Transcript


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[Music]
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Every woman deserves to know all the information so she can make an informed choice about the abortion.
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Well, thanks you guys all for coming. This is awesome. We're super excited to have Ann on this this month
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and we are at 12 o'clock. So, we will um if you have questions, you can put them
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in the drop them in the chat and we'll make sure that um Ann sees them and we
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can answer them along the way. Um
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and I'll kind of keep an eye on that for you. There we go. I can see you guys.
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Well, welcome everybody. All right. So, well, welcome everybody to webinar Wednesday. This will also be
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shared on the Prolife Team podcast. Um, and and uh so Anna O' Conor with NIFla,
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she's the vice president at NIFla, working side by side with Tom Glesner. They have been working to protect
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pregnancy clinics for I would guess 35 years, but I'm just guessing. Um, and I
1:22
know that they've gone to the Supreme Court with NISLA versus versus Bera protecting freedom of speech. Um, and
1:30
one that that that fight and um, and I we looked to NIFla for um, what not to
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do, what to do to um, strengthen legal
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decisions that have legal consequences. So, uh, Ann, I'm glad you're here. That
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was my off-the cuff intro and so um thank you Jacob. Yeah, thank you for being here.
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Well, and Nippa really appreciates I Rapture like when there's like a really technical issue about websites or
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something. Jacob's our go-to person because kind of above our heads. So, we
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appreciate I Rapture so much and for all that you do for centers. And I'm so happy to see all of you here. I
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recognize a lot of people and it's nice to to see you from all across the
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country. Um, and today I was going to share a little bit about some cases that are
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going on I want to make sure you know about. Then I want to talk about advertising issues since that's what you
2:33
do with I Rapture and then we'll touch a little bit on being why we want you to
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be religious organizations and a little bit on HIPPA if that's okay. We'll save
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questions till the end, but please type them in there and then uh Sandy will show me how to read them or help me read
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them. All right, so welcome. Yes, as Jacob said, I've worked at NIFla for
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about 30 years now and uh it has been such such a ride. Uh we have 1,800
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pregnancy centers that are members of NIFla and um NIFla was formed to help
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pregnancy centers uh withstand the attacks because we were getting attacked back then and we're still getting
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attacked like crazy now and and uh we provide best practices in
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the legal world and in the medical world as well. That's our focus. So, a couple cases that we have coming
3:32
up, there's like 20 cases going on across the country involving pregnancy centers. Um, and we keep up to date on
3:40
them. We write a monthly memo on them. We're plaintiff in about six or seven of
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them right now. And, um, some of the important ones are out of California and
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New York where, um, the attorney general has gone after pregnancy centers. And I
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see some dark people um here for advertising abortion pill reversal
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saying that it's false and misleading advertisement. So the attorney generals have to have
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gone after them in state court. So NIFla represented by ADF filed federal actions
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saying hey you're violating our constitutional rights by prohibiting us from speaking about this. And we won in
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New York and we lost in California. Um the New York one was appealed and
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that was uh the appeal was argued in June and we're waiting for the decision on that. But right now there's an
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injunction in place saying the attorney general can't go after pregnancy centers
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for advertising APR. In California we lost and the we appealed it and we have
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uh arguments October 9th. if you could remember to pray 9:30 Pacific time in
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the morning for us and for our ADF attorneys. Um we we just we really feel
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like we have a good case, but it's hard in California and the Ninth Circuit is a
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little better. So, we're hoping to get a good decision out of them. So, those are two really big cases going on. But the
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other big one um that NIF was not a party in is the first choice case out of
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New Jersey. And I am from Jersey. Um, this center is a wonderful center up in northern Jersey and the attorney general
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has gone after them with an investigative subpoena
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not based on any complaints against the center asking for tons of information
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about their advertisement, years of websites and mailers and things like
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that which the center represented by ADF has been complying with except for the
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final request. us, which was, "We want a list of all your donors and their
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contact information because we want to contact them and see if they were misled
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into believing that you were a reproductive health organization and that's why they donated to you." And so
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what they decided was that that crosses the line. We have nothing to hide,
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right? None of you have anything to hide, but you have a lot to protect. So, it's been bouncing back and forth
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between state and federal court here. Finally, the Supreme Court took it. So, in December, pregnancy centers will be
6:29
back before the Supreme Court, and we have a great record. Jacob mentioned the
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Nifa versus Bera case that we won back in 2018. That case has been cited more
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than 200 times since then to protect the first amendment and we see it as a basis
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for the first choice case as well. So, we're hoping for victory again, but it's
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so cool uh to be back before the Supreme Court. And thank God for the courts
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where we can find justice even if there's political action against us.
