The other day I wrote a short article wishing I could do more to end abortion. (Link here.) I said that my voice “just seems so small and insignificant” compared to the need. A friend who has been a long-time pro-life advocate and is well connected in the pro-life movement saw my post and challenged me: I could, in fact, do more.
This morning I went with him to a local abortion clinic. We did not picket, we did not carry signs, we did not jeer at, malign, or otherwise harass the women who went in to end the lives of their babies. We stayed the legal distance away and never once obstructed their pathway.
Then we prayed. We prayed for them, for their babies, and for the workers inside. Next, we pleaded. Earnestly. We pleaded with the women and their friends to please, please delay their decision and let us get them alternate help. Then we preached the gospel.
We did not “rain down coals of fire and damnation” on them. We did not call them names. We did not preach statistics but rather Christ and Him crucified. We also did not sugar-coat or suppress the truth: What they were engaging in was nothing less than murder, God would not hold them guiltless; yet if they would turn to Him and ask His forgiveness, He would be swift with His pardon and healing. Our final words before we left were, “We love you.”
You must understand: I have never done this sort of thing before. Today I stood face-to-face with another human being and pleaded with them to not kill someone. I can’t begin to explain the force of that intimate human connection.
What, you ask, were the results? Only God knows. I can tell you that not one person complained or cursed. Mostly we were ignored. (To be balanced, I’m told this is not always the case.)
I learned a lot today. I learned that I could, in fact, do more. All of us can. Did you know that just standing your legal ground on the sidewalk is sometimes enough of a visual deterrent? Not that we swagger and look imposing (I’m 5’7” and academic looking…I’m about as imposing as bread dough), rather, people think “Oh, nevermind, I’ll come back another day.”
And really, that in itself is a small victory: that that baby gets another day.