ORANGE, Va. — On the wall of the maternity home is the motto: "Saving Babies, One Mom at a Time." For founders Randy and Evelyn James, the home started with one baby — their own.
Paul Stefan was the last of their six children, born with a fatal condition. They did not abort the pregnancy as doctors advised. He lived for just over 40 minutes, long enough to be baptized and named after their Catholic priest.
Randy and Evelyn James sit for a portrait Jan. 5 at their maternity home, the Paul Stefan Foundation, in Orange, Va. In the nearly two decades since, the Jameses channeled their son's memory and their anti-abortion beliefs into running maternity homes.
Evelyn James said they knew they "were going to do something for women in crisis pregnancies." This month, their Paul Stefan Foundation plans to open a new floor with seven more rooms at its headquarters in a former hotel in Orange, Virginia. There has been a nationwide expansion of maternity homes in the two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v.
Wade and the federal right to abortion. "It's been a significant increase," said Valerie Harkins, director of the Maternity Housing Coalition, an anti-abortion network of 195 maternity homes that grew 23% since the court's ruling. Jasmine Heriot, a former Mary's Shelter resident, plays with her son Jan.
5 in Fredericksburg, Va. In the two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the federal right to abortion, there has been a nationwide expansion of mate.