Solidarity HealthShare at March for Life: ‘We’re Not Done,’ ‘Woke Medicine’ is ‘Hostile to Christians’
(CNSNews.com) – During a conversation at the 2023 March for Life with Chris Faddis, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Solidarity HealthShare, Faddis explained his organization’s efforts to provide people with “life-affirming healthcare” through their health care sharing ministry in a post-Roe world.
We “have to build solutions for women, for families, for everyone, to make sure they always have access to life-affirming care, that there’s life-affirming doctors out there to support them and get them out of this woke medicine,” Faddis told CNSNews.com. “And so we’ve got to be here.”
The Jan. 20 march in Washington, D.C. was the 50th annual March for Life and the first march since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court on June 24, 2022.
CNSNews asked Faddis, “Now that Roe v. Wade is overturned, why should people continue to march?”
“Because we’re not done,” said Faddis. “We cannot stop until there’s not a single baby that will be killed by abortion.”
“And ultimately because it’s become very clear that the left is hostile to Christians, that what we would call ‘woke medicine’ or ‘life-denying healthcare’ is becoming more and more prevalent,” he added. “And it’s time to really get out there and fight it.”
Faddis continued, “We’ve got to fight it, but we also have to build solutions for women, for families, for everyone, to make sure they always have access to life-affirming care, that there’s life-affirming doctors out there to support them and get them out of this woke medicine. And so we’ve got to be here.”
“We all come together here so we can become emboldened and impassioned and really get the fire,” he said. “It’s like going to the mountain and then you go back to work. And then we can go back to our communities and start solving these problems for people.”
When asked about his organization, Faddis described Solidarity HealthShare as “a healthcare sharing organization that is pro-life.”
He explained: “Our members share into each other’s medical bills but they never share into things, abortions, abortifacients, abortion pills, all of that. And so we’ve been doing this for several years. We’ve seen it happen. We’ve seen, as doctors try to sneak an abortion into a procedure for a pregnant woman, all these things.”
“And so we’ve seen that now it’s time that more and more of these doctors have been sort of owned by the healthcare system,” said Faddis. “We’ve got to give them an alternative path so they can create more independent clinics, more independent surgical centers, more practices, so that there can be this life-affirming care. That we can actually protect life-affirming care, make something available.”
According to the Solidarity HealthShare’s website, “healthcare sharing ministries provide a way to pay for health care costs that is different than traditional health insurance.”
Members of health-sharing ministries pay a “monthly share amount,” which is used to pay for the health care needs of its members. Members “agree to a common set of beliefs that help determine which medical costs the community will share towards.”
In the case of Solidarity HealthShare, these “guidelines on the medical expenses that members share are primarily guided by the moral teachings of the Catholic Church.”
“This program is specially tailored for individuals who maintain a lifestyle in accordance with the teachings of the Melita Christian Fellowship or the Catholic Church, make responsible choices in regard to their health, and believe in supporting others in a spirit of solidarity and subsidiarity,” reads the website.
Members of the health sharing ministry can use their health-sharing membership to have various medical expenses covered from wellness visits, to prescriptions, ambulances, maternity care, and more.
As Faddis made clear to CNS News, Solidarity HealthShare has faced its share of pushback for its efforts to provide its members with “life-affirming care.”
“We’ve been doing it for a long time but we receive pushback all the time,” he said. “The hospital systems are incredibly hostile to what we do. A lot of the liberal states, the blue states, are incredibly hostile to this faith-based healthcare movement. And they’re trying all different ways to get in and push us out. It’s one of those things that we have got to take on for ourselves.”
CNSNews also asked, “Now what would you say to someone who lives in a state where the state legislature is predominately pro-abortion, how can they still fight for life if the odds may be stacked against them?”
“Well, for one, is to provide solutions,” he said. “You’ve got to have the alternative.”
“So if somebody sees life-denying care down the street, you’ve got to provide them life-affirming care,” Faddis added. “And you’ve got to do it whether they’re Christian or not. … When you serve a woman in need, with incredibly life-affirming care, when you show her that she has dignity, her child has dignity, when you give her the resources she needs, or when you serve this family with really great care and you help them with their children’s medical needs and all the things, people start to see what it really means, what it’s really about, and that will change hearts.”
“If you can’t change a law in your state, there’s no reason why you can’t stand up in a credible family practice or medical clinic that is going to serve folks no matter who they are,” he said. “It could be serving the poor, it could be serving just any family, and that’s why it’s all about solutions, it’s all about giving somebody that alternative. I show you life and I show you death. We need to show them life in our healthcare.”
CNS News also asked Faddis, “With the ongoing attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers, and places that are trying to provide pro-life care for women, how can we empower people to still feel brave enough to go out and volunteer for these things?”
“Numbers help,” Faddis declared. “This is one of the reasons we come here. It’s like ‘Oh, hey, we’re not alone. It’s not just me that feels this way, look at all these folks here.’”
“But ultimately, we need to be vigilant,” he said. “We need to be very smart about how we do things, making sure we have good security at our pregnancy centers, making sure that we men are taking time to volunteer and protect them and do the things we need to do.”
The 50th annual March for Life featured a wide range of speakers, including pro-football Hall of Fame Coach Tony Dungy, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), actor Jonathan Roumie, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch (R), and Connecticut State Rep. Trenee McGee (D).
At the march were students, families, clergy, other religiously-affiliated groups, survivors of abortion, and even former abortion industry employees.
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