by Jennifer Johnston
photography by John Russell
On the first day of what would have been her senior year at Vanderbilt, Mary Cady Ford had a baby.
Ford’s Chi Omega sorority sisters crowded into her hospital room, shrieked with delight and brought an avalanche of cute Baby Gap outfits. Her new daughter’s godfather, a fellow student, came by with a copy of the student newspaper. Then everyone went back to class, and Ford was left to face reality: She was a new mother and one year shy of graduation.
“When everyone left and the reality sank in, it was bittersweet,” said Ford, who took a few months off from school after little Caroline was born. Through independent studies – and by taking courses during Caroline’s naptime while her Chi-O sisters babysat – Ford was able to walk through the Vanderbilt Commencement procession just one year later than planned. She picked up her degree in religious studies and art history, then promptly took her 1-and-a-half-year-old daughter home for a nap.
Caroline is 3 and a half now, and this summer Ford will receive a graduate degree from Vanderbilt – this time in theological studies from the Divinity School. Ford originally planned to work as a chaplain after graduation, but her unexpected journey into motherhood changed her focus. Drawing from her experience juggling motherhood and academics, she decided to start a non-profit organization called Finished Up. The organization will provide support for undergraduate women like her who face unexpected pregnancies but want to finish their Vanderbilt degrees.
“I need to work off what I’ve learned,” Ford said. “God gave me this experience, and now I have to do something with it.”
Finished Up, facilitated through the Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center at Vanderbilt, has created a fund that will provide monetary assistance and referrals to resources for housing, medical needs, child care, counseling and spiritual growth so that young mothers can begin to build a healthy life for themselves and their children while completing a degree.
“Mary Cady is an amazing woman,” said Stacy Nunnally, director of gender matters for the women’s center. “Undergraduate women who experience an unplanned pregnancy need to have a place they can go to find all of the information, resources and options they need. And if they choose motherhood, they need the support to be able to finish their education.”
In January of 2004, Ford was a junior rush counselor enmeshed in school and Greek life.
“I was helping girls through rush and stopping to throw up in the bushes outside the sorority house. I was so sick. One day I was sitting in Furman Hall in a course called ‘History of the Old South’ and I felt so sick that I went right after class to Student Health,” Ford said.
The news that pregnancy was causing her nausea was a shock, but Ford knew right away she would keep the baby. “I always knew I wanted to be a mom,” she said. “It was just a lot earlier than I expected.”
As any scholar would do, Ford asked the doctor to recommend a book, and she went out and bought What to Expect When You’re Expecting. She met with a faculty adviser and found a lack of centralized resources for pregnant students who decide to keep their baby and want to finish school.
“I felt defeated that day, but now through Finished Up you could go to someone and say, ‘I’m pregnant, I need help,’ and they can send you to the women’s center and you could get plugged in to a network of resources,” she said.
Ford said that for inspiration, she need look no further than her daughter. “She needs to know Mommy isn’t going to be passive about the rest of her life,” she said. In fact, Ford is getting right to work after graduation this summer, hoping to raise $50,000 to add to the pregnancy resource fund.
It is also her mission to speak for a group of women often silenced by shame, Ford said.
“Colleges and universities are talking a lot about sex, but nobody talks about pregnancy,” she said. “We need to talk about it. There’s shame all around – shame if you decide to abort, shame if you give the baby up for adoption, shame if you decide to keep the baby. We don’t even know how many women become pregnant because people don’t talk about it, and they often leave school.”
Ford hopes to one day start a scholarship aimed at young mothers. She bristles at criticism she’s received that prevention would be more effective, or that she is contributing to “broken” homes.
“Nothing about my home is broken,” she said. “If you abstain from sex, great. I’m not saying go out and get pregnant. No one thinks ‘it would be a kick to get pregnant so I can get a scholarship.’” But the reality, Ford said, is that sex and unplanned pregnancy happen on college campuses.
Ford never considered herself a feminist, but she’s found empowerment in her new advocacy role.
“I realized that I can be strong and feminine at the same time,” she said. “I can be a mouthpiece for women whose voices are often silenced by shame.”
To learn more about Finished Up, e-mail Ford at finishedup@gmail.com or Stacy Nunnally of the Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center at stacy.nunnally@vanderbilt.edu.
