This summer marks the one year anniversary of the Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the decision about abortion to the states. While this is a wonderful step in the right direction, the pro-life movement still has much work to do. This summer, Family Policy Matters will be doing a series of interviews highlighting the pro-life work being done across North Carolina.
This week on Family Policy Matters, host Traci DeVette Griggs welcomes back Debbie Capen, the Executive Director at MiraVia, to discuss what this maternity home looks like and how it serves women in college.
This episode is a part of a series highlighting the pro-life movement in North Carolina. Tune in each week to learn more!
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Family Policy Matters
Transcript: What’s Happened In the North Carolina General Assembly So Far This Year
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS
Thanks for joining us today for Family Policy Matters. We are recording this interview for both the radio show and podcast and NC Family’s weekly video updates. If you’re interested in seeing the video version of this interview, sign up as part of our email list at NCfamily.org and you will receive an email when they are online every week. Our guests today are here to give us an update on this session of the North Carolina General Assembly. John Rustin is president of NC Family and Jerry Royall is NC Family’s Counsel. Both spend a lot of time at the General Assembly keeping an eye on what’s happening and working to influence laws on behalf of the families in our state. It’s amazing that when you hear about all of these important bills in the media, they’re portrayed as radical. But as we know when we actually read the text of the bills, which of course are always available to us on the NC legislature’s website at ncleg.gov, we find they’re actually common sense and reasonable. So let’s talk about some of those bills. Well, let’s talk first about a victory. There was a pro life victory in the legislature. What happened?
JOHN RUSTIN
Yes, well, there was and hopefully as you’re aware, we have had a great pro life victory in North Carolina. Senate Bill 20—The Care for Women, Children, and Families Act was passed by the legislature, of course was vetoed by Governor Roy Cooper, and the legislature overrode the governor’s veto. This bill is a major pro life victory in North Carolina. It essentially reduces the gestational age for illegal abortions in North Carolina from 20 weeks to 12 weeks. Of course, at the onset of the session, we were advocating strongly for a heartbeat bill in North Carolina, which would have reduced the legal gestational age for abortion about six weeks, it was clear as this bill and discussions were going on in both the House and the Senate, that that just was unfortunately not going to happen, and so they settled on 12 weeks. But this bill contains a lot of other provisions that will protect life in North Carolina, and also that will provide resources to give women and families that are facing crisis and unplanned pregnancies every reason to choose life instead of choosing abortion. Jere, do you have any other perspective?
JERE ROYALL
As you said, yeah, that was a compromise. We obviously wanted, and many others wanted, conception to be the time when the unborn child is protected. But there were a lot of good provisions that were added along with the 12 week restriction.
JOHN RUSTIN
And Traci, this bill is is literally going to save thousands of lives every year, and is going to again, provide resources. There’s $160 million dollars appropriated in this bill for improvements and enhancements to foster care, to adoption, to maternal care and lots of other important services in North Carolina, again, to give women and families that are facing crisis and unplanned pregnancies every reason to choose life. And so we’re really excited about it.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS
Yeah, and I think it answers some of those critiques from the other side that all we care about is getting the baby born. So this is providing a lot of those services.
JOHN RUSTIN
Absolutely, absolutely. And that’s so critical, because there are going to be more and more women carrying a child to term and we need to provide those practical services to them and also support in lots of different ways. So yeah.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS
Well let’s talk about going forward, then, there are a lot of bills that are important to North Carolina families that are being considered, talk about what those are.
JOHN RUSTIN
Well, a major bill is the Parents’ Bill of Rights, which I know a lot of our viewers and listeners care about. This bill clarifies and codifies parents fundamental rights to the care, custody, and control – using kind of legal terms – of their children, particularly in the arenas of education and health care. So this bill, Senate Bill 49, passed the Senate in early February and is awaiting action in the House. And we’re very, very hopeful that the house is going to take this bill up and pass it because parents do have a fundamental right to the care and upbringing of their children. But because that’s being challenged in lots of areas, especially in education and in health care, this bill does need to pass.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS
Okay, how about Opportunity Scholarships?
JERE ROYALL
Well, this is an area where more and more people are realizing we need to offer choices in education, and there’s great support across the state for this. So both chambers, the House and the Senate have bills proposing that. The House actually passed their version, the Senate version was not voted on, would expand things even more. Their’s actually would include all income levels. Now it would be on a sliding scale, the amount of these grants, but because the bill has not been taken up, many people are talking about the fact that it will be put in the state budget, which is what has happened in recent years. But either way, there is going to be a significant expansion of the scholarship grants, not an unlimited amount, but they are going to continue to increase the availability of these scholarships.