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So, if you'd like to know more about our cases, you can reach out to us. Um we
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have one in Delaware, Illinois. Many of you are from these states. We have one in Minnesota, which we just lost, but
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we're appealing it. Uh we had a case in Vermont which we had to uh what happened is they
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passed the law saying pregnancy centers are misleading and fraudulent in their advertising and if they do we can go
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after them and there could be a private cause of action meaning anybody all the proboards could come and sue the center
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and we fought that ADF represented us we fought that on behalf of our eight pregnancy centers up in Vermont saying
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what you don't have any proof proof that we're misleading or fraudulent. You you're actually the attorney general
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actually said, "Oh, no. It's not these eight centers. They're all doing things well. It's if bad centers come to our
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state." And um but we had a case because they specifically targeted us because of
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our viewpoint, our pro-life religious viewpoint. So, we had a great case and it we we won a a motion at the in the
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beginning the state brought a motion to dismiss. we beat them there and so the state got scared um and they went in and
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amended that law so didn't target pregnancy centers anymore so kind of gutted our case
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they still could go after pregnancy centers and we're watching that um but that's the kind of thing we're dealing
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with in Delaware Delaware passed a law very similar and um the state agreed not
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to enforce the law while the litigation is pending so
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it's a lot of things going on like that and that thankful for groups like ADF,
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Thomas Moore, ACLJ, uh they're all involved in pregnancy center protection
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and we're so thankful for them. But besides the cases um that I wanted to
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make sure you knew about, we have some advertising things I would like to talk to you about. Uh oh, there's an echo
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when when I'm talking. Do you hear it, Jacob and Sandy? No. Okay, I'll just
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keep talking and hopefully it will fix. So, you can bet your proabortion enemies
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are scouring your websites, right? And when we do legal audits, we go in and
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look at your websites and really make sure from an objective point of view,
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there's nothing that someone could claim is misleading or fraudulent in uh or
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deceptive in your advertising. And it's a balance, right? Because you're trying
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to attract your target audience, you know, who who is a woman not sure what
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she's going to do or looking for an abortion. You're trying to offer her last minute chances of hope and change
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of mind. And so like any business, like any ministry, you're trying to reach a
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group of people that you you're your mission is to serve. So we can do that
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without also crossing the line. And you know, Google has tried to hurt us by
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making us put little disclaimers on. It's all started years ago when we didn't even have Google and we just had
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yellow pages if anybody remembers that. There was one um there was one division
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called abortion and so we were advertising in that with abortion clinics but then there was a big uproar.
10:39
So then they made abortion alternatives and abortion. So abortion alternatives came first and so we we caught you know
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that kind of backfired on them because if we place an ad they would see us uh before they would see the abortion
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clinics. So it's been a fight for decades. They have the same battle cry
10:59
against us but we want to make sure your advertisement uh will not draw any um any kind of
11:07
controversy. So the kind of things we want you to be aware of and what we look
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for when we do a legal audit of your website is what kind of wording are you using first of all do you have a
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disclaimer somewhere on there and maybe in multiple places that say you don't perform or refer for abortion. We really
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recommend that you have that. It's not a legal requirement that you have that, but it helps to fight the claim that
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we're misleading. If right on our website, even if it's at the bottom or in the about us page, it says we don't
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perform or refer for abortion. And you can say it in a nice way. You can say what you do provide and what you don't
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provide. But then we can say the consumer should be aware because we it's right there on our website.