Posted 06/01/08
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pregnancy Center in Arizona Severely Burned in Apparent Arson Attack
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 31, 2009
Whiteriver, AZ (LifeNews.com) -- A pregnancy center in rural eastern Arizona that serves a predominantly native American population was severely burned in what appears to be an arson attack. The Living Hope Women's Center clinic has closed indefinitely as a result of a fire that gutted a portion of the building on December 20.
Dinah Monahan, the former executive director and current board president of the group of pregnancy centers that operate as Living Hope, says it appears to her the fire was deliberate.
The center maintains a Fatherhood Store and Mommy Store to help low-income residents earn the ability to purchases critically needed pregnancy and other items and Monahan says they were raided.
She told the White Mountain Independent newspaper that whoever started the fire vandalized televisions, VCRs and other equipment before setting the blaze in the back of the building.
The board president indicated that a local resident who lives next door to the clinic heard and saw people at the scene and chased them away from the clinic after the fire began. The neighbor was able to wrestle one person to the ground and the newspaper indicates the individual is now in police custody.
Monahan indicated the fire did not burn the clinic to the ground but caused enough fire and smoke damage that the clinic facility is useless until it undergoes major repairs.
Monahan told the WMI the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) is investigating the fire and that a representative from the Phoenix Bureau of Indian Affairs has investigate as well because the fire would be a federal crime since it occurred on an Indian reservation.
The center president told the newspaper that ATF officials asked her if the pregnancy center was involved in anything controversial that might have sparked a hate crime.
"The agent very gingerly asked if we were involved in 'anything controversial' in our ministry," she said. "You can imagine what they hear about Crisis Pregnancy Centers, abortion clinic bombings and the like. I assured him that even though we are a CPC ), our work was mostly pre-natal and parenting and that the culture in Whiteriver is very pro-life."
She told the newspaper the apparent arson will set the pregnancy center back quite a bit financially and logistically.
"When we think of everything we had in there it is a bit overwhelming. We had just gotten two new computers, a new ultrasound machine, a very large screen TV and of course our beautiful, huge Mommy Store. But these are things that can be replaced. One greater challenge will be where do we go from here?" Monahan asked.
She is concerned because the availability of buildings in Whiteriver is very scarce.
Monahan indicated the Whiteriver pregnancy center had 400-600 visits every month from the low-income people who live in the community.
"As our staff stood outside the building, clients would come and cry as they looked at the devastation," she said. "This ministry is so loved by so many there. We are looking at our options, one which is to lease a large lot and build or place a modular on it. Whatever we do, build, remodel or use a modular, we feel strongly that the people of Whiteriver are the ones who should do it."
She told the WMI that funds are critically needed to rebuild.
"As I stood there a man and wife came by and he said, 'I'm a carpenter, what can I do to help?' The one thing they can't do is raise funds, so the ministry will be doing this, but the work will be done by the Apache people."
ACTION: You can help the center rebuild with a donation to Living Hope Women's Centers, 1000 E. Huning St., Show Low, AZ 85901
Related web sites:
Living Hope Women's Centers - http://www.womenscpc.org
Cecilia's commentary on the above article.
The above article shows how truly anti-choice many pro-aborts are. This is an act of domestic terrorism that isn't discussed in the mainstream media, because of the pro-abortion bias that they have. Most of the mainstream media want the public to view pro-life people as violent and evil. By contrast, they want the public to view pro-aborts as gentle and non-violent heroes. These stereotypes are often untrue, if not an outright reversal of the truth, as the above story shows. But the media just ignores stories that don't promote the stereotypes they want to public to believe. So you won't see this story about the arson attack on a Crisis Pregnancy Center in your local newspaper.
If a Planned Parenthood Center had been targeted with arson, it would be headline news across the country, with days worth of commentary. (Please, don't even think about targeting an abortion related business or group with any kind of violence or revenge. We pro-lifers need to stay non-violent, big time.)
The motive for the arson attack was probably political and/or economic. The political angle is someone doesn't like pro-life people or pro-life activities. Since Crisis Pregnancy Centers are typically run by pro-life people, an attack on this facility was an attack on a political view the arsonists don't like; and want to suppress.
The economic angle is that Crisis Pregnancy Centers are competition for abortion clinics. Abortion is a multi-million dollar industry in this country. The more abortions they do, the more money they make. It's definitely big business.
