Maddi Runkles is speaking out. Runkles is the straight-”A” student who became the subject of intense debate among pro-lifers this May when her school, Heritage Academy, banned her from walking at her graduation because she is pregnant.
Runkles told her side of the story in an op-ed for the Washington Post on Thursday.
In the piece, Runkles detailed the emotional reactions of her parents when she told them she was pregnant at eighteen. Her mom reassured her, “You’re gonna be fine, and we’re gonna make it through this.” Her father, who resigned from the board of Heritage Academy after they decided to draw out her punishment for violating school rules over several months, said, “God is in this somewhere, we just need to find where He is in all of this.”
In addition to not walking at graduation, being stripped of her leadership positions, and a two-day suspension, the school insisted that Runkles publicly announce her pregnancy and ask for forgiveness in front of the student body. “It was one of the hardest things I ever did, and I’m so sorry, not for myself, but for any girl in that audience who will get pregnant in the future and may consider abortion because of what I had to go through,” she wrote in the Washington Post.
Because of this concern for future pregnant students at her school, Runkles enlisted the help of pro-life group Students for Life of America. With the help of Students for Life president, Kristan Hawkins, and a New York Times article, the story went viral. National news sources (including NBC) quickly picked up the story and Runkles and Hawkins even appeared on Fox News.
Unfortunately, the national attention brought even more backlash against Runkles and her family.
“Because of the volume of anger from the community,” she writes, “my parents have decided to keep my brother and me home for the rest of the school year.”
The story has opened up a debate within the pro-life and Christian communities on how to treat unwed mothers. While many are siding with Runkles, others, like conservative blogger Matt Walsh, are taking the side of the school’s president David Hobbes. Hobbes insisted in a statement that “Maddi is being disciplined, not because she’s pregnant, but because she was immoral.”
Runkles hopes that sharing her story will help other young women like herself: “I want other girls in my position to know you don’t have to give in to pressure or fear of judgment.”
Runkles’ baby boy is due in September.