‘Worth fighting for’

MOSES LAKE — Steventhen Holland had a question Saturday as the featured speaker at a fundraiser banquet benefiting Crossroads Resource Center, which provides care, counseling and supplies to people facing unplanned pregnancies as an alternative to abortion. 

“I want you to think about how you answer this,” he said. “Is life worth fighting for? I think the way we answer that really dictates the actions that come.” 

Along with Holland’s talk, attendees were treated to a prime rib dinner catered by Top Gun Concessions & Catering and an update from Crossroads’ Executive Director Carol Knopp on what the center has been doing the last year. 

“Our non-medical services include helping families in need with used clothing, some diapers and wipes when they need it,” Knopp said. “We have a car seat program for families in need … and we have a post-abortion Bible study for people who are healing from a past abortion. We also have a parenting program that's online, and first-time parents get to earn points they can maintain for baby items.” 

On the medical front, Knopp said, Crossroads offers pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection testing and ultrasounds at no cost to the client, she said.  

“Oftentimes the ultrasound is what helps them to connect with the baby in their womb and make a life-affirming choice,” Knopp said. 

Crossroads, which has centers in Moses Lake and Ephrata, is well on the path to being accredited as a medical clinic, Knopp said, and she expects that accreditation to be final next year. In addition, Moses Lake Center Director Christy Youngers has become licensed by the state as a lactation consultant, for new mothers who are having trouble nursing. 

“One other program that we have … is called Primary Steps,” Knopp said. “When women come into our office for a pregnancy test and they are considering an abortion, primarily because they have a lack of financial resources, we have a program where we'll help them pay for whatever material resources their baby needs for the first year of life. That program has really given women hope, and there's a number of women in our community that helped them in their decision making and they chose to keep their babies.” 

The amount raised at the banquet was not available at press time. 

For the last few years, Crossroads has given an award to a person in the community who has done a lot for the pro-life cause. This year’s honoree was Harold Hochstatter of Moses Lake, who represented Moses Lake in the state House of Representatives in 1991-92 and in the state Senate from 1992 to 2003. Because Hochstatter, 87, is undergoing cancer treatments, his wife Paula accepted the award on his behalf from Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church Deacon Mark Krcma. 

“It's real easy to be pro-life when we're in this kind of setting here, surrounded by our peers, but (Harold Hochstatter) is pro-life, anti-abortion everywhere, all the time … He even went to jail,” Krcma said.  

Krcma was referring to an incident in 1988 when Hochstatter was arrested for picketing outside an abortion clinic in Spokane. The future state senator served three days in the Spokane County Jail. 

“Over the years, when he ran for the legislature, one of the things his opponent kept saying was, ‘Do you want a jailbird for your legislator?’” Paula Hochstatter said. “I want you to know we’ve been blessed with five wonderful children. I love my jailbird.” 

“When I was 8 years old, I was at school, and I had some friends of mine come up to me, and they said, ‘You're weird and different.’ And I'm like, ‘You're a jerk,’” Holland said. “'Why would you say that?’ They said ‘You’re the wrong color. Your whole family’s white and you’re not.’ So, I looked at my hand and thought, you know what? They ain’t lying.” 

That night, his mother explained that he had been adopted at an early age. Years later, Holland was able to piece together the circumstances. 

He was born to a mentally challenged teenager as the result of a sexual assault, he said. Under heavy pressure from the staff at the state home where she lived to abort him, she ran away and lived on the street in a cardboard box until she gave birth. He was turned over to the family who later adopted him. 

At the age of 28, with a wife and children of his own, he sought out his birth family. His birth mother was still alive and living in a state facility, and their meeting was captured on a video Holland shared with the audience. 

“What I want you to understand is, she had worth,” he said. “She had value. Even though the world would say she’s just taking up space and tax dollars … She deserved to have a place like Crossroads. She didn’t have one day of prenatal care … She carried me homeless. And when all the world was saying the circumstances in which I was conceived devalued me, she acted alone. She only had an 11-year-old mental capacity, but she knew innately that her baby was worth fighting for … So I’m going to ask you: Is life worth fighting for?” 

“When we come together, we can do miracles,” Holland concluded. “We can change things.” 

    Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church Deacon Mark Krcma adjusts the microphone for Paula Hochstatter, who accepted an award on behalf of her husband Harold at the Crossroads Resource Center banquet Saturday.
  

    Caitlin Graves, left, chats with Micah Hoiland while she feeds 6-month-old Josie at the Crossroads Resource Center banquet Saturday.
  

    Attendees at the Crossroads Resource Center bajnquet help themselves to mashed potatoes and veggies, part of the prime rib dinner catered by Top Gun Concessions & Catering Saturday.