CV NEWS FEED // A mother from Massachusetts recently shared how her local pro-life pregnancy resource center saved her life several years ago, and still supports her and her sons to this day.
“For a mother, there’s nothing quite as emotional as watching your child open his first present ever on Christmas morning, when just days prior you thought you wouldn’t be able to provide one. I owe it all to my local pregnancy resource center,” wrote Marie Smith in the Federalist on December 22.
Boston Center for Pregnancy Choices (BCPC) has supported Smith and her family since she found out she was pregnant three years ago. BCPC does not refer or perform abortions, but provides post-abortion counseling and information about the different types of abortion.
“It breaks my heart to know that some in the state have called for the closure of centers like Boston Center for Pregnancy Choices,” Smith wrote. “Without pregnancy resource centers, women would be left with no options but abortion. Take it from someone who has been there.”
“Homeless and jobless at 20 years old, I feared I would never be able to afford the necessary items for my unborn child and was left thinking abortion was my only option,” Smith wrote.
Smith’s cousin worked for the pregnancy resource center at the time, and urged Smith to apply for one of BCPC’s programs.
“Knowing my deepest desire was to keep my son, he promised they would help provide and give me the head start I desperately needed to get back on my feet,” Smith wrote:
After my initial skepticism, I ultimately sent in an application and soon received the phone call that welcomed me to the center. It changed my life — and my two sons’ lives — forever.
Smith wrote that the pregnancy resource center “empowered” her within her situation and that she “experienced love and kindness [she] had never known before.”
“Despite my young age, there was no judgment among the staff at the center,” wrote Smith. “They never pushed me to make one decision over another but, rather, discussed all my options with me — and pledged their unending support, no matter what I would choose.”
Smith compared the experience to one from several years prior. When she was 16, Smith discovered she was pregnant for the first time and went to Planned Parenthood for help.
“I knew I was meant to be a mom and wanted so badly to keep my child, but upon telling the [Planned Parenthood] workers my situation, they immediately said I ‘absolutely had’ to get an abortion,” Smith wrote:
“That’s it?” I thought at the time. “Are there really no other options for me?”
Looking back now, if someone had shown me another path, I never would have gone through with it. It is something I regret to this very day.
The weight of my lost child dragged me into a pit of depression and despair; yet the contrasting experience at Boston Center for Pregnancy Choices left me refreshed and confident, cheery, and certain I could do this.
“This experience [at BCPC] ]pulled me out of a very dark state I had been trapped in,” wrote Smith:
As I embraced my role as a mother, the staff became my family. They saved my life and my son’s life, and I thrived through all the courses and resources they offered — including classes on parenting, car safety, breastfeeding, nutrition, and even a “father and me” class that my son’s father attended.
Two years later, Smith found out she was unexpectedly pregnant for a third time. “The day I found out, Rebecca at the center just happened to text me, checking in. This time, I knew where I would go. Abortion never crossed my mind,” Smith wrote:
The center knew I was struggling with payments and to feed my 2-year-old son while pregnant, so, again attending to my unique needs, they pooled enough resources to cover my rent and utilities, while helping me to find work that would sustain my family.
Smith shared that last year, the pregnancy center called and asked “what my two sons would want for Christmas, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to provide gifts for them on my own. I was moved to tears and, wanting my children to be good readers, requested a book.”
“It’s one I still read to them today,” Smith wrote, adding that she will “never forget” what the women at the pregnancy center did for her and her family. “If it hadn’t been for the women there, I know my two sons wouldn’t be here today. I wouldn’t be so healed from my abortion at 16 years old. I am willing to bet I wouldn’t even be here at all.”
“This Christmas, my two sons and I are immensely blessed,” Smith concluded:
As we cozy up together to read the book from Boston Center for Pregnancy Choices, given to us a year ago, with their wrapped gifts under the tree, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the women who showed me what I was capable of. They empowered me to be the mother I am today, with the two loves of my life here in my arms.
