregnant and I was so, so scared. I thought my dreams were over. I thought my life was over. And, you know, you think of the worst case scenarios that could ever possibly happen in that situation, and just when you're in a crisis mode. And so even though I grew up knowing abortion was wrong, it really felt like it could be an option that I could just push a magic button, is what I thought in my head, that it just makes the baby go away when you don't really try to try not to think about like, well, how does that happen? Or, you know, where does it go and things like that? You just you, you know, or at least for me, um I just kind of blacked out and was like, let me just have an abortion. The father of the baby felt the same way. So we went to the abortion clinic, we paid for the abortion. And as the nurses were were um describing to me how they were gonna have the abortion, I actually ended up hyperventilating and passing out in the abortion room. And when I came to one of the nurses was fading me, she was trying to give me a drink of water, and she said, You're too emotionally distraught to make this decision today. You can come back another day, but today you're not getting an abortion. And so I went out in the waiting room and I told the father of the baby, we're still pregnant. And he could see my face was swollen from crying a lot. And we just decided in that moment, okay, like if our life is over, if our dreams were over, all these things that we thought were going to happen, that we knew we had each other. We were high school sweethearts, we knew we wanted to get married someday, just not necessarily in the order that it ended up happening, but we decided to get married when I was 16 weeks pregnant. And we had asked the pastor that had led my husband to the Lord years before if he would marry us. And he said, No, I'm sorry, because you've sinned, I will not bless this marriage. And we were like, we are such horrible people, like we can't even be married and be blessed. And it just felt like our wedding day felt like a scarlet letter, you know, experience. And then after that, we tried to go back to church, but it's like the elephant in the room, and people don't know whether to say congratulations or I'm sorry, and they don't say anything, and then you just feel alone in a crowd of people. And so we just stopped going for a really long time.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

And it's a really hard way to start out in life as well, just so young and as hard as marriage is anyway, uh, but to start out.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Yeah, so we ended up having a son who, of course, is the best gift ever. Like we can't imagine our life without him. Um, he he wasn't planned by us, but he was planned by God, and he was exactly what we needed in our life. And now he's 27. He uh has his own uh company that's a marketing company that caters to pro-life organizations. He speaks, he writes, he um he's married, and he has a baby and a baby on the way. Um, so I'm a honey. A honey is my grandma name. I live in Texas, so it's a very Texas grandma name. And, you know, we we would have missed out on so much if we would have gone through without abortion, and we're just so thankful that we chose life. And when my son was two, that pastor that wouldn't marry us actually called my husband out of the blue and he asked for for uh forgiveness. He said he felt like it was his worst mistake in pastoring history that he had ever made. And my husband was just like, Yes, of course, I forgave you, I forgive you. And and that pastor had moved on. We're in the Dallas Fort Worth area. He had moved on to Austin, Texas, to pastor church. And when my son was 16, uh, that pastor asked me to come in town and speak at his church about embrace grace. He was very open with his congregation about what he had done years before. He said he had a religious spirit, a Pharisee heart. This is what he did. And so I came, I spoke, and I did my thing. And then afterwards, he asked me to come out back on the platform and he asked my son Jess, again, who is 16, to come on the platform. And he said, Amy, years ago I asked your husband for forgiveness, but I never really asked you. And he said, Will you forgive me? I was like, Yes, of course. I forgave you a long time ago. We love you so much. Well, then he looked at my son, 16, in front of the whole church, and he said, Will you forgive me for planting seeds of rejection in your heart before you were ever even born? And while you were in your mother's womb, I rejected you. Will you forgive me? And my son, 16 in front of the whole church, says, I forgive you. And it was such a powerful moment in that room. Like you could feel church wounds being lifted. The fact that the pastor pastor would humble himself in that way was like even a healing moment for my son, for a lot of people in the church, um, and all of that. And so, you know, going back to when I found out I was pregnant, I didn't, I went to church every week. I didn't have a relationship with God, but I went to church every week. But why did I not feel like the church was a safe place to go to for prayer, wisdom, guidance, counsel? And then why did I not know what a pregnancy center was? Why did I go to church my whole life and no one told me what a pregnancy center was? And so that's what we want to change. We, you know, there are women in our pews. Like if we can make this church a safe place, we would be able to empower a lot more women in their life decisions. And so that is why I started Embrace Grace, so that the church would be recognized and be known more for our love and and that these women would think, you know what, I'm pregnant. Why would I feel like I need to have an abortion when there's so many resources and so many churches in my community that will walk with the with me and make sure that I'm I'm not alone in this? Um, and I think that a lot of lives would be saved if we can get more churches on board with this.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

