The pro-life organization Life in Mercy is seeking to acquire a larger home in Houston to shelter pregnant women and their babies who are facing difficult situations.
Speaking to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, the organizationʼs founder and director, Zeira Becerra, said the new project will be presented during the “Vision and Hope Breakfast” on Saturday, Sept. 26.
Becerra said the initiative grew out of a promise she made to herself in New York in 1991, “when I was hired, without realizing it, by an abortion clinic.”
“There I witnessed a reality that changed my life forever: women arriving who felt they had no other way out, and lives just beginning to form being ended by abortion,” she recalled.
‘There has to be a place’
Becerra recalled a moment that she said particularly touched her heart: “I wanted to help a 14-year-old girl so she could continue with her baby’s life, but I discovered I had no safe place to take her. That was when I became certain that there has to be a place.”
That day, she said, “I made a promise to myself, a purpose for my life: I didn’t know how, but I had to create that place.”
“Many years had to pass,” she said, but eventually that promise “became Life in Mercy, a home where an expectant mother could find a welcome, support, and a real, loving, and merciful alternative to choose life.”
In its 10 years of work, Life in Mercy has supported “around 75 mothers and their babies in various ways,” she noted. “Each one represents a unique story and a life that deserved to be welcomed with hope.”
Becerra said Life in Mercy helps each mother “connect with the resources she needs, providing emotional and spiritual support and, above all, reminding her that she is not alone and that a difficult situation does not have to end her childʼs life.”
“In the end, we want more women who find themselves facing a difficult situation to be able to hear something very simple but decisive: ‘There is a place for you and your baby,’” she said.
‘A larger, newer, and better-situated house’
The organization is currently aiming to “acquire a larger, newer, and better-situated house that allows us to welcome more mothers and babies,” a move Becerra said she considers “a very important stage” for the initiative.
“We sold our previous house because we needed to take the next step. It was an old house, and our mission has grown,” she explained.
“And that is precisely one of the main reasons for this breakfast,” she noted: “We don’t simply want to reopen a house; we want to build a broader response to the need we are seeing in Houston.”
‘She arrived sad, scared, and unsure of what would become of her life’
During the breakfast, a woman who “came to us with a 6-year-old child and was in her first trimester of pregnancy” will share her testimony, Becerra said.
“She had been abandoned by her partner; she had no job, vehicle, or family in Houston, and as an immigrant, she was practically alone. In her desperation, she even considered ending her baby’s life as her only way out,” Becerra continued.
“By the grace of God, she first received care at a crisis center for women, where she was able to rediscover the value of her baby’s life and learn that there were people and resources ready to help her. That was when she found the strength to go on, and she subsequently came to our shelter,” she said.
The woman, she recalled, “arrived sad, frightened, and unsure of what would become of her life.”
“Over time, something beautiful happened,” Becerra said, as “she regained her self-confidence, had a beautiful baby girl, and was able to move forward.”
Becerra explained that the mission of Life in Mercy “does not end when the baby is born,” because “we want to walk with the mother so she can begin a new phase in life with her child — with dignity, hope, and the tools to move forward.”
Although Texas generally prohibits abortion with limited medical exceptions, Becerra pointed out that “the fact that abortion is no longer legal in Texas does not mean the problem is over, nor that we can let our guard down. On the contrary, we have an even greater responsibility to support mothers who choose life.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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