Belmont Abbey College opens first college-based maternity home

Belmont Abbey College has provided courageous leadership for Catholic colleges and universities by opening the first college-based maternity home for women who want to carry their babies to term and continue their educations. The college broke ground for the new home on Monday, and the maternity home will provide free room and board to pregnant college students and their babies after birth for up to two years. The new program is operated by Room At The Inn, an organization founded by 1999 Notre Dame alumna Lacy Dodd, who became pregnant her senior year and resisted pressure from her boyfriend to get an abortion. She is now the proud mother of her beautiful 11-year-old daughter and founder and board member of Room At The Inn. She hopes the initiative at Belmont Abbey will be a model for similar maternity homes at other colleges and universities, especially her alma mater, Notre Dame. We would do well to follow her lead.

For LifeNews.com's account of the groundbreaking, click here. For more information on Room At The Inn, click here. For more background on the genesis of the new initiative on Belmont's campus, click here.