Heartbeat Press - March 2026 Edition

Tinsel Town Troublemakers - Meet The Stars Going Against the Grain 

    On Monday, March 15, 2026, thirty-six year old actress Jessie Buckley won the best actress Academy Award for her role in the Shakespeare-inspired film Hamnet. Dedicating the award to "the beautiful chaos of a mother's heart," Buckley also took a moment during her acceptance speech to thank her husband for his support and to send a special message of love to her young daughter, who she "can't wait to discover life beside," creating a precious picture of what really matters in the actress's life amidst the fever pitch of Hollywood's biggest night. Buckley's speech is also particularly powerful as it acts as a counterpoint to the general Hollywood consensus that says that marriage and children are nothing but roadblocks to self-gratifying success and, as such, are better avoided or disposed of. 

    Previously explored in a Heartbeat Press The Blacklist column, this attitude was on stark display at another award ceremony in 2019, where actress Michelle Williams credited previous abortions for her success (sparking cheers and applause from the attending audience) and is the general attitude of Tinsel Town, where residents either have no love for Pro-Life ideals or, alternatively, have gone along with majority morality because of an innate need to conform. Psychology suggests that this need to be a part of something is not always a bad thing, but, in cases where it is used as a pulse point for anonymity-driven atrocity endorsement, the "herd" is not on the right side of history. Psychology also suggests that deviating from Herd Mentality is not impossible - but doing so often takes strength and (in many cases) personal past experience coaxing morality down the path less traveled. To this end, Jessie Buckley is not the only actor in Hollywood who values life and familial fulfillment; her allies are simply, seemingly, few and far between. However, that hardly matters when their stories are as powerful as their voices are thunderous. 

    Actress and proud mother of four Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond and The Middle) is Pro-Life and has absolutely no qualms about declaring those beliefs loud enough for everyone to hear. Having been quoted supporting mothers ("A woman experiencing an unplanned pregnancy also deserves to experience unplanned joy." - 2010), Heaton has also been particularly vocal about the need to recognize the science behind pregnancy, which is often ignored when making way for abortion justification. Heaton has been quoted on this issue several times, saying, "I know this is hard for you to grasp; but women of all kinds who are pro-science and anti-violence don't believe that ending the life of your developing son or daughter in your womb is liberating or progressive. It's tyrannical and barbaric," and "Life begins at conception. Said every scientist ever." Known for playing fierce mothers who don't apologize for defending their children, Patricia Heaton evidently carries that same gumption into real life and her personal principles. 

    Kelsey Grammer, famous for playing TV's most pedantic psychiatrist, knows a little something about Herd Mentality and he is part of the Pro-Life movement. After carelessly accepting abortion for decades, Grammer changed his views and has spoken about the transformation as recently as 2025, while promoting his memoir Karen: A Brother Remembers. In an interview, the actor spoke about the sorrow he felt over the loss of his sister and likened it to the grief and guilt he has born toward children that he allowed two former partners to abort. One was willingly terminated in order to save the life of a preborn twin (though there are success stories where selective abortion proved to be unnecessary) and the other was done because Grammer did not have the strength to champion his child's life. Speaking on this death, Grammer said he was "willing" to keep the child but "did not plead with her to save his life." However, the murder of the actor's sister six months after the abortion and the natural growth of personal morals over the years have since shifted Grammer's perspective on the preciousness of life, which he now boldly defends. Fervently clinging to a faith that also grew out of sorrow, Grammer recognizes the redemption that all his failings have been afforded, saying, "Jesus made a difference in my life. That's not anything I'll apologize for." 

    Pro-Life pariah status in Hollywood is not only limited to TV. World famous film actress Brooke Shields has condemned abortion, calling the practice's use as birth control "very wrong," and Dune actor Timothée Chalamet has vocally bucked another aspect of the self-centered Cinema City starter-kit by noting his earnest desire to be a father one day, calling a life without children "bleak." Even celebrities like Justin Bieber, Jack Nicholson, and Celine Dion have championed the Pro-Life movement because they were each saved from abortion by mothers who valued and chose life. 

