Nine months from now, there could well be a mini-baby boom. With tens of millions of people at home either unemployed, furloughed, or working from home, some may well decide to enjoy themselves and, well, … that’s how babies are made. We might think that hospital beds are in short supply now. Wait until Christmas. Should the parish plan on extra baptism workshops? Will there be a run on baptism candles as there is today on toilet paper and hand sanitizer? I wonder what the popular baby names might be. Vakceen? Clorox? My siblings suggested such historical names as Corona Lee, Vyrus, Coveed, Charmin, Kwarantine, and Zoomia.

There could well be a shadow side to this baby boom. 

In a normal week, two or three hundred thousand people file for unemployment. Economists thought three million unemployed by summer was the worst case scenario. Last week, over three million people filing for unemployment blew that projection up. This week, another six million filed. We are way past worst case. Some expect unemployment will be one-third of workers as in the Great Depression. It may only be months instead of years, but months is still a long time not to have an income to pay the rent, medications, utilities, food, clothing, and doctor visits. 

Babies are expensive in normal times. Besides the medical care during pregnancy, once the baby is born, someone has to stay home from work and care for the baby or get child care, either with relatives or paid help. I can’t imagine the conflict that parents will face when they get the news, “We’re pregnant.” What should be joyful news could well be hard news. Single mothers, unmarried parents, college students, and migrant workers, all with few financial and relational resources, could face seemingly impossible choice.

At the beginning of Lent, Nativity Catholic Church made Life Choices Medical Clinic in Altamonte Springs its parish Lent Almsgiving Project. Its mission is to help women in crisis pregnancies. https://www.lifechoicesfl.com/ (Full disclosure: My mom volunteers at Life Choices Medical Clinic. She said that the abortion clinic is temporarily closed. One of their workers tested positive for the virus. Life Choices remains open and follows CDC protocols.)

I thought that Nativity parish would collect a few thousand dollars for Life Choices and raise awareness in the parish about the need. Life Choices depends on volunteers for advocacy, receptionists, ultrasounds, nurses, education program assistant, and helping with the baby boutique. All expenses are paid by donations. All services to clients are free.

To keep prayer in the project, Mark Romagosa spoke at Mass about 40 Days For Life, a program to pray for forty days outside abortion clinics. Life Choices is next door to an abortion clinic. In fact, they share the same driveway on Maitland Avenue. Sometimes women come into Life Choices thinking that they are at the abortion clinic. They leave with a free ultrasound of their baby, which makes the difference in the choice to keep the baby.

So much has changed in these forty days of Lent. If my speculation about the financial distress of families suddenly pregnant is anywhere near the mark, what began as a worthy outreach on behalf of a Catholic apostolate for the dignity of life has become much more urgent. Most unplanned pregnancies visit a center the first 8 - 12 weeks of pregnancy to make a choice. Life Choices can be a beacon for the sudden multitude of unemployed mothers with unplanned pregnancies. June could be its busiest month ever.

Tina is the Executive Director of Life Choices. Last week she made a video with us https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsbduS53QcA&feature=youtu.be. We showed it before Mass on Palm Sunday. Our Palm Sunday Mass, by the way, had over 3,000 views on our website and another thousand views through Facebook. Imagine if even only a fraction of those viewers saw Tina’s talk about Life Choices. The Lord is reaching out in ways we could not have imagined.

The Lord has given our parish through our Lent Almsgiving Project the chance to be ahead of the baby boom curve. What an opportunity we have been given to prepare a Christian welcome for the women who come to the doors of Life Choices in need of help and hope. Click to help prepare the way.

Blessed Holy Week,

Father David