JOHN RUSTIN
Yeah, so expanding eligibility, so more children, more families will be able to choose the educational environment that’s best for their children, and also forward funding as the legislature is done so that there are appropriations set aside for Opportunity Scholarships for years in advance. So we’re really excited about this initiative, and the legislature is really continuing making North Carolina one of the leading states in the nation in school choice.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS
So this is what critics have hammered on is the all income levels, that you’re going to be providing these scholarships, which have in the past may have been for people who are low income or who’ve had special needs children. So now we’re giving scholarships and taking these rich kids and paying for them to go to private schools. What’s the truth in that?
JERE ROYALL
Well, I mean it is but it’s on a sliding scale. But the reality is people are saying taxpayers are putting money into the state fund, and so it only makes sense that if people are choosing for their children to take another path that some of those resources should follow the child. I understand your point people are making but the reality is doesn’t it make sense to let resources but not as much of the state resources follow the child as they go to various schools?
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS
Okay. The next one, I think is Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.
JOHN RUSTIN
Yes, and this bill is really designed to protect the health and safety of female athletes in middle school, high school, and college by designating sports teams as either male, female or CO Ed based on biological sex. And so there were similar bills introduced in both the State Senate and the State House, those bills passed their chamber of origin. So the Senate bill passed the Senate, the House bill passed the House, but neither chamber has taken up the other chambers bill yet. So since there is clearly support in both chambers for this legislation, we fully anticipate that this bill will be taken up in either the House or the Senate, and that bill will be passed.
JERE ROYALL
Quick note on that, John, that doesn’t normally happen. Usually, one chamber passes a bill sends it over to the other. In this case, as you say they did pass their own version. The main difference is the House version includes college sports, so it remains to be seen how they’re going to work out that difference.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS
Okay, so this is primarily about transgender individuals trying to play on a sport that doesn’t match their birth gender. So we’ve got another bill that’s similar prohibiting gender surgeries on minors. What’s happening with that?
JOHN RUSTIN
Right, well, this is House Bill 808, which passed the House in early May, has not been considered by the Senate yet. The original version of this bill, and there’s a companion Senate bill, would prohibit the administration of puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and the performance of gender reassignment surgeries on minors in North Carolina. So the House took up their bill, they took out the puberty blockers or the chemical portions and kept it as just prohibiting cross sex surgeries on minors and sent that bill over to the Senate. We’re hopeful that the Senate will take up their version of the bill or reinstate the chemical treatment prohibition as part of this bill. Because these drugs, these chemicals, and these surgical procedures are irreversible and sterilize the individuals who receive these services. And it’s just not a good thing for especially our youth to be subjected to. And so individuals who are dealing with gender dysphoria certainly need support, they need compassion, they need care, but they don’t need irreversible surgeries and chemicals in their bodies.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS
Okay, so these two bills are not proof that Republicans hate transgender individuals, is that what you’re saying?
JOHN RUSTIN
Yes, that is correct.
JERE ROYALL
It is, it’s showing true care for people. As John said, they’re permanent changes. There’s no proof. I mean, more and more. We’ve seen it over in Europe, other parts of the world that they’ve been on this path and have seen, they’re coming with negative outcomes. This is bringing harm to people’s lives. So it is, it’s really showing compassion. One other quick note too, John, it remains to be seen how their work out the difference, the House version did still have a provision in there, even though it didn’t keep the chemical part, where no state funding would go towards any kinds of treatments.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS
Yeah, it is interesting that the United States is doing much more radical things with individuals who believe themselves to be transgender than even European countries. Some of these countries we expect to be far out there.
JOHN RUSTIN
And Traci, in a related bill, there’s also legislation that would protect the rights of conscience of healthcare providers in North Carolina. It’s a very broad bill, but part of the intention of the bill is to address and protect physicians and others in the healthcare industry from being forced to engage and participate in these kinds of administration of drugs and surgeries on minors. So that is House Bill 819, the Medical Ethics Defense Act. We do have conscience protections in North Carolina protecting doctors, physicians, health care providers from participating in abortions. And this would extend that in a much broader sense. So we are hopeful that this bill will be taken up because that’s really important not only to prohibit minors from participating, but if adults are seeking these kinds of treatments that, if a healthcare provider objects to it on religious, ethical or moral grounds, they should not be forced to participate in it. So another important bill.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS
Okay. So the final one that our organization is watching is called The REACH Act, and as someone who loves history and thinks that we all need to learn more about our Founding Fathers and some of the founding documents, I love this one. But explain what that is.