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We like to see um a disclaimer that says all the information on your website,
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even the medical information is just for in general information purposes and doesn't replace the consumer seeing a
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physician, right? So that just, you know, you'll see that on any kind, you know, vitamin websites have that. Um so
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that's just good practice. Um we also like to see a website privacy and terms
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of use. So it tells the consumer if you gather information just by them visiting
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your website and what you do with it. So we really some states require it and I
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know I Rapture um can help make sure that that gets on your website. That is
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different than your patient privacy policy. Okay, we're going to talk about that in a minute. This is your website
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privacy policy. how what kind of cookies you have and you know what you do with
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that information, how it's stored, who you share it with, if you share it with anybody. Um that would be in the website
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privacy and terms of use policy. Um we also look at your language about what
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services you offer. Are you saying things like it would got it was popular for a while pre-abortion consultation or
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pre- uh termination consultation? words like that that made it sound like, oh,
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if a woman's thinking about an abortion, she can come to us and we'll consult with her about it before we do it. Just
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like, you know, if you were having knee surgery, uh you would talk to the doctor
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and do a whole consent, you'd have a whole pre-surgery consultation before
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you had the surgery. So doctors see that as a continuum that the pre-abortion
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consultation leads to the abortion. Of course, we had it there because every
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woman deserves to know all the information so she can make an informed choice about the abortion. So Nifa wrote
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a legal tips on this. If you're going to advertise anything like that, pre-abortion consultation, pre-abortion
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assessment, make sure in the context of that piece of advertisement, it says
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what it includes and what it doesn't include. Pregnancy test, ultrasound to confirm an inner and uterine pregnancy,
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um, you know, a nurse consultation, um, does not include an abortion or referral
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abortion. it has to say in the context because if it's way down at the bottom of your web page, someone could argue
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that's a little misleading, right? Um, then the other thing I've been seeing on
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websites that's that makes that's a concern is uh come to us so we rule out
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an ectopic. We really don't like to see that language because it is near
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impossible to rule out an ectopic, right? We're doing the ultrasound to see if the fetus
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is in the womb where it's supposed to be. So, language like that to to you
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know, and I have some samples if you need it and I'll send it to you, Jacob, so you have it for the future. Um, but
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language like an ultrasound is a helpful tool to determine that the pregnancy is intrauterine or in the uterus. If not,
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it could be an ectopic. So, if we don't see a pregnancy in the uterus, it's considered a pregnancy of unknown
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location, a p, a, a pul we call it. So if we if we can't see the pregnancy and
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she tested positive and she's certain amount of weeks along, if we don't see it where we expect to see it, then it's
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in an unknown location. It could be an ectopic. It could be she miscarried. It
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could be she's just earlier than she thought. But we haven't confirmed where the pregnancy is. And so we suspect an
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ectopic. We give her ectopic and miscarriage precautions. We refer her to
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a physician, tell her to go to the emergency room if she has any complications, any symptoms at all. But
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what they to rule out an ectopic, they're going to do multiple ultrasounds. They're going to do serial
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hCG testing, which maybe some centers will grow to do, but it is it is very
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risky because we're seeing women early on in their pregnancy and ectopics are
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on the rise for some reason. Uh we're seeing more and more ectopics. Audrey Stout who is an RDMS with Sound View
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imaging and has been doing it 25 years. She says in the last two years she's
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seen more ectopics than all 20 years before. So ectopics are on the rise and
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because we're seeing women early on uh it is a risk. So do not advertise we can
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rule out an ectopic. something like 35% of patients have uh an ectopic and and
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it's never seen. It's like really hard to see on a um on a video
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um on the ultrasound machine. So you can say things like what your ultrasound is
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meant to do. There's some really good language I've seen on some centers. Um,
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you can say an ectopic is a serious condition where the embryo implants outside the uterus. It could be
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life-saving saving. An ultrasound will determine if the embryo is in uterus where it's supposed to be. And if it's
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not, then you will be referred for appropriate care for an ectopic or miscarriage, right? To look for an
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ectopic or miscarriage. So, there's ways to still talk about ectopics, but don't say rule out ectopic.
