Organizations meeting the needs of women in crisis

The phone “rang off the hook” for Frances Broussard, director of the Pregnancy Problem Center in Baton Rouge, after the announcement of the Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade on June 24. 

Churches and organizations called to ask, “How can we help moms in crisis pregnancy situations?” Pro-life advocates are answering the call and embracing the challenge of accompanying moms in need.

Broussard calls the response “an answer to prayers by the Sacred Heart of Jesus” as the announcement was made on that feast day. She attended Mass at Sacred Heart of Jesus in Baton Rouge with a representative of Woman’s New Life Clinic in Baton Rouge that day, and they embraced after they came out of the church and heard the news together.

Putting celebrations aside, crisis pregnancy centers, church parishes and pro-life advocates are rolling up their sleeves because they know “the work has just begun.” More support, education and conversion of hearts must be done.

The Pregnancy Problem Center will further their concentration on providing practical as well as spiritual help.

“We might be instruments through which people will be brought to Jesus,” said Broussard.

In addition to supporting the crisis pregnancy center, church parishes are picking up on programs such as Walking with Moms in Need and Embrace Grace.
 

“Now there will be a whole lot of moms in need, (so) we need to step up to the plate financially.” 

Don Taylor, Grand Knight

Knights of Columbus Council 8342 of St. John

Walking with Moms is a United States Conference of Catholic Bishops initiative being introduced in the Diocese of Baton Rouge in partnership with Catholic Charities. Through Walking with Moms, parishes support local pregnancy centers and find and share other resources with pregnant and parenting women. 

Randall Waguespack, director of the Office of Life, Justice & Peace for the diocese, is helping to implement this program.

The cluster parishes of St. Joseph of Paulina, St. Michael the Archangel in Convent and Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Gramercy are offering Walking with Moms and a program called Embrace Grace.

An Embrace Grace support group will start in August at St. Joseph. The classes will meet every Thursday for 12 weeks, according to Tracy Keller, who will lead the group.

“The young women will receive emotional, spiritual and physical support,” said Keller. “At the end of the semester we will have a baby shower where they will receive many of the things they need for their baby and will have an opportunity to meet with many people in our community who all wish them well and look forward to welcoming their baby into the community.”

So far, three women will be attending Embrace Grace in August, according to Keller. 

“Our biggest need is to get the word out so that we can make contact and offer our help,” said Keller. “Please pray that any young women in need will not be afraid to reach out to us. We are here to show her the love of Jesus through our words and actions.”

St. Alphonsus Church in Greenwell Springs is exploring ways to reach moms through Walking with Moms and Embrace Grace and connect them with other resources. They plan to form a support group for women who decided to give their babies life as well as women who have had abortions, according to Susan Hankel, staff liaison for the St. Alphonsus Respect Life Ministry.

St. George Church in Baton Rouge is also working through Walking with Moms and its outreach ministries, including the Catholic Daughters, St. Elizabeth Ministry and the St. Vincent de Paul council. 

“But also prayer, because we still have a long way in creating a culture of life,” said Kristel Neupert, St. George social responsibility coordinator.

Stepping forth as the “honor guard” of life is the Knights of Columbus, which has a long history in respect life issues.

Like many KC councils, the Knights of Columbus Council 8342 at St. John the Evangelist Church in Prairieville has an annual baby bottle fundraiser. In its recent campaign, more than $11,500 was collected, with the proceeds split between Woman’s New Life Center and the Pregnancy Problem Center. 

The KCs also conduct an annual candy drive to help children with special needs. They also purchased ultrasound machines for the crisis centers and provide meals for the women’s and children’s shelter at St. Agnes Church in Baton Rouge.

“Now there will be a whole lot of moms in need, (so) we need to step up to the plate financially,” said Don Taylor, grand knight of Knights of Columbus Council 8342 of St. John.

With Roe v. Wade overturned, a critical need remains to develop the culture of life by educating and converting the hearts and minds of youth and young adults, said Emily Froeba, theology teacher at St. Michael the Archangel High School in Baton Rouge and organizer of the annual March for Life pilgrimage to Washington, D.C.

“On social media kids are getting eaten alive by negative feedback (on the overturning of Roe v. Wade). There’s an agenda,” said Froeba. “The students see that the world is so broken, shattered.” 

She said rather than the concept of “suffering with life” as Christ did, the idea is being pushed that “things are so bad why raise a baby in this world?” This is where euthanasia, abortion and other “culture of death” ideas are implanted,” she said.

Even when presented with the truth that life begins at conception, the response is, “So? It doesn’t matter.” 

Froeba said young people have grown up with the erroneous message a conceived life “is only a clump of cells/tissue.”

Froeba said emphasis is being placed on the inherent dignity of life.

“To me, pro-life, it all falls under one umbrella – life and dignity. We’re called to uplift the dignity of all individuals,” Froeba said.

At St. Michael, there will be presentations on adoptions and other alternatives to abortion.

Froeba emphasized respecting life means supporting the homeless, the elderly, the immigrants, all who need protection. For those in youth and young adult ministry it involves pairing up the concept of respect life with corporal works of mercy.

“It’s in word and action, people working with young people,” she said, adding that is why the annual pilgrimages to March for Life will continue.

“We need to seize this moment in history and build a culture of life,” Froeba said.

For a list of crisis pregnancies resources, visit diobr.org/respectlife.