JOHN RUSTIN
Well, The REACH Act would require three credit hours of instruction on American government and our founding documents as a prerequisite for graduation from North Carolina universities and community colleges. So the title of the bill is Reclaiming College Education on America’s Constitutional Heritage, the acronym for that is REACH, so that’s where The REACH Act comes from. And there were bills introduced in both chambers to do this. There have been discussions, but no final action taken yet on this legislation by the General Assembly.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS
Right, and why is this important?
JERE ROYALL
Well, as we’re seeing now, they’ve done surveys and asked people basic questions about government. And sadly, the responses are almost shocking. And this is where people are going, “Okay, we see this is a problem.” As citizens of this country, we need to understand our system of government, we all need to participate. And that’s what course we’re about. And we appreciate the fact that so many of you work together with us within our government. But if people don’t understand how the government system works, they’re not as likely to be involved and interested. And so this is an important part of helping people see what does it mean to be a citizen of this country, of this state?
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS
Right. And I think this is why it’s important for all of us to be an educated electorate. This is why getting involved with NC Family, signing up for those emails and actually reading them when they go into your email box is important because you’re continuing to educate yourself and how you can be active.
JOHN RUSTIN
We’ve got a couple more issues to talk about. I know we’re running short on time. Of course, gambling has been a huge focus of the legislature. Unfortunately in recent weeks, as we are having our discussion today, the sports gambling and horse racing bill has passed the General Assembly and has been sent to the governor. He is expected to sign the bill in the coming days. And it’s just very unfortunate because we know the tremendously negative impact that the legalization of sports gambling in North Carolina is going to have, especially on our young adults and youth. The legislature is also considering bills and discussing bills that would place casinos in North Carolina and also legalize Video Lottery terminals or basically video poker machines under the auspices of the state lottery, we are fighting these bills like the dickens and I’m just heartbroken to see the sports gambling bill and the horse racing bill pass the legislature. If this is an issue that is of concern to you, please keep your eyes and ears open for alerts from the Family Policy Council as we move further into the session, because these bills are likely to come up quite quickly.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS
And then the last one is medical marijuana, which I think is just ridiculous that we’re actually still talking about this. We know all the evidence that shows that it’s not healthy to have this legalized marijuana. Talk about what’s happening in North Carolina.
JERE ROYALL
Well, it passed earlier this year in the Senate as the House has not brought it up yet. We and you and many others continue to inform our members of the legislature of the house, just as you’re saying Traci, about the realities. All major medical groups are saying, “No, let us be the ones who approve medications. This we’re finding harm, not help.” And again, thank you for your involvement, because the more they’re hearing, the more they’re being encouraged with the facts and the truth. We’re understanding that opposition is continuing to grow. So this coming week, we’ve heard they may be voting in the House within the caucus of Republicans where if it’s defeated there, then that will be the end of the bill, which is what needs to happen. So we all are going to keep working together to inform, encourage them which goes back to your whole point about being involved with government, looking out for our neighbor, caring for one another. This is one more way we can do that.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS
And y’all it’s so valuable that we have these people up there, you know, advocating on our behalf. So thank you very much for all the good work that you guys do.
JOHN RUSTIN
Thank you, Traci. I appreciate that.
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Family Policy Matters
Transcript: The Miraculous Way: A Maternity Home Offers Hope to Women in College
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: Thanks for joining us this week for Family Policy Matters. This summer marks one year since the United States Supreme Court reversed its nearly 50 year Roe v Wade decision which forced the legalization of abortion in states across the country. Well as we reflect on this momentous anniversary, we’re excited to bring you a series of interviews with folks in North Carolina who represent the many facets of the pro life movement here in our state. Well today we’re joined by Debbie Capen, Executive Director of Miravia, the nation’s largest campus based residential program for pregnant college students, based in western North Carolina. College students facing an unplanned pregnancy are especially vulnerable to the lure of abortion, which promises a quick fix with little regard for the lifelong consequences for both mother and child. Well, what if these young women could count on support, tangible and intangible, for themselves and their babies during pregnancy and in the early months and years of life as a mother? Well Miravia strives to be that lifeline. Debbie Capen, welcome back to Family Policy Matters.
DEBBIE CAPEN: Thank you. It’s an honor.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: For those who have not heard about Miravia, what is your mission and how did you begin?
