The fatherhood testimony of Roland Warren, President and CEO of Care Net, is well-documented and foundational to the organization’s Pro Abundant Life vision.
Navigating an unplanned pregnancy with his future wife Yvette while they were students at Princeton has given him a unique, empathetic perspective and a game plan for others facing those decisions that is emblematic of God’s design for family.
When Yvette became pregnant, she visited the university’s student health services office. A counselor there encouraged her to get an abortion, saying, “How will you graduate from Princeton and become a doctor (her dream at the time) with a baby?” However, the young couple was not swayed and decided to have the baby and get married.
On a recent podcast, Roland was asked two simple questions about the unexpected pregnancy he and his wife faced while they were students at Princeton: “Why did you think it would be okay?” and “How were you able to push through and know that there would be a future?”
Roland’s answers when he was a guest on the Them Before Us Podcast with host Jennifer Friesen point to a broader question that continues to shape his work today: What gives someone confidence that an unexpected pregnancy can become the beginning of a flourishing life rather than the end of their future?
The thought of being a baby daddy, a biological father of a child who is not married to or in a committed relationship with the mother, did not cross Roland’s mind because he had an impression of what fatherhood and marriage should look like. Despite being raised in a single-parent household, he credited his mom with never speaking negatively about his father, whom he would see occasionally, and never discrediting the institution of marriage.
“To me, fatherhood and marriage were linked,” he said.
Roland said media and television impacted him in a positive way, especially shows like The Brady Bunch and Good Times.
“They had fathers and mothers and families with marriages. It was aspirational for me,” he said.
Roland also credited “what I saw in church” and attending a Catholic school as formational.
In the interview, he noted that his future wife, Yvette, had grown up in a home with married parents. That example, Roland said, became another influence that helped the couple see marriage and family as the path forward after their unexpected pregnancy.
Additionally, they “didn’t want to complicate one sin with a second sin.”
“We had all the reasons to have the abortion, but we had clarity that this was a life. That was something that God had written in our hearts, and we understood that this was one of His image bearers. From that perspective, we had a faith, if you will, that God was going to work through that.”
Despite being warned about a doomed future and dashed dreams from a college counselor, the couple, by God’s grace, has a beautiful family legacy. Today, Roland and Yvette Warren, Princeton alumni, have two grown sons, Jamin and Justin, and three grandchildren. Yvette became a doctor. Roland earned an MBA.
“I’ve seen the flourishing that comes when you follow God’s design for family—economically, socially, and spiritually,” he said. “That’s why I’m so passionate about trying to help other folks understand it.”
Before coming to Care Net in 2012, Roland’s experience as president of the National Fatherhood Initiative underscored for the ministry how essential it is to involve men.
“I brought a fatherhood perspective to Care Net,” he said.
That conviction has helped shape Care Net’s Pro Abundant Life ministry philosophy. In addition to helping women choose life, the organization equips its network of 1,200 pregnancy centers to engage fathers through various programs, strengthen families, and connect parents with local churches for ongoing discipleship and support.
“When I started at Care Net, less than 10 percent of Care Net-affiliated pregnancy centers had any programs for men. Now we’re close to 65 to 70 percent,” he said in a 2025 Christianity Today article.
Roland noted how his own experiences taught him that fatherhood and the life issue are inseparable. Rather than viewing them as separate causes, he came to see them as overlapping parts of the same mission—one that also includes marriage and discipleship.
“You see the fatherhood story, the marriage story, the discipleship story, and the life issue in the birth of Christ,” he said. “They’re all interconnected, and they all come together in the person of Jesus Christ. These movements operate in silos at times, and that impacts their effectiveness. God has given me a synchronization of these issues through both my life experience and my ministry. I bring all of that together in how I view the life issue.”
Looking back, Roland believes every chapter of his journey—from growing up in a father-absent home to navigating an unexpected pregnancy and leading national ministries—prepared him for the work he leads today.
“God never let me forget that history,” he said, “because it really shaped me and gave me a passion around the work that he was calling me to later.”