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Um, let's see other things. APR. If you're advertising abortion pill reversal, and we recommend that you do,
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you want to um also include that it's not 100% foolproof, right? It's like 64
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to 68% um successful to turn around. So, I've seen
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some website that say, "Oh, we can reverse your your abortion if you took the abortion pill." What we might not be
18:15
able to. So, put in some kind of statistics and even site where you got the statistics from um just to clarify
18:22
with the patient. And let's see what else do we like to see. Oh, any any um medical facts that
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you put on your website, we like to see citations too. So, if you say 20% of
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pregnancies end in miscarriage, you should site to something. It's really nice to site to like Mayo Clinic and
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those kind of places. everyone accepts that. Okay. And then uh one big thing is if
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you have an appointment page on your website where she can make an appointment or at least um put
18:57
information in then you contact her. I see centers asking for way too much
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information on those appointment pages. First name, last name, date of birth,
19:08
last menstrual period, are you seeking an abortion? What's your email? What's your cell phone? lots of what we call
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PHI, private information, all being collected on your website somehow being
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transferred to you hopefully in a secure manner. So unless unless someone can
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convince me it's absolutely necessary we have all that information right up front, I would prefer first name, phone
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number, and you call her or text her. If you're going to be texting her, you
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should have a little language that says she gives you permission to text her even though it might not be 100% secure.
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It's called safe harbor language. Uh where you give her a warning about it um
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that it might not be 100% secure. Everything's confidential in your side, but you can't control her side, right?
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So, I would gather the least amount of information that's necessary for you
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then to follow up and make the appointment. All right? Unless your website is, you know, you are totally
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secure and the web designer says absolutely, we can do this. It meets all the HIPPO requirements. I would not
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collect all that information upfront. I just see the proorts having a field day with that. They just had a huge claim
20:29
against a major medical provider because the medical provers's website was
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gathering that kind of information in the background and then sharing it with Facebook, right? So that these are where
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claims can start happening. So just take the minimal amount of information that
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you need. And then finally, I want to talk to you about HIPPA and the notice
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of privacy practices. This is how I know the proboards are scouring your email
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your websites because they have a whole chart of the names of the centers and if
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they have a privacy policy and what they do and you know they're they've done their research and you know hopefully
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all of you know unless you're billing electronically or for some reason communicating with health plans you are
21:21
not technically a HIPPO HIPPA covered entity. So, HIP, you aren't under the
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jurisdiction of HIPPA. Um, it doesn't mean we shouldn't be keeping all our
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patient information private along the guidelines of HIPPA, right? So, NIFA has
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always said you, you know, you're not a covered entity. You're probably not, very few centers are billing, you're
21:44
probably not a covered entity, but you you still want to follow these industry standards like HIPPA requires. And of
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course, um, many of you know Missy from Learning is Created. She has HIPPA training. She has patient privacy
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training. She's helped us so much. Um, we've consulted with other HIPPA experts and we feel really confident in our
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latest patient privacy policies that NIFla produced in April. So, if you're a
22:11
Nifa member and you didn't get that, email me because I'll send them over to you. It replaces our HIPPA section uh in
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our manual because we were we were using the term HIPPA because that's standard in the industry. Our big joke was to get
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everybody to spell HIPPA properly. And I think I probably just about got everybody to spell it hip pa instead of
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hip pa. Um, but now we don't want to
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hold ourselves out at all to the public as HIPPA covered entities. Um, because
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that could be misleading to the consumer, right? So, we don't want to
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see anything on your website that says all our forms are HIPPA compliant or if you have a complaint, contact the HIPPA
23:00
office at HHS to file a complaint because none of that, you know, that
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sounds like we're holding ourselves out as a HIPPA covered entity when we're not. We had some proorts, right? Like 10
23:14
attorney generals saying, "Oh, pregnancy centers are being deceptive. They're saying their notice of privacy practices
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saying they can make a complaint to HHS when they're not under the jurisdiction
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and a few of the attorney generals responded by contacting our centers. All
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of those things have been worked out. We have since changed the privacy notice
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um so that it applies completely to us. We're not just using uh HHS's template.
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So, please, if you check on your website, if you're using the old one and
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contact us and I'll send you the new one, okay? There's no requirement that you post it on the website. It's a
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service to your patients to tell them how you protect their information, how you use their information.
