Transitioning to Sidewalk Advocacy

Many of our readers are loyal 40 Days for Life Prayer Warriors.  Many of our Prayer Warriors bemoan the fact that staying on the public sidewalk keeps us away from the vulnerable women entering the abortion facility.  Being a trained sidewalk advocate offers a solution to this.

It is important to pray for the children that are in danger of being aborted.  It’s important to pray for the people that would choose to do that to them.  And it is important to pray for the people working and profiting from this death sentence.  Our prayers are compounded when we allow people to see us praying.  It reminds them that they too need to step up and doing something about the holocaust in our community.  Offering a public, peaceful prayer witness forces people to notice and think.  Abortion exists because good people refuse to think about it.  It ‘depresses them’ ‘is none of their business’ ‘too big of a problem for us to deal with alone’.

But that’s just it we’re NOT alone!

Don’t give up on praying!  If you are interested in adding another aspect to your work for the unborn Contact Us at Idaho United 4 Life to get trained as a Sidewalk Advocate.  Here’s a report from two of our Advocates.

Street Sheet

by Joan Shay:

Karen Simkins and Joan Shay were stationed near Meridian Planned Parenthood (on Stanton property north of PP) Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016, 10:20a.m. to 12:25 p.m.

Working from prior information that Thursday is one of their surgical days at Planned Parenthood, we observed that females were leaving the building 1.5 – 2.0 hours after arriving, wearing loose clothing and moving slowly.

We were surprised to see at least 2 patients were driving themselves home!

During the 2 hours we were there, 6 patients went in and 5 came out. By watching who came and went, it looks like scheduling is arranged to allow about 3 patients per hour, staggered for the visiting doctor’s convenience. There would be waiting time, prep time, and maybe allow a doctor in with a patient for 20 minutes? Recovery time would be anywhere from 30-60 minutes? This is only our theory, based on what we already know about medical procedures. We welcome being corrected on these points.

One slow-moving woman emerged and got in a vehicle near us, so Karen greeted her. After entering her vehicle she didn’t immediately drive away. Karen realized she wasn’t well, and stepped over to check on her. The woman had her truck door open and had vomited on the pavement. She said she was okay, just lost her breakfast.

An AmeriPride van pulled up at one point and delivered a very small bag to the building. AmeriPride is a uniforms and linens company.

A professionally dressed woman in a silver minivan parked and entered the back of the building carrying a tote bag and a messenger style bag (like for a laptop). She was a few feet away, but didn’t acknowledge us. Another woman with dark hair exited from the rear and waved and smiled at us after Karen waved at her. These occurred around noon. The office had been open since 8 a.m.

I (Joan) have participated with 40 Days for Life for a few years, praying on the sidewalk along Franklin Road. This time, as a Sidewalk Advocate, I could actually see the people going in and out…..a teenager with her mother, a black couple, women alone, a Hispanic woman picked up by a Hispanic male who hugged her when she shuffled out. It was a real heart wrencher knowing that while we stood outside, inside at least 3 little lives were extinguished.  The people coming out each had their own stories of personal anguish and confusion. The knowledge of that made it more real for me…and more urgent to pray, intercede, educate, be on the sidewalk, and not give up hope!

Love Them, Love Them Both!

People can be so focused trying to save the baby that they forget the mom needs saving too.  She wouldn’t be contemplating an abortion if she were in a good place mentally, emotionally, physically or spiritually.  “Abortion is the unchoice”.  Nobody says, ‘Hey look the sun is shining!  It looks like a good day to go kill my child inside of me.’  Women choose abortion because they feel trapped, like they have no other options.  Things are out of their control and this is the only way they can think of to get out of it.

Not everyone has experienced a crisis pregnancy, but I think everyone has felt trapped and helpless to some extent.  Maybe your boss was backing you in a corner everyday and you came to the point where you couldn’t take it anymore but you couldn’t find another job.  Maybe you discovered your spouse has been hiding a serious addiction your entire marriage.  Everything you know about this person now comes into question.  The pain is so deep, so devastating and you just want it to go away.  You want to turn back time and delete this entire situation.

