If you're a pro-life individual and activist, you've probably heard it at sometime or another in a conversation on abortion or maybe as a pro-choice activist, you hold the view that we don't care about children once they're born, only fetuses.
However, keep in mind that many pro-lifers individuals volunteer on an individual basis in over 4,000 pregnancy resource centers in the United states and other countries, which provides parenting and childbirth classes; nutritional counseling; material items (see Earn While You Learn program below); and referrals to public and private agencies for assistance such as Medicaid, the Woman, Infants, and Child (WIC) program, Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF), homeless and battered women shelters, utility assistance, and for health care. Most centers feature clothing rooms, which are a department store-like resource center for supplementary material goods such as baby furniture, car safety seats, diapers, hygiene items, blankets and crib bedding, formula/baby food, and new and gently used infant/toddler clothes. are able to make purchases by using "Mommy Money" that is earned by attending 'Earn and Learn' classes. 'Earn and Learn' classes are provided for pregnant and parenting women and include pregnancy, prenatal development, delivery and postpartum care, the emotional needs and physical care of a newborn/toddler/school-aged child, first aid, foundations of discipline, financial management, job preparation and other life skills. Not only does this program provide clients with the material things they need for their infants and their other children, but also teaches them valuable life skills to help them rise out of poverty, and gives them independence and a sense of self-worth.
Also we act on an individual basis to provide, "We offer—and deliver—concrete, here-and-now help. Groceries, clothing, cribs, "safe haven" places to stay as long as they need (like my own home, for instance, in my guest room), baby supplies for their other young ones, even medical care for them and their unborn babies." - http://afterabortion.blogspot.com/2004/07/ive-gone-back-finally-as-some-of-you.html
One great example is when pro-lifers pitched in and worked together to help pay a 15 week pregnant woman's $1950/month mortgage payment when she couldn't work due to pregnancy complications and was at risk of loosing her home:
http://thesiclecell.blogspot.com/2005/12/question-arose-from-someone-interested.html
http://afterabortion.blogspot.com/2005/12/need-has-been-met-god-bless-you-all.html
And on a personal note, my best and closest friend is a single mom to a school-aged child. I was there for her through her pregnancy and her daughter's childhood. I've been there to provide emotional support when she went to the hospital, provide transportation to doctor's offices and Medicaid appointments, provided childcare for her daughter while she was at work or needed an evening off, but most of all continue to giver her support and encouragement. Also, keep in mind that many pro-lifer individuals, such as myself, volunteer on an individual basis for a number community service and support agencies. I've been volunteering at local food pantries and the local soup kitchen, where we distribute hot meals and sack lunches to low income and homeless individuals and families, for the last eight years, off and on, as times allows. And I'm currently creating and distributing basic care bags, with information on local resources, to the indigent homeless in Indiana.
This is one such stereotype of pro-lifer individuals which is inaccurate, perpetuated by biased perceptions and rhetoric, rather we should focus on constructive dialogue of what we can do to better support disadvantaged pregnant and parenting women in our communities.
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