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But the number one rule to protect you is you don't release a patient's health
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records unless you have a signed authorization. That is your golden
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ticket. If she signs an authorization and says, "Share it with soand so," you
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have her permission. So, anytime there's a request that comes in, even if it's a subpoena, if it's a police officer, if
24:28
it's a mother, say, "Oh, I'm sorry. Um, for privacy purposes, we need a signed
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authorization by the patient." And if you can get one, then you have her permission and and there's no problem.
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Now, there are exceptions in the law, but your first reaction should always be, "Hold off." I get calls at least
24:47
once a week. I had one today um from a center who's getting a request for
24:53
records from an attorney, has a signed authorization, but now it's electronically signed, right? Because
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everything's on DocYign or whatever. So, we can't compare the signatures, but everything else matched. the name, the
25:07
um the address, her date of birth. Um when in doubt, you could call the client
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and say, "Hey, did you want us to send this over? We got this packet of information." But always, if you don't
25:19
have an authorization, always consult with an attorney and feel free to call us at NIFla and we'll help you sort
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through because the last thing you want to do is wrongfully give someone's health record to someone when they
25:31
didn't want it, right? Um, so even though we're not HIPPA covered entities, there's state laws that might apply to
25:38
you. And also there's contractual like you you've said everything is going to
25:44
be confidential. We are a safe and confidential place. Your medical director, your your medical people
25:50
working there, they have an ethical duty to keep things private with their patients. So there's plenty other areas
25:56
that would require us to be um to protect our patient privacy. um in
26:03
addition to HIPPA. All right. Um client stories. If you're going to be
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posting client stories in your letters or on your website, make sure you have a signed authorization from them to do
26:16
that. I get calls from centers all the time like, "Oh, well, if we just leave out a lot of the details, can't we do
26:22
that?" I always say, "If she could read it and think it's her, don't publish it
26:28
without her signature." Right? Some centers put together a compilation of
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the typical um client and there's absolutely no identifying information,
26:38
not even like towns or the month that she was pregnant when she came to us
26:45
maybe. But it's always better to have an authorization if you're going to use her her ultrasound image. That's her that's
26:52
her medical record. You need an authorization for you to use that. Okay? So, be careful about that.
27:00
And then finally, a little bit about advertising is negative reviews.
27:06
The proboards sometimes have a field day writing negative reviews on Google, on
27:11
Facebook, on Yelp. Um, and so some of those um platforms you can um disable
27:20
reviews, which you know, maybe you want to, especially if you're under attack.
27:26
Um, but in places that aren't um you
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where you aren't able to disable it, you want to always answer answer both
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positive and negative reviews. The positive ones you just say, "Thank you so much
27:43
for the positive review." The negative one, you're not going to answer this way. You're not going to say, "You
27:49
weren't even a client here. Oh, you came to us, but you blah blah blah blah." And
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complain about them. No. patient privacy, right? You cover it. You You're writing not for the person who
28:00
complained, but for the new reader who's reading Yelp and wondering if she should
28:06
come to you, right? That's how we look when I look at a restaurant or anywhere.
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If there's a negative one, I'll look and see how it was responded to and I'll also compare it to all the positive ones
28:18
and think, "Oh, that person's just a wacko." You know? So, same thing. You want to write a response saying
28:24
something like Oh, you know that are you sure you came to our center? Because that does not
28:31
sound like how we operate at all. This is what we do. Um, and we're a safe
28:37
place and 99% of our clients file with us a customer satisfaction
28:46
survey with high results, better than Chick-fil-A even. No, you don't want to
28:51
go that far. But you know what I'm saying? you're you're doing it for the future reader, not for this bum who
28:57
wrote a fake review of you. So, be prepared for that. We do have a legal tips that provides um some sample
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language that you could use as well. And
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finally, I want to talk about being religious. I think most pregnancy centers have gotten this message now
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that the best way to protect our ministries uh you know with constitutional
29:23
protections with employment rights is to make sure our ministries are religious organizations and I know many of you
29:31
formed your centers years and years ago uh and the advice back then was don't be religious right because we wanted to be
29:38
able to get grants and we didn't want it to hinder us even though we were motivated by our faith to go into this
29:45
mission, right? But now with all the cases going up against Christian ministries and employment areas, um, and
29:54
you know, the poor cake bakers, another cake baker is going up to the Supreme
29:59
Court this year because she, you know, she, it's a matter of her expression and
30:04
she wants to be able to make cakes that will honor her faith. Um, we have cases
30:10
where uh employees at Christian ministries or their applicants actually
30:16
and they can't sign a statement of faith and code of Christian conduct. So then they sue the ministry saying they're
30:21
being discriminated against. That's happening a lot. Hasn't happened against the pregnancy center yet. So your
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defense is that you're a religious organization and not just that you think you're a
30:34
religious organization. that's documented in your articles, in your bylaws, that you have a statement of
30:39
faith, a code of Christian conduct that everybody from your board down has to sign and renew every year because what
30:47
happened, there was a big case in 2011 against World Vision. World Vision
30:52
required their employees to sign a statement of faith every year. And you know, they're an international employer,
30:58
um, probably thousands of employees. And one year after 10 years of working
31:04
there, these three people would not resign the statement of faith. They said they no longer believed in the Trinity.
