Anthony Kennedy and fostering life and nourishing hope
We don’t need hot weather to keep things overheated in reaction to Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement from the Supreme Court. It’s a potential political apocalypse or triumph, depending on which press release you’re reading. The level of emotion betrays how the Court has become as overly politicized as just about everything else in American life. And the focal point of so much of it is abortion.
One of Kennedy’s final decisions — a case in which his was the deciding voice, as happened often — angered advocates of legal abortion. The case, National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra, Attorney General of California, involved crisis-pregnancy centers in California, which brought to my mind the Women’s Care Centers I’ve visited in Indiana and Baltimore, where women are met with a warm welcome and integral care. The women who tend to get involved in crisis-pregnancy work do so out of love.
Reading one of the amicus briefs in the Supreme Court case might help get us out of the unhinged commentary that can leave people feeling helpless; it might inspire us to do something to help a neighbor. The brief tells us about Brooke North, who found herself pregnant in 2015, when life had not equipped her for motherhood. At eleven, she left abuse at the hands of her father for a series of foster homes, where she encountered more. As a young adult, she suffered kidnapping and rape. She went to Hope Pregnancy Center, in Illinois, on the referral of a government-assistance program, seeking a listening ear and essential help in preparing her to be a mother to her child.
As at many of these centers, she received mentoring, counseling, and basic-skills help. Hope, like many centers, ties attendance to an incentive program that helps a woman earn some of her child’s — and her own — material needs. With “mommy bucks,” she would shop for diapers and wipes and clothes. After her son, Keetan, was born in April 2016, she eventually expressed the desire for a jumper for her increasingly mobile toddler, and a volunteer came through. The help that the Hope center gave to Brooke did not end with the birth of her son; in some ways, at his birth, it had only just begun.
In the coming year, she met a man to be a father to her child. They married and found themselves expecting. She naturally found herself back at Hope, this time in less of a crisis but still in need of people who embrace women and children and men as a family. They first saw their baby thanks to an ultrasound machine at Hope. As the amicus brief written by Andrea Picciotti-Bayer on behalf of the Catholic Association explains, Brooke’s husband found fatherhood “daunting.” Hope Pregnancy Center helped here, too, preparing him to be a father in the most basic of ways, increasing his enthusiasm to accompany Brooke as a partner in their new endeavor.
Conversations about politics these days can be traumatic, especially about abortion, and certainly if you’ve had any kind of personal experience with it. But yelling is no balm for tender hearts.
Brooke describes her toddler Keetan as “the best big brother ever,” and she attributes this to one of the women at Hope, who encouraged her to make Keetan an important part of her new baby’s life. This is the work of these centers, and this is the stuff of true hope — walking with people so they can live in the present and not be overwhelmed by the prospect of the future and even dream a little for a jumper for exploration! About Hope, Brooke explained:
They opened up the center to help moms in need. They do not pressure you not to get an abortion if you want one. But they are there to help women have their children.
And they provide so much more beyond that. “When I told them that I got a job or was expecting another baby, they were excited,” she said. In her testimony, she added:
There should be more of them across the country. There are so many people struggling, and the center is the one place that is the “go to” to guarantee success as a parent. They help with referrals, vouchers. I would like pregnancy centers to be all over the place. It is not just for the parents, but the kids. The people who donate their time and money help not just women but their children. The people at the center are the sweetest, most caring, full-of-energy people.
Brooke couldn’t be the woman she is today without the help of Hope.
Conversations about politics these days can be traumatic, especially about abortion, and certainly if you’ve had any kind of personal experience with it. But yelling is no balm for tender hearts. Brooke’s life was unquestionably in need of hope and healing, and Hope provided her with what she needed for the most important thing in this world: motherhood. The Supreme Court wasn’t alone in overturning the way we look at women and this greatest gift, but it has played a supreme role in its devaluing.
Abortion is so much more than winning debates and elections. It’s about the most intimate decisions in life and love, often intertwined with fears and needs beyond the reach of an op-ed or a segment on a TV news show or our social-media feeds. Brooke’s story is about drawing hope out of a hellish experience. Would that every word of pending political crisis be an invitation to support a place such as Hope or a woman like Brooke, or a child in a foster home who needs to know what a loving family looks like.
This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal’s Newspaper Enterprise Association.