    Clearly, the Pro-Life movement is not absent from a city known for its worship of self-promotion at any cost. It is simply present in a small but formidable minority that sees no reason why truth cannot win the day, and that is precisely where the power of the Pro-Life movement lies. After all, if the movies are to be believed, the underdog always triumphs. 

Sources: Ebsco.com, People.com, Pinterest.com, Follow Jesus (facebook), Popcrush.com 

Photo Credit: WSJ.com 

Heartbeat Press - March 2023 Edition

Dr. Bernard Nathanson 

There was no single orchestrator of widespread abortion access in America. No one person who convinced the greater public that it was socially acceptable to kill a child because it was "unwanted" or "unplanned." Rather, the fault lies with about half a dozen activists, propagandists, and doctors who, in the 1960s and '70s, deftly worked together to create the single biggest healthcare lie in American history: "Abortion is safe and necessary." Among the guilty are Margaret Sanger, Larry Lader, Betty Friedan, Helen Gurley Brown, and Dr. Bernard Nathanson. Each of them should be investigated and exposed for their part in making abortion mainstream, but, out of respect for my word count, let's look at them one at a time and in individual editions. To begin, let's take a look at perhaps the most reformed person on that list, only because he eventually did repent and worked to repair the damage he had done.

    Bernard Nathanson was born in New York in 1926, and, thanks to the influence of his OB/GYN father, he was steeped in the medical field from a very early age. Earning a degree from McGill university in 1949, he would eventually follow in his father's footsteps, enjoying a profitable career and then then quickly gaining the respect of many in the medical community. Quick-witted and congenial, he gained so much respect that he began to rub shoulders with a few hidden giants of history, including the propagandist Larry Lader, a man whose name Nathanson's would soon become eternally linked to. Becoming fast friends, the two men often had lunch together and it quickly became apparent to both that they shared a common goal.

    While the practice of abortion is almost as old as civilization itself and was actually commonplace in ancient Rome and Medieval Europe, the straitlaced Judeo-Christian values of the American '60s made the act of abortion unspoken about and nearly unthinkable. But, as progressives who saw abortion as a "necessary" medical advancement (and for Lader, who was an apostle of the eugenicist Hugh Moore, and easy method of population control), Lader and Nathanson wanted to dismantle any and all abortion restriction in America and make the practice of killing a child as commonplace has getting a flu shot. 

    Like a veritable Wormwood, Nathanson followed Lader's lead and buckled down to unrestricted abortion access with an end goal for bringing the issue to the Supreme Court. The two men worked doggedly, but soon realized that their personal opinions could not sway an entire nation. So, at Lader's suggestion, Nathanson looked for a large group whose cause could be co-opted to fit their own. Quickly hitting on NOW (the National Organization for Women) led by Betty Friedan, Lader and Nathanson used their charm, persuasiveness, and eventually outright lies and fabricated data to convince Betty that their ideas were good for her organization and that the ability to dispose of unwanted children would provide the liberation women were seeking. It took years of work, but, in 1967, the two men successfully convinced Betty to make access to abortion on of the core demands of the Women's Movement. In an instant, abortion went from a small issue that most thought unthinkable to a defining leg of a movement that millions felt compelled to defend. Under the guise of "women's health," abortion had a million supporters blindly selling a practice that ultimately undermined their whole platform. With this new support, Lader and Nathanson were able to bring their vision of all-access death to the Supreme Court and, in 1973, its ratification as Roe v. Wade was widely celebrated.

    You could be forgiven for hating Dr. Bernard Nathanson. His work brought about the genocide of our time (or as he would later call it, "a barbaric age") and, after Roe was passed, he personally contributed to over 75,000 abortion (7% of the deaths under Roe), which included his own child when he preformed an abortion on a girlfriend. The majority of his life was dedicated to the destruction of the innocent and it seemed like he was beyond redemption. But, despite everything he had done, God didn't hate Dr. Nathanson and, in fact, He had a plan for the doctor's life. His story doesn't end with Roe.