31:11
And so right on the spot, World Vision said, "Well, it's a condition of continued employment." So if you're not
31:19
going to sign it, you we're going to have to terminate you. They got terminated and they sued World Vision
31:25
saying that's discriminating against us based on religion. and it went all the way up to the Ninth Circuit where we're
31:30
going to be in October uh in our APR case and the court ruled in favor of
31:35
World Vision. It looked at its articles, its bylaws, its job descriptions, uh its
31:41
mission statement, um its statement of faith, code of Christian conducts, its
31:46
employment practices, the whole bundle it looked at and said, "No, even though World Vision is in a church, it is a
31:53
Christian ministry and it can hire people that believe the same as them."
31:59
So, that was a big win. And so, we want to make sure you have that kind of protection. So if you're unsure if
32:05
you're religious or you just assume you are because you know you know that's what motivates you do a legal audit
32:13
because we'll look at your um articles, your bylaws. Your job description should
32:19
have not just um religious qualifications. I see a lot that say,
32:25
oh, you know, goes to a church, um, um, believes in the trinity and th those
32:32
kind of things, but you have to have religious duties as well, meaning their
32:38
job is part of furthering the religious mission of the organization. They are
32:44
able to pray with clients as appropriate. They're able to share the gospel as appropriate.
32:50
um they lead devotions for staff on a regular basis, things like that, things
32:56
that further the religious mission of the organization. Um and we have sample sample language
33:02
for you as well on our website. You can go download the job descriptions that go through all those.
33:09
So, those are the things I was thinking about today as far as how to best
33:14
protect your center. There's a lot more we can get into. We just spoke at Caret
33:19
last week about, you know, making sure you have good ultrasound training, making sure the medical practices are
33:26
really high standard. Don't cut any corners. Employment is a another big
33:32
area, and we don't have enough time to go through all this here, but um you
33:38
know, any kind of wrongful termination claim can really hurt the center. um
33:43
making sure you're well insured that your medical director is covered by your
33:48
medical malpractice policy. Another thing we've been seeing is um
33:56
fake clients, often fake clients or adversarials, filing medical board complaints against our medical
34:02
providers. Make sure your medical malpractice insurance provides a defense to your doctor, your nurses for that. um
34:09
because that can cost a lot of money to defend them. I know we covered a lot here and thank
34:15
you. I mean, my goodness, there's a lot there, but we still got time. So, yeah, I've got a question for you, Ann.
34:21
Yeah. U how often should a pregnancy clinic do a legal audit and
34:29
and can you explain how that's a benefit or feature for NEFA members? Yeah. So, I
34:35
would say at least every five years or if something significant changes,
34:41
um, and if the legal audit was done before you were the executive director, it's a good idea for you to do it
34:47
because it's going to be so educational to you about how your center was formed and operates. And we always catch little
34:55
things like I did a legal audit today for a center who I helped them convert to medical like 10 years ago and they
35:03
and I did a board training with them the legal audit and everything and they are doing so excellent but I still found
35:10
four pages worth to say okay we can improve here you know so I would say
35:15
every five years or if there is a significant change and with NIFla it's a
35:21
membership benefit it's it's It's like a 20page questionnaire. I know it's very intimidating and calling it an audit is
35:28
kind of scary, but it's really just, you know, a legal review. Um, and it's it's
35:34
free to our members. I believe Karenet and Heartbeat do one as well. So, make
35:40
sure you take advantage of those things. Um, just for to make sure you're doing things well.
