The Missy’s Hope Banquet was a night that brought tears falling, but spirits soaring as women told their stories of placing their children for adoption.
The testimonies were part of the 2022 fund-raising dinner at St. Mary’s Parish Center for Missy’s Hope, a maternity home in Jennings County. The home is a community faith-based effort. The evening raised almost $10,000 and showcased the personal witnesses of the keynote speakers– all women who chose life and not abortion for their babies.
Melissa Coles, of Columbus, Ind., told her moving story of how she was only seconds away from aborting her baby when something told her, “Get up! It’s not too late!” She jumped off the table and ran out of the abortion clinic. LifeMark movie tells her compelling story of how the she later met the son she placed for adoption, David Scotten. The meeting of David and Melissa was recorded in the documentary, I Lived on Parker Avenue, which inspired Director Kirk Cameron to contact them. Cameron directed the movies, War Room and Fireproof.
The Inspiration of Missy’s Hope
Missy’s Hope started with the painful story of one woman: Peggy Dyer-Bland who became pregnant at 15 from abuse. It was 1969 and she doesn’t remember the birth due to the type of drugs given to women at that time called twilight sleep. While she got to stay home with a loving family, she knew other girls who were sent away to maternity homes and not treated well. She wants Missy’s Hope to be a place of loving solace for pregnant women. The home provides parenting classes, finance, and helping the girls complete their education. They will also be assisted in finding employment.
Adoption and Pro-Life Ministry
Adoption used to be a more common option for women before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in 1973. In 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned, giving states the right to make decisions about the legality of abortion.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that among never-married women, about 9 percent chose adoption before 1973. The figure was higher for white women: 19 percent. By the mid-1980s, the figure had dropped to 2 percent, and it was just 1 percent by 2002, the last year the CDC data captured.
The last year for which the CDC reported a yearly national total for abortions is 2021. It found there were 625,978 abortions in the District of Columbia and the 46 states with available data that year, up from 597,355 in those states and D.C. in 2020. The corresponding figure for 2019 was 607,720. The last year for which Guttmacher reported a yearly national total was 2020. It said there were 930,160 abortions that year in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, compared with 916,460 in 2019.
For more information about Missy’s Hope visit their website. They are also hiring a house mother for their home.
Want to know what to say or how to help moms in need, read The Best Tips for Pro-Life Ministry.
