The new executive director of a Maryland pregnancy center is passionate about educating women on the unnecessary offers of “pregnancy interruptions” by medical professionals.
Mary Cardoza is the executive director of Centro Tepeyac Women's Center, a pregnancy center for the Spanish-speaking community in Silver Spring. Cardoza is a wife and mother of seven children and has been offered more than one abortion due to various circumstances.
Cardoza’s first experience with being offered abortion occurred with her second pregnancy in 2003. She said the doctor talked to her about already having a small child at home and how it would be difficult to parent a second.
“I was asked, ‘When would you like to schedule an interruption?’” Cardoza recalled in conversation with Pregnancy Help News.
A woman of faith, Cardoza did not entertain the question. She went on to have her baby and then a third.
During her fourth pregnancy, doctors suspected her baby had trisomy 18, a genetic disorder which can cause heart defects, a small head, developmental delays, intellectual disability, and several other complications. Abortion was suggested to her because of this diagnosis and Cardoza once again refused. Her child was born with no obvious sign of the condition upon birth.
She similarly had abortion suggsted to her with her last three children because of her age.
"I was told I was too old, and I would be risking my and their lives," she said.
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Cardoza suffered a miscarriage in her late 40s and decided she wanted to heal by working with moms and babies in some way.
She became active with 40 Days for Life and led pro-life demonstrations in Bethesda and Chevy Chase. Cardoza recalled watching the movie “Unplanned,” and feeling an urgency to get involved with pregnancy centers. She began volunteering in pregnancy centers and first began working with the Gabriel Project before she accepted the role of executive director at Centro Tepeyac.
“I came here from Cuba at the age of 10. I had my first child with my first husband, and he left us after three months,” she said. “I wish I would have known about pregnancy centers then.”
Cardoza said she taught in the public school system for 30 years and watched young women become confused about what to do with an unplanned pregnancy. She said she felt strongly that some educators are twisting the minds of young women to believe they cannot “have it all” and a family. Cardoza said she hopes to connect with high school nurses and keep them informed about pregnancy center help.
“The immigrant population needs to know to go to a pregnancy center and get options counseling, to be part of the LOVE Approach,” Cardoza said, referencing the longtime Heartbeat International pregnancy help ministry approach. Heartbeat is the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in both the U.S. and globally.
“They need someone to tell them, ‘Let’s not be hasty in making a decision,” she said. “We can connect them to other agencies and churches to continue to provide help.”
Tweet This: Women facing unexpected pregnancy need someone to help them understand they need not be hasty in making a decision.
Now as executive director of a pregnancy center, Cardoza has plans for continued growth and awareness raising.
Centro Tepeyac offers options counseling, pregnancy testing, resource and service referrals, assistance in finding health insurance, and classes on parenting, financial literacy, and beauty.
There is hope for an English as a Second Language program at the center, she said. Another long-term goal is to offer ultrasounds.
Cardoza said the continued push for abortion by medical professionals upon women gave her a desire to help more women know that abortion is not the answer in any circumstance.
Cardoza said she believes the battle is spiritual.
“We suffer attacks from the Devil, and he creates any kind of nonsense to keep women from having their babies,” she said.
Families need to return to God, she said.
Cardoza said she not only dealt with suggestions for abortions, but she also felt the encouragement during pregnancy was not always present. During her third pregnancy she was told she was having another girl, to which one health care provider responded, “Do you really want another girl?”
The new pregnancy help executive director said if she can help more women avoid these proposed pregnancy “interruptions,” her efforts are worth it.
“There’s so much we can do in this field to be the voice when others cannot,” Cardoza said.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
