It has been less than a week since the March for Life. On our bus someone had a copy of a new book by Abby Johnson. It was being passed around and it stopped at my seat. I started reading and devoured the first five chapters. The person who brought it on the trip gave it to me and then asked that I pass it on to someone else when I finished. I am not a huge reader but I was picking this up at every free moment until I finished it yesterday.At her Texas A&M volunteer fair, Abby was recruited to work for Planned Parenth00d. She was drawn in by the attractive display, the well spoken professional woman at the table and especially by the idea of helping women in crisis. All along she believed that she was there to make abortion rare. She believed her involvement in this organization would make a difference. Through the years Abby quickly rose through the ranks and eventually became the director of a Planned Parenth00d clinic near Texas A&M. She became a champion for women...or so she believed.
As Abby's story unfolds, so does the parallel story of the people on the other side of the fence. The pro-lifers.
I am interjecting Abby's story to tell part of my own:
I am a pro-lifer. I am one of those people who have stood on the other side of the fence. While attending college in Mobile, Alabama I became connected with a gentleman who knew of my deep pro-life convictions, I will call him Joe. Joe invited me to join him to pray at Planned Parenth00d on their abortion day. My heart was pounding as I drove up to that clinic at 7am on a Tuesday morning, December 14, 1999. I parked across the street and found Joe. I helped him gather his literature and signs as clients and pro-lifers began arriving. The other pro-lifers set to work praying, trying to catch the attention of the people sitting in their cars. Car after car arrived. As the doors opened, these women begin pouring into the clinic. One woman, got out of her car about 10 feet from where I stood. I opened my mouth for the first time and said "please don't do this". She looked at me, stone-faced, and said "my husband and I already have too many children." At that moment I lost it. I feel to my knees and began to weep.
I imagine most people are unaware of abortion clinics in their town. For those who have not had a personal connection with them, they can be easy to ignore. Even for us that consider ourselves pro-life, how often do we think about those clinics. Definitely out of sight, out of mind. However, we you know what happens during an abortion and then when you stand face to face with an abortion clinic...there are no words to describe the feeling. Especially when you face it for the first time.
I knelt and wept for quite a while as the sounds of the rosary where filling the air around me. I clutched my beads. After two hours there were at least thirty cars in the parking lot. Thirty women waiting for abortions. During that time there were three teenage girls that kept coming out to their car. They would smoke and laugh then go back into the clinic. Around 9:15 the pro-lifers begin leaving. As I was about to get in my car I noticed Joe had caught the attention of one of those teenagers. She was walking over to him. I went back towards them. One of her friends came out and came over. Joe offered that we go out to breakfast. They agreed.
We walked two blocks down to Shoneys and he ushered us into the smoking section. One of the girls was pregnant from her boyfriend and the other was pregnant through rape. We talked to them and "Amanda" was very open and receptive. After a bit she began to cry and said she is going to keep her baby. Methodically she went for a cigarette, then looked at it and said "Oh my gosh, I can't smoke! I am pregnant!"
This was my first encounter with side walk counseling. We had a save on my first day!! It was miraculous. I was hooked. That day ignited my passion for praying on the sidewalk.
Back to Abby's story! The pro-life group on the other side of the fence was called Coalition for Life. As I have "stood at the fence" I saw myself in their tears and prayers. The story talks about how this amazing group of young people establish acceptable behaviors for the sidewalk counselors. No more grim reapers, signs that call out "murders" or graphic images. Instead they offer love and friendship to the clinic workers and girls. Their most powerful witness was the program that began by this group at this clinic, called 40 Days for Life (now a national prayer campaign).
God uses the love and friendship from Coalition for Life, and the prayers of people involved with 40 Days for Life to work on Abby's heart. She begins to feel pressure from above to increase revenue to her clinic. Revenue comes from abortions. Again, one of Abby's hopes was to decrease the number of abortions. As the organizational pressure mounts, so does her internal struggle. In this perfectly orchestrated series of events, she is then called into to help with an abortion, for the first time in her 10 year involvement with this clinic. The doctor needed her to hold an ultrasound while he conducts the abortion. What Abby witnesses, changes her life. I highly encourage you to read the first chapter of her book on her website: http://www.unplannedthebook.com/.
I highly encourage you to purchase her book. Abby's story is riveting and I know she will continue to be a witness to thousands on both sides of the fence.
I am grateful for a new and renewed spirit of activism. There are two women that I know need to join me in prayer outside of our local clinic. The next 40 Days campaign starts on March 9th. We will be there.
