Hearts for Life: A New Sanctuary for Expectant Mothers in Crisis

COMMENTARY: Malena and Narciso want to see a culture in which the brutality of abortion becomes unthinkable.

Malena Muñoz answered a recent call from the social services agency with her usual alacrity. Not two hours after receiving the information about an expectant mother of two who had been evicted from her rented room, Munoz met with the young woman herself. The heavily pregnant, visibly distressed mother opened the back of a beat-up van and showed Malena the old mattress she had placed there. Her plan was to sleep in the van with her toddlers in the suffocating heat of a Miami summer night, maybe in the parking lot of the nearby Walmart.

Malena’s heart broke, but that didn’t stop her from swinging quickly into action. By nightfall, the pregnant woman and her toddlers were safely ensconced in Lotus House, a comfortable shelter for women and children. Two weeks later, the baby was born safely in a local hospital, and a whole web of social services had been activated to keep the little family off the streets and on a path to a better future.

Continued below.

In honor of Father’s Day.