I think it's incredible and it's so needed today. Um, you know, do you feel like fear is the biggest driving factor uh with women and and unplanned pregnancies in deciding whether or not to have an abortion? Do you feel like, you know, also not knowing that there are other great organizations and embrace grace out there? Do you feel like fear is a big factor?

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Yes, for sure. Fear is the root of all the factors. It could be fear of education being interrupted, fear of financial finances, you know, not having enough money, fear of baby dad drop troubles. You know, the fear is the root. Um, and that's one of our taglines is help her be brave. I have a book called Help Her Be Brave, uh, because we and I have a podcast show called Help Or Be Be Brave. We want her to come up higher out of that crisis moment and help her get out of, you know, when you're in a crisis moment, you sometimes make decisions that are rash decisions that you haven't really thought through. You're just trying to do a quick fix but fix. But if you can come out of that and really think through of like maybe you can have your baby and your dreams too, whether you place for adoption or parent, you can carry this baby and you can do this. It doesn't mean it'll be easy, but you don't have to walk through it alone and you're gonna have the most sweetest face you've ever laid eyes on, this little baby that is God's gift that is gonna change your life in the best way, no matter how that baby was conceived.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Yeah, there's nothing better than a new baby, right? There's nothing better. Um I'd love to go back to the baby shower. Um, tell me about why you felt like this was so important to do. I think it's an incredible idea. And um maybe share a little story about how you've seen it be a blessing to the women that you've been able to bless in that way.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

Well, I think, you know, of course, a lot of these women need have practical needs of things that they need for sure. But it's like, okay, we could just have it a part of the program where at the end they just get these gifts or we can make a celebration out of it. And um, when you think about the prodigal son, you know, he went off and spent all his dad's money. He had no money left, and he was eating the leftovers of the pigs. And he thought, you know, I could go back home and I could eat the leftovers of my dad's servants. That might be a little better than eating the leftovers of the pigs. And it's so amazing. My favorite part of the story is it says, and while he was a long way off, the father ran to him. And whenever he had turned towards his father, he had had his servants put a robe on his back and a ring on his finger. And he said, Son, you know, you were lost and now you're found and you're you're here. And he told his other son, let's let's kill the fatted calf, let's have a party. He didn't say, let's get the leftovers from yesterday. You know, he said, let's throw a party. And a lot of these moms, even if they're a long way off, a lot of them have turned, have turned towards their heavenly father. They're coming to church, they're open to it. And how amazing that we as the church get to be a part of this party, of this prodigal party of, and you know, it's the scripture says it's God's kindness that leads us to repentance and it's his goodness that draws us to his side. And we've seen that happen with so many women. That they're so, you know, we kind of tell them about a little behavior, there's going to be a shower, and you know, you can't miss it. Make sure you put it on your calendar. And they kind of have an idea, but they don't know until they get there. And they're so blown away. Yes, they're so blown. They're like, people have bought things for my baby that I've never met before. And my favorite color for my baby. I remember one time there was a girl who kind of had missed a lot, and some of it was due to her high-risk pregnancy and things like that. It was just a lot of stuff that happened. And so she missed a lot of the classes, and we usually do it towards the end. And some of the leaders were like, you know, should we still have her be a part of the shower? She's missed so much of the experience. And of course, we're embraced grace. So we say yes. And um, but she walked in and she saw, you know, at this church, it's every girl kind of gets a table round full of gifts. And she walked in and she saw this table round full of gifts. And she said, Who am I sharing a table with? And we're like, This is yours. This is all yours. And she just had her hands over her face and just tears. And she kept saying, I don't deserve this. I don't deserve this. And she kept saying it over and over again. And you know, that's the beauty of grace. Like, none of us deserve grace. Yeah. Such a blessing that we don't get what we deserve. Totally. But he lavishes grace on us. And so we've seen even church, some churches, they'll do an altar call. They'll have a pastor like share a message and they, you know, a salvation invitation, because sometimes they'll bring their baby dad or their parents, you know, and and then hundreds of people. Some it depending on how big the baby shower is, like how many moms. Um, but I go to a church that's a little bigger and each it's a multi-campus church. So each campus has a group, but for the baby shower, they all come together for one shower. So one time it was 50 moms, which is crazy. Now we have more groups in the community to spread that out. But it was uh, but a hundred when you put in all the gift givers and all the people that are that at that church that say, I want to help buy a blanket or unhelp, it was hundreds of people there, but that they were doing um an altar call and people got saved. And I'm like, people are choosing to surrender their life to Jesus at a baby shower at a church for women with unplanned pregnancies, is pretty amazing to see that that's drawing their heart to the heart of our father. Um, and so it's a beautiful thing. Some churches, you know, I don't want it not to scare anyone because that's just a church actually that where it kind of all got started, and it's so it's a lot more established. But you could have one mom, you could have two. It doesn't have to be that extravagant, they'll be so blown away, even with a smaller shower, they're they're so sentimental and sweet and amazing, and God will use your yes in any way.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

