By Angela Philpott
It’s been a full week of exciting activism here as a Voices for Life intern.
First Canvassing Shift
I began the week with a canvassing shift on the south side of South Bend. I hit the road with my green, “friendly pro-lifer” canvassing bag and set out to learn from canvassing icon, Jill Cook. As we meandered down the first cul-de-sac, we received curious glances from some of the neighbors outside, which we returned with smiles. That is one of my favorite aspects of pro-life outreach is the simple moments of joy one is able to share with others.
We knocked on the door of one woman who explained that she was tremendously grateful that she had adopted her children and that her sweet grandchildren were playing in the room behind her right now. She proceeded to tell us, however, that she was not in favor of a total ban on abortion, as she had a niece who supposedly almost died because of Indiana’s “pro-life laws” prohibiting “medically necessary abortions”.
Jill calmly explained that an abortion is never medically necessary and even if the baby passed away soon after birth, she would be given a chance at life rather than ripped limb from limb in her mother’s womb. There are many misconceptions surrounding pro-life laws and often people misconstrue them as totally disregarding the health of the mother.
Jill elaborated that pro-lifers deeply care about the mother and if the baby dies as an effect of saving the life of the mother, it is not an abortion because the doctor is not intentionally taking the baby’s life.
Another neighbor, I will call her “Liz”, shared an incredible story about how she fought for her baby against impossible odds. She shared that when she was pregnant with her third baby, she went in for her regular ultrasound, but the nurse could not find the heartbeat and the screen was blank. The nurse began to lead her through scheduling a D&C at the hospital, but Liz had an overwhelming feeling that her baby was still with her, alive and well.
She promptly refused the nurse’s suggestion, pleading with her to wait one more week and walked out of the office. A week later, she came in for an ultrasound and there was her sweet baby, perfectly healthy and very much alive. Thank you, Liz, for protecting your precious baby boy!
Costco Street Outreach
Another activism project I got to participate in this week was Street Outreach. This consists of holding up a banner which says “Abortion Takes a Human Life” at a busy intersection with the intention of having a conversation with the cars who stop.
Fellow Voices for Life volunteer Derek and I began on the corner, at the entrance to Costco and had a conversation with a young man who was mistaken about the species of a human zygote. Soon after this, unfortunately, we received a visit from three Mishawaka Police cars who claimed that we were on Costco’s property, despite the fact that we were clearly on the easement.
This is not the first time we have experienced unlawful orders to leave and Voices for Life is currently following up with the police department. This particular police officer was supportive of the message and encouraged us to hold our sign across the street.
We moved across the street and proceeded to have a decently uneventful shift, excluding the occasional “You should be ashamed of yourself as a woman” or getting flipped off. We had many supportive honks and waves too, especially from young people, which was quite encouraging.
We will be at Walmart next Tuesday evening doing more outreach, so if you are getting groceries, come give us a honk!
Sidewalk Advocacy
Finally, I got to do a couple of hours of sidewalk counseling, my personal favorite form of activism, this week in both Mishawaka and Indianapolis.
Our shift in Mishawaka was super successful, and we handed out four bags in one hour and one of the recipients was almost definitely a Planned Parenthood referral patient: a pregnant woman seeking a referral to an out of state abortion clinic. Often the people who take our bags are parents dropping their kids off at the neighboring Sylvan learning center, but we encourage them to share the resources with friends in need, and we trust that the Holy Spirit will guide the bag to those who need it.
The Indianapolis Planned Parenthood felt very different from the one in Mishawaka, which makes sense because it was the site of countless abortions before our abortion ban. The sidewalk, however, has been drenched in prayer for years, and you can feel it as soon as you step foot on it. It was very moving to think about joining my prayers to those of all the faithful sidewalk warriors who came before me and will come after me.
It is much harder to approach cars as they leave the facility, because the long driveway allows them to speed past the sidewalk advocates. Despite this, we were able to pass out two bags… praise God!
While it is discouraging to witness the number of cars rolling into this awful place, it was beautiful to see how many couples were coming and going from the next-door Women’s Care Center.
Overall, it was a busy and blessed week of saving babies through various outreach methods and I can’t wait for next week!
If you are interested in joining any or all of these outreach opportunities, please contact melanie@voicesforlife.com And make sure to follow our Facebook and Instagram for updates from the front lines!
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