35:48
Oh, so we have a question that says, "You mentioned that the rules for website privacy policy differ by state,
35:55
but do you have any recommendations on where it's located um and how it can be Yeah. How we how
36:00
they can find those answers per state?" Uh yeah. So
36:07
um we started doing legal research in all the states and we have about 10 states
36:14
um state specific legal research that you can find on our website under the
36:19
legal tips page and one of the questions there is does the state have a uh
36:26
consumer privacy law that we have to comply with um otherwise I'm tasking the
36:33
coalition leaders this is an area it would really be great if the coalition got the information from. Um, you know,
36:41
we're trying to do that in California. Of course, California has consumer protection policies and we want to make
36:48
sure laws and we want to make sure to be complying with them, but it's not it's
36:53
not easy to figure out which is frustrating. I would ask your your provider, they might have it. There's
36:59
definitely a standard. NIFla in the basic policies and procedures has a template. Um, but you would want to have
37:07
a local attorney um or check uh our state specific legal thing uh legal
37:13
journals and see if we figured it out yet or check with the coalition
37:19
and see if someone in the coalition has figured it out yet. It's probably just tweaking some language in the website
37:26
privacy policy. Um, in the meantime, we did have a question here. Please tell us what NIFla
37:33
is. Oh, I'm sorry. I just assume. I assume because I've been doing it 30 years, so
37:39
I apologize. NIFla stands for the National Institute of Family and Life
37:45
Advocates. We're based in Virginia. Um, Tom Glesner started 33 years ago. um
37:52
when he came out of Karinet, it was called Christian Action Council then and just saw that pregnancy centers were
37:59
beating being beat up right and left and sometimes it was not because they didn't
38:05
deserve it, you know. So there was a real need to like up the standards in the legal and the medical world. Um and
38:12
so that's what we focus on. We don't compete with Carnet and Heartbeat. um
38:18
they've been around and they really, you know, do great job focusing on what you do in the counseling room with the
38:24
client, which us lawyers don't even ask us because we'll mess that up, you know. But NILA has three lawyers, three
38:32
physicians, and a whole team trying to always produce and update best practices
38:38
in the legal realm as well as in the medical realm. Oh, I remember what I was
38:44
I was telling you. I was going to tell you cyber attacks, they're starting to
38:49
happen against pregnancy centers. So far, it's not like it's mean
38:55
proboards trying to do it, but I'm sure they're trying, right? Um, but you need
39:01
to have your privacy officer, which is usually your nurse manager, uh, do a
39:08
security risk assessment. And there's a form in the new policies we created that
39:14
goes through everything at your center so you could see if you have any vulnerabilities. And I think in both cases that happened
39:21
recently, it was fishing. You know how they send you get emails sometimes and they're
39:27
um you know you it kind of looks real and you're worried about it. So you click the button and then it gives them
39:34
entry into uh your system. So, a good fishing training, anti-ishing training,
39:42
uh, fishing is P H I S H I N G would be really good for the staff. And I say I
39:49
would say timely because it seems to be ramping up. Yeah. So, I was wondering, you said
39:56
about updating um like our bylaws and stuff to
40:02
religious. Um, so our ministry was set up like 36 years ago. So what agency is
40:10
that something to the IRS? Is that state?
40:15
Um, where do we update that? And is there a difference from just being a
40:20
nonprofit to like a religious nonprofit? Oh, and who do we follow?
40:26
Yeah, good question, Jared. Um, so
40:31
the articles of incorporation, which is the document you filed with the state to set up the organization, the nonprofit
40:38
corporation, you would amend those and file an amended articles of incorporation with the state to add your
40:45
religious purposes. Your main focus is still the same, you know, helping women
40:51
choose life uh in a crisis pregnancy, but you're clarifying the religious
40:57
part. Now, the I that's the only form you have to file with the state. Um
41:02
there might be like in California there's a religious designation, so you might have to deal with that. You're not
41:08
in California, right, Jared? So, no, I'm Maryland and West Virginia.
