On this particular day at least one child was allowed to live, at least one mom was spared from making a tragic mistake and suffering the many consequences – physical, emotional and spiritual, and one woman began the healing process just one year after aborting her child rather than what could have been decades later. All, thanks be to God.
A mom to whom I had given literature upon her arrival and came out of the killing center shortly after, said “You are so right” and that she couldn’t go through with the abortion.
Shortly after, the Holy Spirit and I reached out to a young woman who had come there to find out if she was pregnant. I explained to her why I was there and what was contained in the literature that I had given her. I recommended that she have her pregnancy test done at a nearby pregnancy resource center and offered to drive her there and take her home afterward. She accepted my offer, but it was only 9:00 and the PRC wouldn’t be open until 10:00. I was concerned that I might lose her, especially since she had come by bus and it was raining steadily. Because I was alone on that morning, leaving with her at that time would have meant abandoning the other moms who would be arriving shortly. It had been a typically busy morning already. I pointed out to her that the Amtrak station was just up the block. I asked her to go there where she could sit comfortably and read through the literature that I had given her while I remained here for another 45 minutes to help other women just like her. She agreed and at 9:45, as I started to make my way to the train station, I was relieved to see her returning to meet me.
As we chatted for a couple of blocks during our walk to my car, she confided that she had aborted a child one year earlier at this same killing center. She had read through the literature while at the train station and learned the facts about abortion. No, it’s not just a “blob of tissue” and yes, there are side effects and risks and other consequences. She said that previously she did not have a clue. Now, knowing the facts, she was regretting that abortion.
She was sad and upset that none of the staff had informed her of the facts at that time even in the least way. That came as no surprise to me. My state doesn’t have an informed consent law and these baby killers aren’t the least bit so-called pro-choice. There is only one “choice” that is able to satiate their hunger for money.
I consoled her as best I could in both practical and spiritual terms and told her that the staff at the PRC would be able to counsel her further and that I would also put her in contact with a minister, which I did as soon as I arrived home.While we were driving to the PRC she received a phone call during which she found out that she had been granted a four-year scholarship to NYU. I tried to assure her that if she were pregnant, God would provide just as He had with her scholarship.
Her pregnancy test turned out negative, but I am certain that she would not have aborted her child had she been pregnant.
I asked her if anyone was there last year reaching out to her as I had done today. No one was. Perhaps she had gone on a day or time of day that no member of our tiny team of sidewalk counselors as able to be there.
Judging from her receptiveness on this day, I have no reason to believe that she wouldn’t have been as receptive last year had someone been there for her and her child. Her child would be alive today and she would not be wounded.
This disturbs me very much and I hope that it disturbs you as well because your help is desperately needed!
If you have any spare time or are able to reprioritize your commitments, I implore you to be concerned enough about these poor victims – mothers and children – to make yourself available to them. We have both a civic and Christian responsibility to come to their aid. Considering all of the ways in which God is being offended in our time, can there be any doubt that we are living in a time of Divine Mercy? By participating in sidewalk counseling you can be an instrument of God’s love, mercy and peace.
Be not afraid.
“Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.”
(Martin Luther King, Jr.)