    In his later years, Nathanson took a job as the director of obstetrics at a hospital in New York City. After an encounter with a sidewalk counselor and with a growing understanding that life does, in fact, begin at the moment of conception, Dr. Nathanson finally saw the humanity of even the smallest children. His heart began to change and, in 1996, he made the leap to the other side and became Pro-Life. That same year he made a personal confession of faith in Christ.

    Faced with the realization that his work had been instrumental in the legalized deaths of millions, Dr. Nathanson spent the rest of his life advocating for the rights of preborn babies. He wrote books on the dignity of life in the womb, he exposed all the skeletons that Lader had tried to hide, and, until his death in 2011, he whole-heartedly stood against the tide of genocide that he had created. Once he took up the mantle of life, Dr. Nathanson never once wavered, and even now his legacy of life after death is an inspiration to future generations of Pro-Lifers. 

Sources: Wikipedia, Subverted by Sue Browder, Denver Catholic.org 

Photo Credit: The New York Times.com 

Hope was Kindled

Martin Luther King Jr. Day, an annual "holiday" were everyone gets the day off, whether they go to school or work in an office; businesses are closed, and every city seems almost deserted as the people enjoy the extra day off after Christmas break has ended. But in the joy of the leisure, many people often forget what the day stands for and why it exists. Equality and equal rights are fluid concepts in this and age and the idea of segregation is all but forgotten, a distant memory. But this was not the case some fifty years ago.

In the mid-twentieth century, you could find signs of segregation everywhere; on every city block you could find a white water fountain and a colored fountain, there were separate schools to keep the white and black students apart, black people even had to sit in a separate part of the city busses. Rosa Parks remembered having trash thrown at her from the white children's bus as she walked to school in the morning, and she was arrested for not giving her bus seat to a white man when she grew up.

Understandably, many black people became fed up with this injustice and the rampant segregation; some people even decided to do something about it. Small groups began to spring up all around the country, organizing small protests and boycotting the local bus lines. But, though their hearts were in the right place, they were not organized enough to continue. They needed a leader, someone strong enough and willing enough to carry the hopes of everyone he would represent. Without such person, the equal rights movement would remain small and unorganized, doomed to be brushed over by the politicians who had the power to change segregation for good.

Just when it seemed that the fight for equality would fall into oblivion, a miracle occurred; hope was kindled. Just as one tiny match can start a forest fire, one man can start and sustain a revolution. This one man was Martin Luther King Jr.

Through his speeches, his unending spirit, and his eternal trust in God, Martin Luther King Jr. brought all the small protests together into a giant movement that could no longer be ignored by the government. In his most famous speech, "I Have a Dream," Martin Luther King Jr. summed all the hopes and dreams of every individual standing in huge assembly before him; what a thousand people could not voice was spoken by one God-ordained man. Through Martin Luther King Jr., God's plan came to fruition and a bright light of hope was kindled for the masses.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is not just about getting off of work or school, not just about an extra vacation day. It is about freedom, the God given freedom that every man, woman and child deserves, no matter the color of their skin. One man brought the words of freedom to the world through his gift for speaking; he spoke for freedom and kindled a fire that never went out. Freedom for all; that is why we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Let FREEDOM reign!

Lets Follow His Dream

"I have a dream that one day my four children will not be judged by the the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!"

On that day, August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke the hopes of every civil rights campaigner in America. And not long after, civil rights were granted. But why then do we still classify people "black" or "white?" We all say that race has nothing to do with our reservations towards someone. Is that so? Do you stare as someone black walks past? Women, do you hold your purse a little more tightly? That is an insult! If you say you don't  care about race but still classify color, you are destroying everything Martin Luther King Jr. died for.

Let us come together as brothers and sisters of liberty. The human race can bind together and scrub out every bit of racism in our great country. It will take time and it won't be easy but we can do it as Americans!

I will end this post with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.'s I have a dream speech: "I have a dream that this nation will rise up and live up to the full meaning of its dream. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of glory the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will sit together at the table of brotherhood. Let freedom reign!"

Let us live by and follow his dream.

Photo Credit: Scott Ableman