December 19, 2024

Read the rest of the story…

Recently, FemCatholic published an article regarding Georgetown Law School’s initial lack of accommodations for pregnant student Brittany Lovely. Author Julia Morrow reached out to Other Feminisms writer Leah Libresco Sargeant and FFL President Serrin Foster for her expertise.

While the article highlights Serrn’s interview, we thought you would be interested in the full, informative text. The Pregnancy and Parenting Resource Forums are the crown jewel of our flagship College Outreach Program. They make a real impact for those in need. Read on!

How does Feminists for Life view the intersection between feminist advocacy and institutional resistance to accommodating pregnant and parenting students, particularly cases like Brittany Lovely’s at Georgetown Law?

Feminists for Life of America has been working to address the unmet needs of pregnant and parenting students, birthmothers, as well as professors and staff on campuses across the country since January 1996. A Gallup Poll had just come out revealing that high school girls were more pro-life than pro-choice, but by the time a woman graduated college, three out of four supported abortion. Why? The lack of accommodation as well as the attitude of professors and the administration seemed to be the answer.

During a Board retreat, one member shared her story about being at a university in Washington, D.C., when she realized she was pregnant. As a pro-life grad student, living with four other women in a two bedroom apartment, with debt, and without the support from her ex-boyfriend or family and without housing, childcare, and maternity coverage she felt she didn’t have much of a free choice.

So I decided to go to the health care center on her former campus and ask what happens to women when they come in for a pregnancy test. The director had me meet with the entire staff. I listened as they explained that Planned Parenthood and another abortion clinic invites them for an open house each year and shows how they hold their hands and offer tissues as they cry and a hug after along with a snack. They take Visa and Mastercard.

The director went on to say that if her daughter were pregnant, she’d want her to go to a place like this. My heart hurt. Did she even think that would be her grandchild? So after expressing sympathy to pregnant students, they referred them to these two centers. Which clinic would be their choice?

I asked if they ever considered the rest of the choices? Marital, partnered, single parenthood; kinship care or guardianship; open, closed, or semi-open adoption. They looked at each other and said no. It didn’t occur to them that a collegian would want to have a baby.

So I offered to create a kit for them with resources in the community and toll free numbers to the national pregnancy resource centers. I collaborated with an FFL member who was the executive director of the Northwest Center, a maternity home and pregnancy resource center in the Adams Morgan area of Washington, D.C., founded by Georgetown University grads who wanted to help poor women in the community.

The director was willing! The meeting ended and all the staff left but one. She quietly closed the door and said she always considered herself pro-choice, but realized that she had not been offering choices. She told me she appreciated the fact that I came to listen and offered help rather than arguing. So for that she was willing to help as well.

From there we made 650 more kits and shipped them to campus health center directors across the US. And in January of 1997, we moderated the first Pregnancy Resource Forum in the country at another Washington, D.C. university. Georgetown University Right to Life hosted the panel discussion. We started with a story of a student, a roommate of the GU-RTL leader. She was pregnant and started spotting and concluded that the baby would not be OK and sought out Planned Parenthood.

We took an inventory of what was available with various administrators, and by the end we had a plan, a blueprint for progress. And every year since we have held another, now named the FFL Pregnancy and Parenting Resources Forum. The health center director is the central place on campus for a pregnant student’s needs. Policies were established–including leave. The Board of Trustees also designated a house near the gates to be used by moms. The rehabed the building to ensure it was lead and asbestos free. The windows and playground were child safe. A dry cleaners became a childcare center utilized by staff. The pro-life group started free babysitting. Gabriel Project would find anything a woman needed! Metro cards? A cell phone? Maternity or baby clothes? Just ask.

Fourteen years after the first Forum, there were babies playing on the floor. Mothers were smiling!

And we begin to see videos of professors rocking babies in their arms when a student lost child care and had to bring their baby to school.

Somehow the law school, which is at another campus, didn’t seem to get the memo. A law professor also didn’t seem to understand Title IX and appeared unaware of the policies and extensive resources available to GU students. As a result, a law school student named Brittany, whose Baby Lovely was due right during exams and sought to take them early, was not accommodated when she asked to take them early.