41:14
Okay. So, we'd have to see if Maryland's Maryland is very similar to California.
41:22
So, we'd have to see if there's a religious um category that you could
41:27
file, but in most states, it's just adding your religious purposes. You know, it says we're a 501c3 created for
41:35
charitable, religious, educational purposes pursuant to IRS code section 501c3. That's a standard language, but
41:43
then we want to beef it up to to put in we're a Christ-based ministry or we
41:50
serve women all for the glory of God and things things like that. I knew when I said we should do fishing that we should
41:56
do a fishing uh training. Someone just asked if we do I'll put that on the list
42:03
because I think it's very important. So maybe our next um legal tips will be on
42:08
it and then you could use that webinar um to um train your staff on it. Um and
42:18
then your bylaws is an internal document. You don't file that with the state. Your job descriptions, your
42:24
statement of faith, all that is just internal. Uh your bylaws would need to be amended and be voted on by your
42:31
board, but other than that, you don't have to file it with the state. What will happen is when you do your tax
42:37
return for the next year on the IRS 9990 it asks did you update any foundational
42:44
documents for the organization. So you you would check yes and they don't even ask for a copy. They
42:51
might come back and ask for a copy but you don't have to provide a copy. Um you just have to notify them. They want to
42:57
make sure the original mission that you were formed hasn't changed. like you
43:03
know you didn't form as a pregnancy center and then become a homeless shelter you know or you know a
43:11
immigration clinic or something like that that your main mission is the same which will be
43:19
but good question and does um does Missy have um with
43:25
learning is created don't they have some training on that I'm sure Missy does fishing
43:30
I I think Yeah, I've taken her her training on that and so I can definitely vouch for that.
43:36
Yeah. Excellent. Yeah. All right. Who else has a a question?
43:45
All right. Well, this was a lot of good information. If anyone has a question, feel free to interrupt and we'll be glad
43:51
to address it. Thank you so much, Ann, for being on here. We'll be um posting a
43:56
Oh, was that someone? Was a question? Sorry, I couldn't quite hear. Okay,
44:02
we'll be posting a copy of this um video and be sending out a link. It'll also
44:07
we'll put up a copy of this on the uh the Prolife Team podcast and we'll address if we should remove any pieces
44:13
to make it um ideal for that kind of sharing and um
44:20
and yeah, thank you so much. This was really helpful. Thank you, Ann. Thank you for fighting for life and fighting
44:27
um on behalf of pregnancy clinics and just all of these amazing groups of heroes and you're like the the legal cog
44:34
in our engine of you know on the in this pro-life space and spear. Yeah. Well, I want to thank the
44:40
pregnancy centers because they're on the front lines and they're doing the hard work and I just praise you and pray for
44:47
you. protection over you, especially in those states that are difficult. And uh
44:53
just keep on keeping on because you're winning every day. God bless you.
44:59
Um Ann, would you would you close us out in prayer? I'd love to. Dear Lord, we just thank
45:06
you so much for the opportunities you give us to serve you. um whether it's you know from the legal
45:14
training best practices uh position to the website and marketing
45:22
position so necessary but especially for the pregnancy centers who are doing the
45:27
really hard work and seeing these women day in day out who
45:33
are contemplating abortion and we do everything we can loving on them showing
45:40
them all the resources and actually opening a window to the womb and they see their baby and sometimes they still
45:46
choose abortion, Lord. And sometimes we're the only one that ever witnessed this that child that you created in
45:53
their womb. So, it is a hard job. I pray that you protect the sinners not only
45:59
from the enemies that were constantly fighting, but from discouragement within because it can be really hard. I just
46:06
pray you uplift them daily knowing that they are warriors on your team and that
46:12
you're using them mightily and that their reward is in heaven. Their crowns are going to be heavy with jewels and
46:20
they're going to see those babies in heaven, too. So, we lift them up. We thank you for the opportunity you always
46:26
give us to serve. We thank you for the freedoms we still have in this country and for those that fight to protect them
46:33
in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. All right. Thank you everybody.
46:39
All right. Thank you. Annie leads me by quiet.
46:46
[Music] Yeah. Know I walk.