CAMPUS NEWS
Choosing Life AND Education: There’s Room At The Inn for Both The First-Ever College-Based Maternity Facility in the Nation Opens on Belmont Abbey College Campus. By Christopher Lux
“Congratulations, this day has arrived,” Father Frank Pavone, president of Priests for Life, told those gathered to celebrate the realization of Room At The Inn’s dream: the opening of the first college-based maternity center in the country, located on the grounds of Belmont Abbey College. Well over a hundred people attended the ribbon-cutting celebration, held on the morning of the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, July 16. Room At The Inn has been assisting women of all ages in the Charlotte area facing unexpected pregnancies for 18 years. The new 10,000-square-foot facility sits on four acres donated by the Benedictine monks of Belmont Abbey and will house up to 15 mothers at a time, providing emotional support and practical assistance to unmarried college women facing unexpected pregnancies. Residents will be able to
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have their babies and continue their education at nearby colleges. The building took just over a year to complete – “only one year and 26 days,” said Jeannie Wray, executive director of Room At The Inn. “But who’s counting?” Room At The Inn has received a steady stream of inquiries from pregnant students as far away as the Midwest interested in joining the program, Wray noted in her remarks during the opening celebration. Further evidence of the need for these services has been the number of requests from around the world for Room At The Inn to build similar facilities in other locations. “Over the past four months,” Wray said, “I have been contacted by people in three foreign countries – Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Argentina – who want us to come there to build a facility like this there. This is in addition to the
The Magazine of Belmont Abbey College
requests from seven other states.” Serrin Foster, president of Feminists for Life of America, was among the speakers at the opening celebration. Foster recalled having spoken at many of the nation’s colleges and universities, and, she said, “I had never seen a visibly pregnant college student, or, for that matter, a professor. And that’s when we started asking, ‘Where have all the pregnant women gone?’ Gone to abortion clinics, almost every one. Half of the abortions were performed on college-aged women.” Why are collegeaged women choosing abortion? Because of a lack of resources and support for them if they choose life, she said. “Women deserve better than abortion,” she proclaimed. “Today we are here to right a terrible wrong.” “Many young women in college facing unexpected pregnancies believe they have to give up everything to keep
Winter 2013