Right to Lifers to the Rescue! 

"Operation Baby Box": Pro-Lifers Provide Real Relief to Pregnant Hurricane Katrina Victims

By Holly Smith

For over 30 years, pro-lifers, by the cause they promote so devotedly, have been untiring in their efforts to protect the most vulnerable. So when Hurricane Katrina's destruction created emergency situations for pregnant moms and their babies, and the pro-life pregnancy centers that serve them, pro-life activists sprung to action with characteristic selflessness and creativity to meet their needs.

There is much good news to report, but first, the bad news. In a column for the Arkansas News Bureau, David Sanders writes, "The irony is unsettling. While Arkansans rally by the thousands to care and provide for tens of thousands of lives affected by Katrina's devastation, three of the state's doctors are offering free life-ending services to those in need. ... Arkansas' only abortion providers are offering free abortions to women who have been displaced by the hurricane's destruction." At least six unborn babies escaped Hurricane Katrina's destruction only to be aborted in Arkansas.

Similarly, Florida Right to Life and Texas Right to Life both reported Planned Parenthood's efforts to extend the tragedy in Louisiana by offering hurricane survivors free "services," including chemically induced abortions--RU486.

The pregnancy centers located in and around New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region are in as dire straits as the rest of those communities' occupants. The New Orleans street where the Woman's New Life Center, a pro-life pregnancy counseling and medical center, was located sustained flooding up to 12 feet, a level that likely destroyed everything in its first floor space.

Yet, the professional staff, graduate interns, and volunteers are committed to continuing their mission. They have already sought to provide pregnancy services at the campus of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge until they can get back to New Orleans.

Pro-life organizations are working hard to meet the physical and emotional needs of pregnant refugees and their children by working with the pregnancy centers helping refugees. National Right to Life is now promoting a program initiated by Wisconsin Right to Life called "Operation Baby Box."

This project allows individuals or smaller groups (chapters, Sunday school classes, women's groups, school classes, etc.) to pack a box with all of the basic baby needs for one baby and send it to one of the centers on the list. Each box will be labeled with the age and gender of the baby for whom the box was packed to make for easier distribution on the receiving end. You can get details at www.nrlc.org.

Scott Fischbach, executive director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL), personally received a call from Mississippi's pro-life Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck asking for help. Lt. Gov. Tuck told MCCL that women with newborn babies have nothing with which to care for their little ones. "She saw moms helplessly trying to care for their babies without diapers, baby formula, baby clothes--they had nothing!" according to MCCL. "She implored Scott to ask MCCL's members for donated baby items and send them to Mississippi as soon as possible."

When asked if MCCL could lend itself to this nontraditional role, Leo LaLonde, MCCL's president, responded. "How could we say no to this life-affirming work? These are extraordinary circumstances and they require an extraordinary response."

MCCL moved into action quickly by e-mailing and calling its members and associates and issuing a press release to announce "Baby Aid," its drive for baby items. During the collection, as "Mount Pampers" continued to grow and donated goods exceeded the space in the office and spilled over into the parking lot, MCCL twice had to upgrade the size of the moving truck to accommodate all the baby items.

Just three and a half days after initially speaking with Lt. Gov. Tuck, Fischbach and another driver arrived safely in Jackson with a 24-foot truck full of more than $70,000 worth of donated baby items!

Volunteers in Mississippi immediately began unloading and finished the job in just 25 minutes. All of the items were sorted and packed on pallets and within another hour they were on eight trucks headed for distribution points along the Gulf Coast. By being on hand at the Jackson warehouse to help unload the truck, Lt. Gov. Tuck demonstrated the hands-on compassion of pro-life citizens helping people in need.

Texas Right to Life (TRTL) is working closely with pregnancy centers throughout its state to meet the specific needs of each center. The organization sent an e-mail to its list with contact information for every pregnancy center in need of assistance and encouragement to volunteer time or donate goods.

Additionally, TRTL acknowledged in the e-mail, "While material assistance is important, many of the pregnant evacuees are depressed and alone and are in need of emotional support as they continue their pregnancies under very stressful circumstances. Moms in desperate situations often make desperate decisions; these moms need to know that they are not alone and that there is someone there to offer them not only diapers but friendship."

Thus, TRTL encouraged its members to "adopt" a struggling pregnant evacuee by mentoring an evacuee mom throughout her pregnancy to help her find housing, drive her to doctor's appointments, and to befriend and encourage her.

Florida Right to Life (FRTL) is sponsoring a statewide drive for gift cards to Wal-Mart, Target, and Winn-Dixie.

FRTL reminded its members, "The temptation for our moms to abort their children, out of great panic, is something we can all step up to the plate and help them avoid by continuing to assist with monetary means." Donors were encouraged to include card or letter "offering spiritual hope to an already broken heart" with each gift card.

In South Carolina, the major Christian radio station, WMHK, announced that baby bottles were needed. There was plenty of formula but not enough bottles. South Carolina Citizens for Life (SCCL) bought a store out of baby bottles plus diapers and baby wipes and brought them to the radio station. The announcer gave SCCL a plug, saying, "South Carolina Citizens for Life is here and donating to the disaster relief. So now we have charities helping charities."

College and teen pro-lifers have also pitched in to help. On September 10, Georgetown University Right to Life paired with the Georgetown Knights of Columbus to organize an emergency diaper drive to aid the mothers and babies of Hurricane Katrina at a local grocery store.

During four hours, 18 volunteers collected approximately 10,500 diapers, 7,500 baby wipes, and hundreds of other baby products. They were dropped off with a group that was taking relief supplies down to Baton Rouge.

In Wisconsin, college and teen groups are conducting "Lend-a-Hand" projects around the state and pairing up with one of the pregnancy centers on the list (available at www.nrlc.org). Once they've collected needed items, they send it to their "adopted" pregnancy center. Joleigh Little, their advisor, hopes "that the relationship will continue until there's no longer a huge need down there."

Indiana Right to Life is encouraging its members to visit its web site for links to Samaritan's Purse and Catholic Charities USA to find out what can be done to help support hurricane relief efforts in the Gulf states. Because so many communities are engaging in drives to collect diapers, formula, and other much-needed baby items to help mothers and babies impacted by the disaster, Indiana Right to Life is urging those that have such a drive to e-mail details so they can be listed through its web site.

For the pregnant mothers whose determination to protect their children in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the pro-life movement is equally determined to meet their needs with goods, services, and support to keep these mothers from feeling that, because of poverty, they must now abort the children they struggled so greatly to safeguard.