Sure. Well, we're almost out of time, but one last question. If a scared teenage girl is listening to this interview right now and she's sitting alone in her bedroom after seeing two pink lines on a pregnancy test, she's convinced that her life is over. What would you say to her directly right now?

SPEAKER_01 25:04

Well, I would say number one, it is not a coincidence that you're listening to this right now, that God, you know, I hear all the time girls say, I was going to have an abortion, but then I told God, you better give me a sign. And because if I don't see how, you know, X, Y, Z or how it can all line up, or I'm gonna have the finances or whatever, so you're gonna have to give me a sign that you're gonna do something. And I just want you to know this is your sign and that you can choose life, that God chose you out of all the women in the whole world to carry this baby. And so you can do this. You don't have to walk through this alone. You can have your baby in your dreams too. It's gonna be hard and it's gonna be amazing and beautiful all at the same time. It this baby is going, is really truly will be the best gift ever in your life. And you will be so, so glad that you were strong and chose life. So get connected to uh an embrace grace group in your area. Get connected to support check your local pregnancy centers as well. Go to embracegrace.com and all the groups pop up in your area. If there's not one in your area, reach out to us and we'll see. Maybe one is about to start and it's not listed yet. Just reach out and we'll we'll get you help you get you connected.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Well, Amy, I uh just can't tell you enough how much this touched my heart. And as a mom of four, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Uh, children are a blessing from the Lord. And, you know, present-day circumstances, they always change. Life always changes and gets better. So um don't think if you're listening and you think, oh, I don't know how I'm gonna do this. If you just say yes to God and you say yes to that sweet baby, he'll work it all out.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

So true.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Thank you again for joining Not on My Watch. Uh, so incredible what Embrace Grace is doing. And uh we'll love to have you back on again in the future. Sure. Thanks for having me. At Not On My Watch, we believe every child has value, every mother deserves support, and every family is worthy of hope. Amy and her team are proving every day that when the church steps forward with open arms, practical help, and genuine love, lives are transformed. If you're a pastor, church leader, or someone looking for a way to make a difference in your community, I encourage you to visit Embrace Grace and learn how you can get involved. And if you're a woman watching this today who finds herself facing an unexpected pregnancy, please hear this. You are not alone. Your story is not over. It's only just beginning. There are people who care about you, who will walk alongside you, and who want to help you discover that there is hope on the other side of fear. Thank you for joining us for another episode of Not on My Watch. Please like, share, and subscribe on Rumble or your favorite podcast platform.