Pro-Lifers are Extenders of Mercy, Options Hope and Healing

Not all people are on sidewalk are helping the Pro-Life effort.  How do you help the Pro-Life effort?  Leave your comments and let us know.

Jo Anne and I bundled up for a pretty chilly day.  As seems to be usual, activity at PP on surgical abortion days is quiet for the first half hour, and then clients begin arriving about every 20-30 minutes.  Most are accompanied by a driver, but a few come alone.  Again, a professionally dressed middle-aged man showed up about 9:00 am and entered at the employee door, we assume he is a doctor but don’t know who he is.  We had no opportunities for conversation this time.  The vested escorts were inside MPP and came out only to escort a girl inside; they arrived about 8:30 and left at 10am.

The grim reaper group were there from about 8:15 until nearly 10:00.  At one point, one of the women moved over to the front Stanton lot and was loudly addressing clients and employees as they arrived with calls of “evil, evil, evil”, “you are murderers”.  Apparently Stanton called the police as a cruiser arrived and the officer spoke with her and her group, and she moved back to the public sidewalk on Franklin.

There was a young fellow who arrived alone in a car and went in and out of MPP 2-3 times to get something from his car — each time, the grim reaper group together called out names loudly … “sissy”, and “coward”, and “you’re not a man”.

Their group then began calling out loudly, apparently directed at us … “Catholics are idolators”, “Mary is not a redeemer”,  “only Jesus is a redeemer”, “Catholics belong to the whore of Babylon” … their name-calling to clients and us reminded us that we have much prayer and work to do to try to correct sad misunderstandings about our faith and to be extenders of mercy, options, hope and healing.

Street Sheet ~ A Report from our Sidewalk Advocates

Emily Naugle and Joan Shay were stationed as sidewalk advocates at Meridian Planned Parenthood Friday, 12th of Feb., 2016, 10:20a.m.-11:05 a.m.

We observed 4 female patients enter and 3 exit during that hour of time. Emily was holding a sign that read simply:

There is Help.

There is Hope.

At about 10:45, a Meridian city policeman drove up alone and spoke with us. We explained who we were, what we were doing (and not doing), and that we had permission to stand on Stanton property. I gave him the name of the officer with whom Karen was in contact. He explained almost apologetically that they have to respond to all calls, but he could see we were doing nothing wrong. As we spoke to him, a female patient wearing loose comfortable clothing exited the front door. She had parked near us. Joan smiled and waved at her; she waved back and got in her car. The officer left without going into the building.

The blinds of a window at the back of the building dropped loudly and suddenly. Emily had noticed that someone was watching us speak with the policeman from that window. Is it just our imagination…or did Planned Parenthood staff just use the police to provide an escort of distraction for that patient to get to her car?

Another patient exited soon after and stared at us for awhile from near the front door. It seems our presence and the policeman’s presence were being openly discussed to patients inside. Joan