Friends for lifeNew group seeking more support to help women in crisis pregnancies
A newly formed group that helps women in crisis pregnancies is appealing for help as it holds firm to the belief that many of those women would opt against abortion if given the necessary care, love, and support.
The six-member organisation named Friends for Life was spawned from Love March Movement’s collaboration with global Christian movement 40 Days for Life’s anti-abortion campaign in Jamaica earlier this year.
“We realised that we didn’t want to just tell persons, ‘Don’t abort your child’ or to just advocate in terms of the law that it remains that abortion is illegal. What we actually want to deal with are the realities happening on the ground,” Dr Daniel Thomas, founder of Love March Movement and a member of Friends for Life, told the Jamaica Observer.
“The idea is that we want to be able to meet all the practical needs that there are because studies show that when women in a crisis pregnancy receive the message that there are persons who are there to help and support [them] a large majority of them will change their mind from aborting their children,” he explained.
“We’re doing skills training, we’re doing job placement, and we’ve launched businesses for a number of the women. We are helping them to become independent in their approach to their pregnancy. The practical situation is that a lot of them feel like they have to abort the child because they don’t have the finances to support another child, and so we’re helping them to meet those needs in very practical and sustainable ways,” said Dr Thomas.
He said that by the end of the 40 Days for Life campaign 14 women decided to choose life, six of whom required consistent support due to economic challenges and continue to be supported by the organisation.
In their latest effort towards building a supportive community for these women, he shared that the six-member organisation planned a baby shower for four women in crisis pregnancies.
“We had a great celebration, a time of encouragement and ministry to them. We got gifts and food, and we had a really nice quadruple baby shower. We’re just grateful to God for the progress that is being made and we invite persons to come on board,” said Dr Thomas. Diane Constantine, director of Friends for Life, shared that the event had an atmosphere of love and togetherness, filled with laughter, games, good food, and gifts for the expecting mothers.
“The idea of the shower is that it’s all a part of helping the mother feel celebrated, helping her celebrate her pregnancy, changing the dialogue, changing the script from this is a burden, this is a shame to this is a life to be celebrated, and I’m blessed to be a mother,” Constantine told the Sunday Observer.
“We decided that celebrating them, celebrating motherhood, and making a big deal out of the fact that they were going to have a baby is very important, and we do it because we think it matters to the mother that somebody celebrates them,” she said.
The organisation will host two more baby showers before the end of the year for other expecting mothers.
To continue carrying out its mission, the organisation, which relies solely on contributions from its members, is appealing to corporate Jamaica and the church to offer any form of support.
Dr Thomas, in issuing this request, pointed to the fact that Jamaica is in a demographic winter, and by providing support for women in crisis pregnancies this reality can slowly change.
He cited findings in a published report from the National Family Planning Board (NFPB) last year indicating that Jamaica’s fertility rate dropped to a concerning 1.9 births per female in 2021. According to the NFPB, the birth rate means that Jamaica is slightly below the replacement fertility rate of 2.1 births per female.
“With the abortion rate being about 10,000 a year or more, [according to a Caribbean Policy Research Institute report], it also means that we need to be pretty serious about not ending the lives of our unborn children as well, which is definitely contributing to us being in the demographic winter that we are in now,” he reasoned.
He noted that organisations such as the Pregnancy Resource Centre in Montego Bay had saved more than 300 babies by providing support for women in crisis pregnancies who think abortion is their only option.
That number, Dr Thomas insisted, can increase with help.
“We’re seeking out support from companies and anyone willing to really pitch in to make this happen, because we’re talking about actual lives saved. The lives of Jamaican babies are being saved but also women are being protected from the harm and the trauma of abortion, and that also is very important,” said Dr Thomas.
Constantine said that often women in crisis pregnancies are in dangerous environments that leave them to think abortion is the only option, but if given a safe place, some might reconsider.
She urged the Diaspora and the Church to open up their abandoned homes to these women as places of shelter.
“We’re saying: Would you consider doing this, because it all goes into helping the woman choose life. If her issue is having nowhere to live, and questioning: ‘Where am I going to put a baby?’ and you have a place locked up, give it to us so that we can answer that question for her. Give her a place to live. We will maintain it; if anything breaks, we will fix it. We just simply ask for you to keep paying your property tax,’” pleaded Constantine.
“There is a need, and a part of the answer to that need [lies] in your hands,” she stressed.
Constantine said that individuals willing to assist the Friends for Life initiative can bring their donations to Covenant City Church at 72 Half-Way-Tree Road in St Andrew between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm on Wednesdays.
Additionally, people may call Constantine at (876) 798-2457 to offer assistance.