Moms thankful for anti-abortion mission
Unlike Mary and Joseph, who could not find an available inn to give birth to Jesus, pregnant women in distress are never turned away by pro-life group, Friends for Life [FFL].
The organisation was birthed in March this year, following a 40-day prayer vigil against abortion that was organised by the Christian youth advocacy group, the Love March Movement (LMM). Since the 40-day campaign ended, FFL has helped to change the minds of 19 women who were contemplating abortion. One of the women gave birth to twins. This means that 20 babies have been saved so far.
LMM Founder Dr. Daniel Thomas told the Freedom Come Rain earlier this year that it is important for Jamaicans to join the fight against abortion because the country is drowning in the blood of the innocent.
“To our shame, abortion in Jamaica is a thriving industry with between 28 and 60 abortions taking place each day,” he said at the time.
Project director for Friends For Life, Diane Constantine, said they assist those considering abortion by responding to their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. Women struggling with the decision on whether to keep their baby or abort are generally referred to the group for intervention.
“We recognise that it’s one thing to say don’t abort, but the reality is that there is a reason that women would have been thinking of aborting. And so we needed to be able to respond. So, it’s not just don’t abort and then leave them; it’s let’s walk with you, let’s support you, so that this decision to choose life becomes easier,” said Constantine.
The women generally share varying reasons for wanting to abort their child. Several of them have experienced severe traumas in their lives, and as a result, it takes a little while to build trust. Once they let down their guards, however, they eventually come to realise that they have found in the organisation a friend for life.
“One of my first questions that I would ask is, what is it that makes you think this [abortion] is the answer? What’s going on in your life? And so the answer usually would be, well, Miss, I don’t have no money, or I don’t live nowhere, or, you know, the father is not in the picture, or he’s pushing for the abortion,” Constantine told the Freedom Come Rain.
FFL generally partners with other groups to ensure a woman gets all the help she needs. If it’s a case where the woman has nowhere to live, they generally reach out to Christina Milford, who operates the Pregnancy Resource Centre in Montego Bay, St James, which provides shelter for pregnant women and girls. Pro-life business owners also try to support the cause by giving a few of the women jobs, so they can be more independent. FFL hopes to strengthen this area and also plans to host more workshops going forward.
“We started our employment workshops, and we did like simple budgeting, teaching them how do you manage your finances, how do you manage the little that you have to make it work. We have more programmes that we want to teach our women. We want to actually teach them how to parent,” Constantine said, before adding, “We need to focus on teaching the women how to steward the gift of the child. So, we definitely want to focus on training stewardship. How do you steward this child? How do you train this child so that this child will actually become an arrow in your hand? This child will become a blessing and an inheritance.”
FFL also partners with churches, but unfortunately, the support has not been as much as they expected, considering the cause. Currently, the group has the support of about five churches, but the intention is to get more on board. Visits have been done at churches across the country to share the vision and to inform leaders how they can support the effort, but only a few have actually given any form of support.
“We want to see the Body of Christ experience a culture shift as it relates to how do you, as the Body of Christ, treat with women who are in crisis pregnancies, whether they are inside your church or not. Because one of the realities is that some of the women we’ve had, are women in churches, (there are) unexpected pregnancies, but the condemnation that comes, then they want to abort to cover the secret that they got pregnant when they were not supposed to,” Constantine explained.
One of the main goals for FFL is to build a residential facility that can house the mothers. Someone has sown into this vision by offering a plot of land in St. Catherine. FFL is hoping that persons will sponsor efforts to construct the facility once the land is officially handed over.
The women are taught that adoption is an option, but only one woman has sought this avenue so far as she genuinely believes she would not be able to care for her child. The others do not want to part with their babies.
“Life is hard because we don’t always have the money to respond to their needs, so they don’t get as much as they need when they need it, though we try. But I would say in a nutshell, I don’t think any of them regret giving birth,” Constantine said.