DEBBIE CAPEN: So Miravia, which is a word that’s a combination to mean the miraculous way, our mission is to serve pregnant women. We have actually two programs, we have an outreach center in Charlotte that helps women with all the tangible needs that a pregnant woman may have, but then we also have this unique program located at Belmont Abbey College that is a beautiful facility for pregnant and parenting college students. And this came about, we started in 1994 as a traditional maternity home in the Charlotte area, but then we were invited by Belmont Abbey with a donation of land to come and serve college students. And our women have come to us from literally all over the country. And it is this beautiful partnership, where now we have had women come from nine different states and 12 different colleges so that if they discover that they’re pregnant while they’re in school, they’re not forced to make decisions out of fear. They can come and live with us, adjust to becoming a mother, raising their small child, and live in community with other young women going through the exact same thing.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: Now why college students? Why do you have a separate place for them, and do you provide anything academic wise for them?
DEBBIE CAPEN: Yes, it’s a very unique demographic. When a woman, especially if she’s attending a school that’s outside of her hometown, so college campuses can feel like an island. And it’s a very particular culture, it’s a special time in that person’s life that a disruption to that can seem devastating. And the board of Miravia saw also through other research, there’s a organization called Feminists for Life that did a study called Perception is Reality, that proved that when a young woman finds herself pregnant in school, they really don’t know what resources are available to them. And so by creating this unique atmosphere, where a college student feels comfortable, and they don’t feel like they are having to go and hide away or disrupt their education, it’s this beautiful environment where they can flourish. And this partnership with Belmont Abbey, they have really put their money where their mouth is, as well. They provide tuition assistance to the moms who come here and transfer to Belmont Abbey. And between the two organizations, we create this perfect environment for them where they can continue on their path that they already had of their career, and then help them to welcome this child into their life and get across the finish line and just have a win win situation for everyone.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: Is this personal ministry to you in particular?
DEBBIE CAPEN: It is, I sadly made the tragic choice to have an abortion when I was in college. And at that time, there were no known resources to me. And sadly, I lacked that courage and the wherewithal of knowing how to deal with it. And when I went to my college health center, the only advice they gave me was that I could look up abortion in the Yellow Pages. And the beautiful part of this now is that that same college has now invited us back and we’ve met with the staff there and the nursing staff and they’ve invited us to their fairs. We’ve really found that if colleges have a viable option to present to their students, they’re more than happy to do that. It’s just that other organizations like Planned Parenthood have been there all along, saying, “Oh, we’ve got the solution.” You know, it’s up to us to provide that turnkey solution for students that they would not know how to put together themselves.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: Are there other tangible assistance that you provide to the new mothers? What specifically do you do?
DEBBIE CAPEN: If you walked into our building, you would find this lovely facility where there are 15 private suites, so that every mom has their own living space, their own bathroom, their own bedroom, their own little kitchenette, and yet in the center of it all, are communal spaces for family style meals, and we have staff there 24/7. So we are providing not only the housing and the meals, but anything that they need, their clothing, baby items, car seats, strollers, and then the child care that they need, which is a key piece to that. We have a beautiful nursery here where their children can stay while their moms are at class or at work. And so those are all of the tangible things. But then it’s also the intangible, it’s the community that they build here. It’s the case management, we have a case manager that meets with each mother weekly, to help make sure she has everything that she needs to be successful. And it’s that combination of both the tangible and the intangible that support that they know that they’re no longer marginalized, they know that they’re a part of a vibrant and successful community.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: So how long do the women stay in that facility?
DEBBIE CAPEN: They can stay with us until the child turns two years old. We would actually love for it to be longer. The State of North Carolina has some regulations around housing pregnant women, and so that is the most that we’ve been afforded through waivers is that they can stay with us for up to two years. But what we do is we work with them, like I said through that case management, that if they’re not going to graduate in the two and a half, two plus years that they’re with us, we have a plan in place of how they’re going to stay in school, how they’re going to have housing, so that it’s not just, you know, wishing them well that they really do have a viable plan in place.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: So what about the community around this facility and around the school? Are they aware of what you’re doing? Are they helping you?
DEBBIE CAPEN: That’s the hard part, that’s why I’m so grateful to be here with you today. As a nonprofit, we don’t have a lot of budget for marketing and those types of things, and so it really is key that we try to maintain relationships with the colleges, with the pregnancy resource centers, with the community and church groups, because it’s such a short timeframe from when a woman finds out that she’s pregnant till she makes a decision of what to do, you may only have a few weeks. So we’re always trying to get the word out because most of the people do find us through referrals. And so from the very beginning of the referrals to all of the community groups, church groups, individuals that donate to us that help us to keep the lights turned on. It really is all about this connectedness throughout the community that allows us to be here and to do what we do.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: Are you finding that the work that you do there is helping to change the mindset of these college women, that they have to abort their children to be able to succeed in their education or career? So are you seeing some progress?