So FFL pushed out a petition along with the students. In just a few hours over 7,000 people signed the petition. As a result, the law school agreed to let Brittany take the text a month later.

I have moderated these Forums at Ivy League, state universities, women’s colleges, and Catholic universities across the country. As far as the intersection of feminist advocacy and institutional resistance, I have rarely seen it once we approach people with the question, “Do you really have a free choice on campus to have a child and stay in school?” With one exception besides the G.U. law professor, people on both sides of a contentious debate are willing to move forward with woman-centered solutions. When you invite people to work with you, rather than coming for a fight, you find the peace. And for every human being, peace begins in the womb.

I also discovered that women on the tenure track have felt that they won’t realize tenure if they take time to have children. By the time they would normally achieve tenure, it’s too late for them. Over the past three decades we have urged students to advocate for them, too. And you see more campuses having child care centers, like Georgetown.

So on one hand, we have gotten further down the road, but after Dobbs, all the efforts went back toward abortion and distributing the morning after pill and abortion pills. The hostility towards pro-life students has had a deafening effect on pro-life students. So while they might think this is a feminist response, in actuality they are putting more pressure on women, rather than offering more resources for the rest of the choices.

In what ways does FFL believe the pro-life feminist perspective uniquely addresses systemic issues like workplace and campus support for mothers compared to more traditional secular feminist approaches?

After developing the FFL Pregnancy and Parenting Resource Forums, we took my moderator outline and made it into a survey for students to take for their campuses. Especially early on, it was dismal. Over time our advocacy for resources and support, policies and communication strategies took off. But what about the workplace? So we developed another instrument, a Pregnancy and Parenting Workplace Inventory. Employers and employees including human resources staff could work together on a tailor made plan. Policies would be established. Some companies came up with on-side daycare and a cafeteria split with one of the two areas for employees with children. They dedicated a section for a nursing room for a mom with a recliner, refrigerator for pumped milk, calming music, and a lock on the door for privacy.

There is no one size fits all for campuses or the work place. Feminists for Life is a small employer, so we offer part time work around the needs of mom and baby including staff meetings that may start to coincide with nap time, but later evolve to go around the time mom needs to pick up kids from school.

I think secular feminists appreciate the challenges we make toward the status quo. We start fro the premise that we work to life, not live to work.

How does the principle of ‘justice, nondiscrimination and nonviolence’ inform FFL’s vision of a society that fully supports both mothers and fathers in their roles, especially in contexts where resources are limited?

When we start with this basic feminist principle, by definition we recognize that abortion betrays feminism. Abortion is a reflection that we have not met the needs of mothers as well as fathers.

My father went to college and graduated with me in his arms. He went to school and worked full time. It was exhausting. Both parents need support and the ability to succeed in school and in the workplace.

In our latest issue of The American Feminist® titled “What About MEN?,” FFL Intern Clare Hettich writes about the long ignored needs of student dads on campus. Another intern, Bella Fechter, has earned a fellowship with FFL. She attends Providence College along with her husband. They are expecting their first child in the spring. He has already started his own business to support them.

In this issue, we offer many other insightful articles about the suffering of men who could not stop an abortion or came to regret it as well as stories of “Rewarding Fatherhood” and the important contribution men make in the family.

For too long the debate has been “What about the woman?” by women’s movement while pro-lifers reply “What about the baby?” We answer: Women Deserve Better. So do men. And every baby deserves life and love. At every turn FFL calls for better resources, better choices. Like the first wave feminists who fought for the rights of slaves to be free, women to vote, and protection from abortion, we herald a better day when mothers are supported, fathers are honored, and babies are more than welcomed: They are cherished.

Your readers can find many helpful tips on our WomenDeserveBetter.com helpsite to assist the primary caretaker Work, Learn, Live, and Love better. The latest two issues of The American Feminist including “Strong As A Mother” and “What About Men?” are offered as a “Catch Up Kit” at feministsforlife.org/support

Also noted in the article as a model school was Boston College where Serrin moderated numerous Pregnancy Resource Forums. Thanks to the ongoing support from people like you, we can continue to make a difference.

Because women deserve better,

Joyce McCauley-Benner
Public Education Coordinator