Crisis Pregnancy Centers offer women in crisis pregnancies an alternative to abortion. This means women come to see they don't really "need" an abortion if they don't want to have one. Thus women who don't want abortions won't reluctantly submit to them for lack of other options. But too much of this scenario cuts into the abortionists' business, and decreases the abortion industry's profits. The arson may have simply been an effort to eliminate the competition (and other choices for women).
We've come a long way from the frontier days when genocidally minded people could kill Natives with impunity. Today, killing a Native person, who is old enough to breathe air into their lungs, can land you in prison on a murder charge. So the only legal way to kill them is to get them in the womb, before they are old enough to breathe air into their lungs. A pro-life culture on the reservations, plus a Crisis Pregnancy Center as an effective agent of that culture, sets the genocidal cause back many years.
At the end of the above article is an address where donations can be sent, to help the Apache people rebuild their Crisis Pregnancy Center.
At least the arson is a federal offense, since it happened on Native American land. The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms is investigating this fire.
Update: July 23, 2010
I am pleased to report that my first suspicions about the arson have been proven wrong. The persons responsible have been arrested, and they aren't hard core pro-aborts with political or economic motives. Neither are they genocidal racists. They were just drunk pranksters out looking for mischief to do.
Have you ever been relieved to discover that you were wrong about something? If you have, then you know how I feel right now. It's a relief to know this wasn't an act of domestic terrorism.
As pranks go, this was a nasty one. The people responsible are in a lot of trouble (arson is a serious crime). But at least we don't have to worry where they're going to strike next.
The Apache people still need help rebuilding their center. Donations can be sent to the address in the above article.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inside the Abortion Industry
In a story sure to outrage many, at a high school in Seattle the health clinic arranged an abortion for a 15 year old without her parent’s knowledge. Her mother had signed a consent form to allow her daughter access to the clinic, a seemingly harmless option that many parents assume means more protection for their child rather than less. But in this situation, it meant sanctioning collusion between the clinic and an abortion provider. The young girl had taken a pregnancy test at the school clinic and found out she was pregnant. Being pro-life, she was still persuaded to have an abortion and then told that if it remained a secret, the abortion would be free. That’s quite a bargain. It’s a tragic story, unfolding still, and it has led to many hard questions about the forces conspiring to ‘raise’ our children. One question is ‘what happened inside that abortion clinic that would convince a pro-life 15 year old to have an abortion?’ I have a true story to tell that might offer an answer.
Years ago a close friend of mine, I’ll call her Annie, became pregnant by her boyfriend. She was 18, a high school drop out, and been working as a stripper. She really had no family, she had been raised in foster homes because her mother was a tramp and her father unknown. Her grandparents were the only ones who paid any attention to her, but being strict Mormons they deplored her lifestyle, what little they knew about it. When the news broke that she was pregnant the reaction was immediate. Her boyfriend was furious, “how could she let that happen?” Her circle of friends shrugged their shoulders in sympathy. Her mother didn’t care, and her grandparents, upstanding members of the church, were so embarrassed they told her never to visit them lest their friends find out. All of them had the same advice: get an abortion. Their reasons were roughly the same: her life had been a disaster and she couldn’t even take care of herself, much less a baby. It was all an inconvenience, a blessing granted to one unworthy, and the child would grow up handicapped by poverty and abuse. If she wanted to continue to enjoy life, she needed to abort the child. She came to me (her boyfriend was my roommate) after talking to everyone else. I was the only voice who thought differently. It was true she was not ready to be a mother, and it was true that so few around her would support her if she tried. But what if she gave nine months of her life to bring into this world a child that would be loved and cared for like she never was? What if she gave this child up for adoption, wouldn’t that decision start to turn back all those years of abandonment and heartbreak she had lived with all her life? It was a huge sacrifice on her part, but if she could use her trademark stubbornness to support a positive choice, wouldn’t that prove that she could change her life? She wasn’t doomed to live a tragic existence, here she might show the world that she wasn’t a prisoner to the past. With tears in her eyes she told me she would try, and I really hoped she would, but even for a well adjusted woman with every advantage it’s a monumental task to carry a child and then give it away. I told her that whatever happened, I’d do all I could to help her.