Maybe You’re Life is Perfect

Maybe you’re life has been near perfect so far and you can’t relate to either of these.  Well try this analogy.  You’re 4-6 years old and you go into a haunted house at the carnival.  When you gave the man your ticket you thought you were brave enough to do it, but once you got inside you realized you were wrong.  It’s dark, narrow and noisy.  There’s many different paths but only one way out.  You try to tough it out and take a path and it’s a dead end.  Scary things jump out at you from every side.  It sounds like creepy things are flying above you, but you can’t see them.  You’re imagination takes off and magnifies the terror.  You’re so far in by now that you can’t find the entrance and you certainly can’t find the exit.  You want to just sit down and scream and cry but the music and creepy sounds are so loud that nobody would hear you anyway; even if they did, they would likely just laugh and walk away anyway.  You’re alone and the most scared you have every been in you’re entire life and worse yet you can’t even begin to devise a solution.  The only way to end the torment is to get through the maze and as if that does’t suck enough, you don’t even know how!!

Congratulations you’ve just experienced one tenth of a percent of the emotion that a woman in a crisis pregnancy experiences.

Now imagine that while you’re experiencing all these emotions you open up to someone.  Sharing your feelings makes you the most vulnerable you’ve ever been in your entire life.  Then that person replies with something like, ‘Wow that’s hard, but you can’t leave. You just have to stick it out.’

What a slap in the face!  That person just made the job or the marriage more important than you. It was so hard to open up and now you wish you didn’t.  This one person just basically said that they care that you stay married (or employed) more than they care about you.  Do you feel loved?  Do you feel cared for?  Do you feel comfortable sharing with this person further?  Do you feel like their advice can actually help you or just serve their agenda?

NO! No you don’t.  Who would?  Anyone treated like this would likely feel pushed further underground; even more alone than before.  To add to all their previous problems is rejection, judgment maybe even manipulated, betrayed or abused.  All you can see is the pain you’re going through right now and instead of helping you heal this person bulldozed over your feelings and damaged you further.

DON’T BE THAT PERSON!

You just never know when an opportunity to council someone will present itself.  1Peter says, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,”  Don’t fret about exactly what you are to say, but do remember that the most important thing is to love them.  Love them, love them, love them no matter what!  If they don’t feel like you care about them, they wont really give a crap about your opinions.  Love them unconditionally.  Even if all your efforts of persuasion fail and this young women carries out the abortion, she’s going to need a soft place to land even more than at first.

Besides, it isn’t loving if you only love a person if they follow your advice.  Don’t feel like you can love someone who has had an abortion? Maybe you should remember this,  “If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” 1John 4:20  Ouch!!

Pro-Choicers Don’t Judge but do They Love?

The problem with the so called “pro-choice” side of the fence isn’t always lack of love.  Some of those folks think they are being loving – well to the woman anyway. Many of them just want to exploit the woman in crisis for money, but there are actually people on that side who think they are truly doing good for women. It’s not always kind to give someone what they want.

Let’s go back to the workplace analogy. Imagine you just laid out your heart about your terrible work situation.  Now what would happen if that person responded with, “They can’t treat you like that!  Come on, let’s go tell your boss what a blankety-blank he is then we’ll throw gasoline all over him and watch him burn!  After that we’ll go out for a drink and you’ll feel much better.”

Now to be honest, there have been a few times in my life when I would have loved for somebody to tell me that.  (I may have an anger problem come to think of it…)  As freeing as this option may sound at first what this friend suggests wouldn’t have solved my problems.  They would have just given me a whole bunch of new ones.  Bigger ones.  Much more serious ones, that will be much more difficult to deal with.  Just like an abortion does.

It may be intimidating to talk to someone in crisis, but it shouldn’t be intimidating to love someone in any circumstance.  If whatever you say and whatever you do comes out of love and an informed conscious it’s the best anyone can do.  It may not be perfect, and it may not bring about the desired results, but that’s not what is required of us.  We’re only required to love – love them both, mother and child!