Jessica Likens was desperate.
The 21-year-old mother needed a day care while she worked as a DoorDash driver to afford diapers and formula for her newborn son, Luke. Too many places were expensive or didn’t accept her vouchers — or if they did, the waitlist was out the door.
That included the Children’s Village in Decatur Township, where Likens attended day care herself. She remembered the snacks and the staff fondly.
“I knew if he went there, he would be taken care of because I was,” Likens said. “It just felt safer.”
Just as she was running out of time and options, the phone rang. A spot had opened up at her old child care center, which is run by a local nonprofit, The Villages of Indiana.
“It was a God thing,” she said.
The Villages recently expanded its day care to help more single moms like Likens by adding two new classrooms in an infant wing for children who are 6 weeks to 1 year old. It’s the organization’s latest response to Indiana’s near-total abortion ban, which shuttered clinics and sharply decreased the procedure across the state since it took effect a year ago.
“The abortion restriction legislation will disproportionately affect lower income families and that’s who we serve,” The Villages president and CEO Shannon Schumacher told Mirror Indy. “We believe we will see more families with newborns.”
There’s already some evidence of a growing need: The wait list has never been longer, Schumacher said, with more than 200 parents in need of a low-cost option. The 16 new slots for infants from the expansion will be filled instantly.
Likens didn’t have an unwanted pregnancy, but she sympathized with mothers in that situation.
“A lot of women are in need of abortions because they can’t take care of another child,” she said. “People are going to need to work or get a job, and child care is going to be really important.”
Child care deserts are defined by the nonprofit Early Learning Indiana as areas where there’s only one available day care seat for every three children. In Indiana, four out of every 10 children live in one, according to the nonprofit.
The strain parents experience also affects the state’s workforce with absences and high turnover rates. Indiana University’s Public Policy Institute found that inadequate child care costs the state $1.1 billion every year, including $138 million in Marion County.
Staff members, administrators and friends of Children’s Village in Decatur Township gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony Aug. 13, 2024, to celebrate the day care’s expansion. Credit: Doug McSchooler for Mirror Indy 
Staff members, administrators and friends of Children’s Village in Decatur Township gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony Aug. 13, 2024, to celebrate the day care’s expansion. Credit: Doug McSchooler for Mirror Indy 
Staff members, administrators and friends of Children’s Village in Decatur Township gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony Aug. 13, 2024, to celebrate the day care’s expansion. Credit: Doug McSchooler for Mirror Indy 
Staff members, administrators and friends of Children’s Village in Decatur Township gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony Aug. 13, 2024, to celebrate the day care’s expansion. Credit: Doug McSchooler for Mirror Indy 
Staff members, administrators and friends of Children’s Village in Decatur Township gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony Aug. 13, 2024, to celebrate the day care’s expansion. Credit: Doug McSchooler for Mirror Indy 
Staff members, administrators and friends of Children’s Village in Decatur Township gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony Aug. 13, 2024, to celebrate the day care’s expansion. Credit: Doug McSchooler for Mirror Indy
During the same 2022 special session that outlawed abortions in most cases, the Republican-led Indiana General Assembly allocated $45 million to a fund that supports pregnant women, mothers and children. Earlier this year, Gov. Eric Holcomb signed Senate Bill 2, which reduced regulations and provided more assistance to child care workers.
Schumacher said the efforts helped, but more needs to be done for the families on the waitlist.
“There’s so much need out there,” she said. “It’s just a really steep hill to make sure we have high quality, affordable day care.”
Mirror Indy reporter Mary Claire Molloy covers health. Reach her at 317-721-7648 or email maryclaire.molloy@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @mcmolloy7.
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