Written by Julie Stuckenschneider
A common misconception that comes up during debates between pro-life and pro-choice individuals is that the ones who support life do nothing to help the women and children from low income families or unplanned pregnancies. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Many individuals volunteer, donate and even help individual women on their own. In a post from Twitter that got shared on Facebook a pro choice person posted “Dear Pro-Life friends: what have you “personally” done to support lower income single moms? I’ll wait”. The post had over 900 comments!
Just to name a few examples of what individual pro-lifers do:
- a professor commented they allow extra time to complete work for pregnant women and try to work around their schedule the best they can.
- many throw baby showers for low-income moms/families
- one woman housed a 17 year old and her baby until the mother was able to get on her feet while many other individuals commented on also housing women and their children.
- donation to pregnancy centers, organizations that provide maternal assistance to low income parents and charities that help feed, clothe and educate mothers.
- volunteer at crisis pregnancy centers
- many churches have support systems to help feed, clothe and or provide shelter for women/children with another individual commented their church has a “store” with everything from formula to clothes, toys and shoes for kids and moms.
- provide childcare so the mother could go to work and earn a paycheck to help support her family
- paid rent for a mother
- financially supported families through the adoption process
Seeing comments like this should help everyone feel inspired. One thing is for clearly apparent pro-life individuals go above and beyond to help women and children.
Not only do these individuals help women independently but by donating to pregnancy centers they can reach many more who are struggling with similar situations. Pregnancy centers provide free pregnancy tests, medical exams, ultrasounds and STD testing/treatment; education classes on parenting, adoption, child raising and abortion; Prenatal and parenting education; Material assistance; sexual risk avoidance education; after abortion recovery; referrals for medical care; and links to vital community and public health resources.
Pregnancy Centers help women before, during, and after their pregnancies. Options United partners with these pregnancy centers to help women in crisis get the help they actually need. One thing is for certain, pro-lifers do much more than people realize for women and children in need.