Located on 327 M.A.C. Ave. in East Lansing, Michigan, St. John Church and Student Center works with a national program titled Walking with Moms in Need and has established a local program as well.

The goal of this program is to increase the church’s outreach to pregnant and parenting women facing trouble.

St. John's stance on abortion

Cassar said the church is Catholic so they are in favor of supporting life and all its stages. 

“Sometimes they say from conception to natural death and of course, that applies to the unborn and as well as (the) vulnerable of all different classes whether poor, sick, elderly, incarcerated,” Cassar said.

Parochial vicar at St. John Father Peter Ludwig said that natural death means that they would exclude from their ethical practice any sort of euthanasia or attempts to shorten life because they believe that life is a gift from God.

Michigan has an extensive history when it comes to abortion laws in the state. After the overturning of Roe v. Wade in summer 2022, the state reverted back to a 1931 abortion ban, an injunction temporarily kept abortion legal. 

On Nov. 9, 2022, Michigan Proposal 3 – which guaranteed that "every individual" in the state has a "fundamental right to reproductive freedom" – passed, ingraining abortion rights into the Michigan Constitution.

St. John Church wasn’t in support of the passing of Proposal 3 because they believe there are some issues with "every individual," including children, having access to abortion services. The proposal, however, does not negate the Parental Rights Restoration Act, currently active in Michigan.  

“We're kind of waiting and seeing you know how this all shakes out in reality, but it's nerve racking to think that, you know, kids might be pressured into these life and death, reproductive choices without their parental consent or without even parents knowing,” Pastor Gordon Reigle said. “Because now under the law, children can have these rights all by themselves – and of course, that opens them up greatly to manipulation.”

The church saw Proposal 3 as dangerous and something that shouldn’t be in Michigan’s constitution. Ludwig said they had young people spend hours knocking on countless doors just to inform others and make sure they knew what they were voting for with Proposal 3.

Because of this, the church worked to help educate individuals on the choice they were making by voting in favor of Proposal 3.

“The teachings of the church drove us as a community to respond by trying to educate people, inform people to resist voting for Proposal 3 because we do believe abortion is immoral in all circumstances,” Director of Campus Ministry Katie Diller Gleason said.

However, even if they may not believe in abortion, the church said they support mothers regardless of what choice she makes. 

Resources for people who can get pregnant

Denise Graham, chairperson of Walking with Moms in Need at St. John, said their initiative is to help mothers and to help all women regardless if they are for abortion rights or anti-abortion.

“We're trying to be pro the mother and the child, not pro the mother to the exclusion of the child or pro the child to the exclusion of the mother,” Reigle said.

Walking with Moms in Need at St. John includes five separate phases starting with compiling resources in the area onto a database. This includes access to pregnancy services, resources for assistance in childcare, housing and food cupboards.

Phase two consists of internally reflecting on what talents, abilities and resources the parishioners have. The organization holds meetings to figure this out with around 20 people attending.

“This is all volunteer run, just parishioners who wanted to do this, who felt moved to help those vulnerable,” Cassar said. “Have that kind of love in their heart for people.”

Parishioners at St. John are willing to help people meet their rent, accompany someone to a job interview, give people rides or give someone access to a computer to fill out an online application.

The organization also connects women to financial resources, transportation to OBGYN appointments or a child wellness check.

Graham said when people talk about abortion, you rarely hear about the person who regrets having one — those feeling sadness or shame. However, she said, it’s important to show love and support to women who may be feeling like this. The community has social workers, psychologists, lawyers and other professionals to support people who have had abortions.

The organization also helps partners who would like to be a part of the baby’s life. Graham said that these partners want to support a family or potential family.

Support beyond the pregnancy

Reigle has said the pro-life movement often gets less attention in the media and is quick to be labeled as anti-abortion rights.

“They just label us as anti-abortion rights as if our whole existence is to steal rights from people because we're evil, horrible people,” Reigle said. “It's not about that. It's, you know, we've had civil rights movements, we had all these other movements to invest in people's rights and to care for the dignity of human life. And we really have to move beyond this dichotomy of it's got to be the mother or the child, why can't it be both?”

Reigle said that they don't need to shortchange motherhood, just to love women. Instead people can love women and love their motherhood and respect that.

“If we don't respect motherhood, if we don't respect the gift of life, women will never be fully appreciated, or respected or cared for,” Reigle said. “If we just treat them as objects and not respect the full gift of life for which they're capable.”

Gleason said that calling the movement "pro-birth" and not "pro-life" can be a very hurtful and inaccurate line.

“(People think) we are against abortion but then we don’t do anything for families and women after the baby comes – and it’s just simply not true,” Gleason said. 

She said they have multiple Catholic charities, agencies, offerings and outreaches for women in struggling circumstances. 

Gleason said students come talk to her because they’ve faced social and emotional strain due to holding an arguably unpopular stance as "pro-life." Those students felt like their personal relationships, like friendships, were stressed because of their political views.

“How uncomfortable it could be in class sometimes when professors or other students bring up something very one-sided and they do feel silenced in a way,” Gleason said. “Even though there’s obviously nothing wrong with being pro-life.”

Gleason said St. John is open to anyone. If a student ever had some sort of crisis situation, they can email any of the campus ministers or priests, or they can meet about what their needs may be and what they're struggling with.

Other students who aren’t struggling with anything and just want to join the community are welcome to show up to anything as well, according to Gleason. 

“To have beliefs are one thing, but you need to put your time, talent and treasure where your beliefs are,” Graham said. “And that's what we're doing.”

Editor's Note: AP Style refers to the pro-life movement as "anti-abortion." However, the members of St. John Church and Student Center preferred to be described as pro-life.