DEBBIE CAPEN: Yes, we are. Seeing is believing, and every time a pregnant student is out on campus, she’s evangelizing just by being there. And before this, I always like to ask people when was the last time you saw a pregnant woman on a college campus? It’s very rare. And then once people see it, it normalizes and they’re not, it’s not something to be afraid of. And our residents are now in just about every profession you can imagine, you know, from nursing and teaching to legal, business, and they are carrying their stories out with them. And I think that the more that we can change the narrative, the more that people are experiencing this in their own families and their workplaces, it really helps them to understand that it’s not something to be afraid of. And one beautiful story is we had a mom here who was on a sports team at her school and at first, her teammates didn’t know what to think. And the truth is that Title IX protects women who are pregnant, they have every right to continue their education, their scholarships, their sports involvement. And after she had her son and her son was coming to her games, so many of her teammates told her, “We probably would have advocated for someone to have an abortion before seeing you.” And just seeing her and meeting her son and seeing the joyful life that she had, so many of them told her that it changed their mindset about the issue.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: So let me play devil’s advocate. I think some people think, well, you know, this will actually make it look like it’s easy to have children, women will start to have babies in college just because they think it’s fun and it’s a hobby, or something ridiculous like that. Are you finding that kind of opposition or people pretty supportive all around?
DEBBIE CAPEN: The only people who have ever said that are people who have never been parents. So if you’ve, if you’ve had a child, no matter where you are in life, you understand how much work it is. It’s very rewarding work, but it’s certainly no walk in the park. These moms, they work very hard, they have extra challenges that may be you know, the person sitting next to them in class might not have although everyone has challenges, right? So this is just a different kind. And so I would say to that, that if anyone actually meets our clients or meets these people or their children, they would understand that no, this is definitely not an easy way out. But it is something that if it happens to someone unexpectedly, we want them to be able to take the next good step in their life. And that’s what we’re here to do.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: So you mentioned public policy and regulations and how that might limit what you want to do. Have you found that there are some public policies that would help you if they were changed?
DEBBIE CAPEN: Certainly not my forte, I guess I can just speak to what I know in that, you know, for maternity homes, we have a lot of regulations, which are there for the safety and well being. So I’m not saying that those should not be in place. But I would love for it to be more collaborative as opposed to top down, where maternity homes are brought to the table for these conversations, and being able to have that give and take of what’s working, what’s not working, and that we can then provide the services that our clients really want and need.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: So what kind of advice do you have for us? Because I can think, oh, every college needs to have this and there’s a crisis pregnancy center or pregnancy resource center, I guess, as we call them now, in Raleigh by NC State’s campus, you know, they need one, what can we, as we’re listening to you, do to assist you and to make a difference in the lives of the young girls that we may know in our own communities.
DEBBIE CAPEN: Thank you for asking. The easiest thing to do is if someone’s on social media, like and follow us and share our posts. I can’t tell you how many times people have found us through social media where they’re on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and even Tik Tok now. That’s the easiest thing right there. But also, if you are involved with your church or pregnancy resource center, community or civic organization, get to know us. Make those introductions for us. We can send a letter or make a phone call to organizations, but if they don’t have that introduction, it makes it much harder. If there’s someone that’s trusted between the two organizations, that builds that bridge, and I’ve discovered it really is about collaboration. And there’s no sense in reinventing the wheel. You know, pregnancy resource centers play a crucial role in the colleges, and us, and the other organizations that support them. And I think my 10 year old daughter said it best, I was having a meeting with the pregnancy resource center staff and I was explaining to them what we do, and she said, “Oh wow, it’s kind of like an assembly line, huh Mom?” And it’s exactly, we all have our hand in this journey, this miraculous way that pregnant women are on and everybody can get involved and be one part of the solution.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: Okay, great. Well, before we go, Debbie Capen, where can our listeners go to learn more and potentially to help share your social media posts regarding Miravia?
DEBBIE CAPEN: Certainly so our web site address is Miravia.org. And then on social media we are Miravialife across the board. So just look for Miravialife and you’ll find us and hopefully you’ll see the pictures and be encouraged and want to get involved.
TRACI DEVETTE GRIGGS: Alright, Debbie Capen, Executive Director of Miravia, thank you so much for being with us today on Family Policy Matters.
DEBBIE CAPEN: Thank you, Traci.
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