The Utah Maternity Home Escape

I contacted the reporter of this story: Families of pregnant runaways worried NATALIE ANDREWS - Daily Herald A week ago, three pregnant teens allegedly hit a 53-year-old woman with a frying pan, tied her up with electrical cords and ran away with her SUV, credit card and cell phone. Still on the run, the girls' running away from the New Hope Maternity Home on Jan. 16 has become fodder for pro-choice bloggers and made headlines from the United Kingdom to Oregon, especially in the girls' home states of California, Texas and Illinois. Two of the girls are 15, one is 16. The 16-year-old's mother, Gina Castro of Chicago, is frantic for news of her daughter. "I'm not getting any information at all from anybody, I'm scared to death for her life. My daughter's in more trouble now than she was before," Castro said. She said that until Monday the police hadn't called her about the alleged assault. She now believes her daughter is in California but can't get any confirmation. American Fork Police Chief Lance Call said that they were talking to the families through Jana Moody, the caretaker of New Hope, who the girls allegedly bound and assaulted. Police had not talked to the families about their missing daughters. He said that girls' warrants were updated Monday to reflect a kidnapping charge because they bound Moody and another pregnant 17-year-old in the New Hope Program. They are also wanted on charges of aggravated assault, stealing a vehicle and using the stolen credit card. Call said police are watching for use of the stolen credit card and checkbook. After a week, the only expense the girls have had on the card was for fuel at an American Fork gas station. If they don't use that, Call said that the girls could be difficult to find. "It's possible, if they've gotten rid of that van, and they are keeping their heads down, in other words not attracting attention to themselves, it's possible they could be gone for awhile," he said. But they can't hide forever. These girls have babies on the way, and babies don't wait for warrants to be served or charges to be filed. Call said that if police pulled them over for anything, the warrants would appear in the National Crime Information Center, and they would be arrested. Moody was in charge of calling the girls' parents and telling them what happened. Call said not contacting the parents immediately was out of concern, to not overwhelm the families. "Some people get very intimidated in talking to a police officer directly," Call said. "If we can just keep this as cooperative as we can, we'll be in a lot better shape for everyone." Co-director of the home, Spencer Moody, told the Associated Press after the attack that they would be shutting down the home, despite having dozens of girls stay there without problems. American Fork police Sgt. Shauna Greening said that in the three years the home has been licensed, this was the first problem. Castro said that her daughter has called her aunt, in northern California, and her boyfriend -- who is also the baby's father -- but even that was a few days ago. She has not called her. "I've been trying to find out some information too, but I can't find anything out," said the boyfriend, Carlos Rivera of Chicago. He said he was worried for his girlfriend and his unborn child's safety. "I haven't talked to her for four days, so I don't know what's going on," he said. The girls have been missing for seven days. He said he didn't know where the girls were, though last time they talked, they were going to California. Castro suspects that her daughter didn't want to give her baby up for adoption, when friends and family members were telling her to. It may be one of the reasons why the girls decided to run. The New Hope Maternity Home Web site says that the program houses the girls for the term of their pregnancies and two months afterward. It provides both parenting classes and counseling for girls who choose adoption. Castro said she knew her 16-year-old daughter didn't like being at New Hope. Far away from her friends and boyfriend, the girl didn't like not being able call or e-mail them. That's what her mother wanted, originally. "That was my whole plan, trying to get her away from the whole elements in Chicago, going through a teen intervention program," Castro said. "Now she's in a worst position when she started." Wrote her this email: Dear Ms. Andrews, I wanted to thank you for your recent coverage of the three pregnant teenage girls who have run away from the maternity home. As a member of the adoption community, the girls story has sparked much interest. So far, your recent article is the only one that actually looks into the possible “why” of the girls departure. It seems the general public is very willing to find fault with what these girls did, but no one is questioning why they were driven to such desperate acts. Being held against your will at a maternity home is not much fun. Separated from friends and family at a vulnerable time in ones life, being forced to go there by such friends and family with the knowledge that the future only holds the forced separation from one’s baby can be like a death sentence. No one will help you. No one cares about what you want. Well intended parents of young woman are wrongly informed on how adoption is a great solution for their families often not understanding that they are creating a vast wound that their daughters will carry for life. Various scientific studies have shown that infant relinquishment causes life altering effects including increased chances of secondary infertility, post traumatic stress disorder, difficulties with trust and relationship, parenting issues with later children, and long term continuous grief that has greater impact than the death of a loved one. Many in the adoption industry are aware of these studies but do not inform either the parents or the young women of these risks. Instead, they paint a happy picture of redemption of ones past digressions, and promote a false sense that these women will “get over” losing their babies. That’s what adoption counseling is all about; convincing woman that it is the best and only solution, meanwhile denying information and preventing the mothers to be from getting the help they need so they can parent successfully. A much bigger story is here. The American people have been able to grasp the enormity of social abuses, cruelty of past adoption practices and the treatment of young women in maternity homes with the release of Ann Fessler’s “The Girls That Went Away”. The problem is that many people seem to think that “those days” are over. Even in the educated adoption community, people are shocked to hear that maternity homes such as New Hope still are in operation. With the current administration pledging more federal funding to go to maternity homes, the 95-10 Initiative promoting adoption as a solution to prevent abortion rates, and Infant Adoption Awareness Trainings, funded by the million by Congress, and going right to the profit making agencies to further market their business, we need someone who can tell the truth of the treatments and mental coercion that goes on at these homes. Adoption is in great need of a major reform in this country before it becomes the solution to anything. As long as girls are kidnapped and held against their will, forced to relinquish their babies, and made to act out violent behaviors in order to protect their own humanity and off spring, there is great need for education and understanding of this seemingly well intentioned act. Such a great solution should not turn our young women into animals desperate to escape their fate. I am providing several links to education areas on the internet should you wish to research this further. You may also feel free to contact me either by email of phone, ***etc Thank you, with links to OUSA, blogs, the donaldson paper, and SoA..and she emailed me back and is calling me tomorrow.