A DOCTOR OF WORDS
Dr. Winnie Heartstrong is an author, speaker, and pro-life advocate whose faith and interest in science and politics led her to study fertility and the rhetoric surrounding the science of life in the womb.
With a doctorate in communication from the University of Maryland in College Park, Dr. Winnie's scholarly training allows her to advance discourse about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for the unborn and their mothers and fathers.
In 2020, she ran for the United States Congress to represent St. Louis. In the lead-up to her race, she received an endorsement from Missouri Right to Life for her unwavering support for the life of the unborn and her commitment to protecting those rights through legislation.
Alas, God had other plans as that race was unsuccessful.
Nevertheless, Dr. Winnie never stopped thinking about ways to contribute to the cultural conversation about abortion. In 2022, she was struck by the tone of the national conversation about "disagreement within the medical community about when life begins." After the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade in June 2022, attention shifted to the states as did our national discourse about when life begins.
Suddenly faced with the desperate cries of women seeking abortion in a post-Roe America, cultural commentators began examining what options these women have to end their pregnancies. It was within this cultural context that Lila Rose of Live Action appeared on a segment of Dr. Phil to debate pro-abortion audience members about their position. Watching Lila and Dr. Phil go back and forth about the question - when does life begin, scientifically? - struck Dr. Winnie as a low point in our national discourse about the life of the unborn.
She wondered aloud, "Have we become so callous as to deny the obvious - that life begins at conception?" Seeking to give conclusive direction on the seemingly ambiguous question, Dr. Winnie published her first book Holy Fertility: The Christian Case Against Contraception. In it, she unpacked a plethora of scientific evidence from medical textbooks, scientific journals, and research articles that conclusively delineate that life begins at fertilization (conception) when the sperm and the egg meet to form a unique and unrepeatable human being.
Holy Fertility reiterated the position that life begins at fertilization, so any device, procedure, or practice that prevents a fertilized egg (new human life) from growing to full-term constitutes an abortion. Hence, the exhortation to Christian couples to avoid the use of abortifacient contraception as a method of family planning.
In 2023, on the heels of her debut prolife book, Dr. Winnie again went to work. Putting words to the page, she penned a guide for post-abortive mothers and fathers who seek healing from the mistakes of their past.
This new project resulted in 8 Ways to Heal from Abortion - a labor of love - which features the stories of women and men who have healed from abortion. 8 Ways to Heal from Abortion contains these chapters - tell someone, forgive yourself and others, practice Christian mindfulness, name your baby, get psychological counseling, become prolife, help someone choose life, and change your lifestyle.
Dr. Winnie is a wife and mother of five children. She loves to swim, bake, and sing; and is looking forward to linking arms with you on this journey of prolife advocacy.
TIMELINE
2009
Intern | Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-IL), a pro-life Democrat
2010
President | Northern Illinois University (NIU) Students for Life
2011
1st time attendee @ March for Life | Washington D. C.
2012
Campaign Coordinator | Minnesota for Marriage
2013
Intern | U. S. Senate Foreign Realtions Committee, Washington D. C.
2019
Ph.D. in Communication | University of Maryland, College Park.
2022
Published Holy Fertility: A Christian Case Against Contraception.
2025
Published 8 Ways to Heal from Abortion.
"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat."
St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