Her family was furious. Her boyfriend said that since it was her decision he wasn’t about to change his life to suit hers. Ironically his family suddenly appeared and insisted that if she was going to have the child, they’d sue to take it, it was his first they argued. As weeks passed Annie’s determination flagged as she endured ridicule and watched those around her partying without a care in the world. Many a night I got late calls from her asking me to remind her why she was doing what she was doing. One day her grandmother offered to take her to a prenatal appointment she had set up. They arrived at the clinic on time and Annie found herself waiting in a room for the doctor. A few minutes later two women came in and one sat down beside her to talk. The conversation focused on her past and the destructive world she was brought up in. They talked about her absent mother, and they talked about how the past predicted the future and guaranteed a grueling life. Annie had never had counseling to deal with so much she had endured, so here, in this sterile room, she trembled with shame as the nurses picked and pulled at the scabs that covered festering wounds caused by a life no sane person would have chosen for themselves. It was obvious to them that Annie had nothing better to offer the child, not now or ever, and certainly wasn’t strong enough to give the baby away. She could finally do something responsible, abort the child, and then get back to her boyfriend, her drugs and booze, her old life. When Annie balked at the suggestion, they pushed even harder. The conversation moved from friendly to insistent, and the long litany of terribles was paraded to paint a picture of a future stunted and bleak. Was that what she was offering this child, a life like hers? Who would do that to something they loved? Annie understood what they were telling her, she had lived it, and her mind raced with the consequences of it all. They told her they could perform the abortion within the hour, she would be home by the afternoon, and no one would have to know about it. Women had miscarriages all the time, life went on. Annie cried aloud and pulled at her hair, her face buried in her hands as she tried to work through in her mind an answer to the hardest question she had ever faced. She started to break down, and the nurses sensed it, ratcheting up the pressure, pummeling her with questions and accusations. Annie looked toward the door, anxious to run like she always had, telling them she needed time to think. One of the nurses moved swiftly to block the door, telling her that there was no time, her decision was needed now. The room resounded with pleading and prodding, crying and shouting until Annie finally broke.
I had known Annie for a few years by that time. I had seen her radiant in her physical beauty (she is gifted with it), and seen her a pathetic mess; stoned and drunk and hysterical. It’s easy to mistake her long, straight blond hair and sparkling blue eyes; that Nordic, pale skin and voluptuous body as glittering garments covering a weak and vulnerable heart. But to do so would be to make the same mistake so many have made about Annie before – her passion, her pride and ferocity make her more like a shieldmaiden to a Viking warrior than a daisy wilting under storm clouds. That day at Planned Parenthood they met the shieldmaiden. Annie burst from under the barrage at the flower print uniforms belching out murderous designs. Instead of dissolving into helplessness under withering pressure, some ancient strand of genetic outrage ignited within her and with berserker rage she cleared a way to the door, pinning a wide eyed nurse to the wall with one hand as she swung open the door with the other. She ran down the hall looking for the glass doors that led outside, but turning the corner she saw ahead her grandmother standing at the front desk, counting out cash. Annie then realized it had all been a set up, and as their eyes met, another wound spread across a battered and bruised heart. It seemed the whole clinic chased after Annie through the doors and into the parking lot, but she didn’t stop running until she made it to my apartment, miles away.
Annie called me last night. She had received a package from the adoption agency that contained a few letters and many photographs of the baby girl she gave away ten years ago. The adoptive parents named her Rachel, and wrote about her creativity and love of music, about her contagious energy and many friends. They also mentioned her stubbornness and a wild streak that every so often bursts out and blows away anything in her path. I’m holding a picture of Rachel, Annie wanted me to have it. The girl’s eyes are bright blue framed by long blonde hair that meets slender shoulders and a long, lean body. Her dress is cute, but her expression is mischievous, and I laugh to myself at the wonder her parents must feel when life strums those chords of furious passion that is the heirloom given her by her birth mother. One day Rachel will meet Annie, and then find out she has a sister and a whole other family that has loved her since the day we gave her away. Annie worries that Rachel might never forgive her for the choice she made. No Annie, I say. In a life that might have a thousand victories, that choice will remain the most glorious one of them all. She not only saved a life, she gave a life. How many can say that? So few, and in my book, that makes Annie a hero and her life worth celebrating.
Which is why my heart goes out to that 15 year old in Seattle, left alone to defend her convictions against the practiced arts of the abortion industry. I know it’s easy to preach principles when we’re far from the crisis that tests them, but when the crisis becomes a scar that lasts a lifetime, we ought to take our responsibility as adults to protect children as a core principle beyond political contortions. We may never know what happened inside that doctor’s office that day, but we do know that it can never be undone. Some call that a victory for women’s rights. Some day I’ll ask Rachel what she thinks.
