{"id":261549,"date":"2022-02-01T06:45:41","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T12:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=261549"},"modified":"2022-01-27T17:41:51","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T23:41:51","slug":"moms-praising-work-maternity-homes-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/moms-praising-work-maternity-homes-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"Moms write op-ed praising work of maternity homes: ‘We were given resources to thrive’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

(NRL News Today<\/a>) We published stories about the saintly work of Pregnancy Help Centers virtually every day. Their kindness is legendary, and what they offer women and girls with unplanned pregnancies cannot be praised enough.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

However, you wouldn\u2019t\u2014or least I wouldn\u2019t\u2014expect a joint op-ed to appear in USA Today<\/a><\/em> that sang the praises of\u00a0another woman-helping resource: maternity homes. A typical USA Today<\/em> news story or op-ed is as far away from Mikaela Kook\u2019s and Shawnte Mallory\u2019s story as the east is from the west.<\/p>\n

The headline nicely summarizes their personal experiences:<\/p>\n

Abortion felt like an excuse to avoid helping us. Thankfully, we found another option.<\/em><\/p>\n

We both visited abortion clinics. We were both alone and scared. But it turns out all we needed was support to make a truly free decision.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSupport to make a truly free decision\u201d! How can you argue that women making life and death decisions about the babies are free when they have next to no support? When everyone around them says abort!<\/p>\n

Mikaela Kook\u2019s father was so angry that when she refused to have an abortion, he would not allow Kook, a college student, to live at home any longer. Her mother didn\u2019t agree with her husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother understood my doubts and found one of the\u00a0maternity home<\/a>\u00a0programs\u00a0across the country that support women facing pregnancy in difficult circumstances,\u201d Kook writes. \u201cI was nine weeks pregnant when I reached\u00a0Mary\u2019s Shelter in Virginia<\/a>\u00a0that September, and was\u00a0able to\u00a0live there until and after the birth of my baby.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Shawnte Mallory was already the mother of two children. \u201cI didn\u2019t know how I was going to afford another child,\u201d she writes, \u201cSo\u00a0I moved in with my mother, who scheduled an appointment for me to have an abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, \u201cA health care worker told me about maternity homes. I stayed at Mary\u2019s Shelter with my children until 2015 and was encouraged to learn and grow.\u201d She writes \u201cIn 2016, I studied for and became a certified nursing assistant.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0How maternity homes are serving women and children in need<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

She sings the praises of Mary\u2019s Shelter. \u201cEveryone at Mary\u2019s Shelter was incredibly supportive and one staff member in particular became almost a second mother to me,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n

There is, of course, much more to their stories\u2014\u201cOf course life was still difficult,\u201d Mallory writes\u2013 but adds, \u201cMy children are my life, and I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.\u201d Mikaela Kook has reconciled with her father who \u201cadores his granddaughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

They conclude on a truly wonderful note.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of judging us for keeping our babies, we were given\u00a0resources to thrive. There are an estimated\u00a0300<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0400 maternity housing programs<\/a>\u00a0in the United States. From providing us with food and lodging as well as\u00a0counseling, parenting classes, and access to educational resources<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0support\u00a0was there when\u00a0we felt lost and overwhelmed.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of judging\u201d indeed. There were plenty of their friends who told them \u201cabortion was the answer,\u201d but instead of listening to them \u201cWe said yes to hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

They write:<\/p>\n

Abortion was used as an excuse to avoid helping us, but choosing life and getting connected to support set us on a positive trajectory that otherwise wouldn\u2019t have existed. Every life is valuable \u2013 including\u00a0our lives, and our babies\u2019 lives. No woman should be pressured into ending a pregnancy.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published at NRL News Today<\/a> and is reprinted here with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(NRL News Today) We published stories about the saintly work of Pregnancy Help Centers virtually every day. Their kindness is legendary, and what they offer women and girls with unplanned pregnancies cannot be praised enough. However, you wouldn\u2019t\u2014or least I wouldn\u2019t\u2014expect a joint op-ed to appear in USA Today that sang the praises of\u00a0another woman-helping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":322,"featured_media":214681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[10628,7077],"tags":[19,15419,13216,15420,13116,15421,327],"yoast_head":"\nMoms write op-ed praising work of maternity homes: 'We were given resources to thrive'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There were friends who said \u201cabortion was the answer,\u201d but instead of listening to them, these moms "said yes to hope\u201d and found help at maternity homes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/moms-praising-work-maternity-homes-resources\/\" 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