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What the street tells me: Reflections in front of an abortion clinic

The fact is that more people are seeing the truth about the abortion industry.

A pro-life supporter holds a crucifix outside of a Planned Parenthood facility in St. Louis May 31, 2019. (CNS photo/Lawrence Bryant, Reuters)

We are winning. This may seem an odd statement, particularly in light of the recent elections in my state of Virginia in which pro-abortion Democrats swept the boards. My counterintuitive judgment comes from street experience in front of an abortion clinic.

Here is how I came to it. Last spring, my youngest daughter, 14 years old, asked me to take her to the movie Unplanned, which dramatically exposes Planned Parenthood’s abortion practices. After seeing it, she wanted to start demonstrating in front of the local abortion clinic. So that is what we began to do. I held a sign saying, “Pray for an End to Abortion.” She held one saying, “Abortion Harms Women.” (One day, out of my ear-shot, an older man stopped and challenged her, asking “how?” After she answered him, he simply said, “okay,” and moved on.) Sometimes we would stand close enough to say the rosary together; other times we would station ourselves far enough apart to be sure that people had time to read both signs as the cars went by.

The reactions have been instructive. Not surprisingly, most traffic goes by without a blink. However, the responses we have gotten have been overwhelmingly positive – honks, thumbs up, big smiles, sometimes shout-outs. A few have been dramatic. A woman drove by in an SUV shaking her arm vigorously and calling out something indecipherable. I could not tell if it was in approval or disapproval. Then she turned at the corner, came up the inner drive in front of the building, stopped her car at the door, and jumped out, shouting, “What you are doing is wonderful. Can I give you a hug?” She then came over and hugged my daughter and then me. She had a baby in the backseat. When I was there alone one afternoon, another woman pulled over in her car to express her support. She had once been pro-abortion and is now a pro-life activist.

On a hot summer day, a man, who had parked his car in front of the building (which houses more than the abortion clinic), came up to offer us water. We thanked him, and he said, “I’m a believer.” One fall afternoon, a man was making repairs to the front of building. When an abortion worker was coming down the front steps, he turned and said to her, “What you are doing is evil.”
This brings me to the sociology of the positive responses. At least half of them come from men. They are usually driving panel trucks or pickups. Signs on their vehicles announce plumbing services, landscaping, lawn-mowing, trash removal, home moving, and so on. They are workers, the blue collar crowd, the ones whose hands get in the dirt. I wondered at this. Then it dawned on me that these guys are not insulated from reality by wealth. Their experience of it is direct – too much so to buy the nonsense that an unborn child is not a human being. They know better and, unlike so many who go to college, have not been educated beyond the level of their intelligence into accepting unreality.

This also led me to reflect on why the most impassive drivers are behind the wheels of BMWs, Mercedes, and other luxury vehicles. The reason, I think, is the obverse – their wealth insulates them from reality. They can afford to ignore it or even to embrace unreality by supporting abortion. In either case they would not be so vulgar as to make a public demonstration of their position. For sure, there are no bumper stickers on their cars. They simply stare ahead and, if the traffic is stopped near us, pretend we’re not there. I try to smile just to irritate them.

The negative reactions are distinguished by their anger. They are expressed with hand gestures, violently shaking heads, and screaming vulgarities. Most of the negative responses come from men, and they are almost always obscene. What could be more harmless than a sign saying, “Pray for an End to Abortion”? Why the rage? I would guess that most of these men have either participated in an abortion or need abortion as a backup measure to allow them to live in the way in which they do. If you sexually exploit women, you need abortion. It’s that simple. Recall the chilling statement from the Supreme Court’s Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992) decision, which pointed out that abortion “could not be repudiated without serious inequity to people who… have organized intimate relationships and made choices… in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail.” After all, you can’t let a baby stand in your way should one of your “intimate relationships” produce one.

That’s why even praying for an end to abortion makes them furious – so angry that their obscenities are not withheld even when my young daughter is present. I began to think that her innocence offends them.

Of course, all the negative responses are not from men. On a spring afternoon, I saw a car drive up to the front of the clinic. The woman pulled into the handicapped parking near the door. I went there with my poster to be sure she would see it. She was late middle-aged. She told me that what I was doing was “disgusting.” I told her that the only thing that disgusted me was the taking of innocent human life. “How many babies do you want women to have?” she asked. I responded that my wife and I have four children. On the women’s issue angle, I said I was very glad my mother did not abort me. I then told her my wife comes from a family of nine children and I was very glad her mother had not aborted her. She then angrily shouted, “Shut up!” and stormed into the building. I assumed she was probably a clinic worker, but subsequently learned that she is the founder and director of the abortion clinic.

Of course, it’s not fun being screamed at or given the hand gesture. But one quickly becomes inured to it. In fact, one older man demonstrating in front of the clinic told me he felt it was a privilege to receive the abuse as he was “sharing in the sufferings of Christ.” The leader of the Arlington diocese’s “40 Days for Life” program was standing on the sidewalk directly across the entrance to the building when a passing car threw water on her. Unfazed, she looked up and observed, “That was a first.” On another day, I met a man who had come some distance to pick up his elderly mother in Arlington to help him keep watch. Smiling beatifically under her sun hat, she was in a wheelchair holding her sign. He stood further up the street with his. They were both beaming, two of the happiest people I’ve ever met.

This activity has not only been a learning experience for me, but for my children. After demonstrating in front of the clinic, my oldest daughter penned this poem:

A light in the dark!
But the candle was snuffed before the wax had time to melt.
It was put out so quickly that the fingers were never burnt.
They stayed cold.
The room stayed dark.
No one saw.
There was only a shadow of a flicker left on the inside of an eyelid.
And a tear fell silently onto the red bathroom floor.

But the fact is that more people are seeing. The reason for optimism is that the abortion clinic is in a northern Virginia suburb of Washington, D. C., a very politically liberal area. This makes the positive responses all the more impressive. Every experience in front of the clinic has left me convinced that we’re winning. You can’t fight the street. If you don’t believe me, try it and you’ll take heart.

(Editor’s note: This essay was first posted at CWR on December 2, 2019.)


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About Richard McGuire 1 Article
Richard McGuire is a writer in northern Virginia.

18 Comments

  1. Thank you for this article. I am glad to hear of the expressions of support the author has received while engaging in pro-life activism. While this is encouraging, I am concerned that his experience is too anecdotal to really reflect a widely changing mindset concerning abortion among the American public. I say this because I do not see any abatement of the permissive sexual culture that runs rampant in our times, the protection of which necessitates abortion in order to enable fornicators and adulterers to escape the natural consequences of sexual licence. Even more ubiquitous is the near universal practice of contraception, which, by separating sexual activity from its procreative end, will always require abortion as a backup plan.

    Because our tinkering with reproductive nature is so enmeshed with our unrestrained passions and sexual appetites, it will probably take something like a thorough chastisement to knock people out of their complacency. And even that may not be enough to overcome the hardheartedness of some. Once you let human passions and appetites, especially the sexual appetite, have free reign as we have, it is hard to put the genie back in the bottle.

  2. Only when we die will we find out the number of babies whom we help escape the horrible death of an abortion. We will also find out what God’s judgment will be about remaining silent to this slaughter of the innocents. My Mass tomorrow morning will be offered for you and your daughter.

  3. I have seen these very same results as I’ve stood in our Parishes Life Chain over the years.The young teen boy who just stood and smiled back at the leftist protester banging his drum in the teens face.Was doing exactly what is asked of us when confronted with evil unchained.It describes what our response should be on the back of his Pro-Life Poster.

  4. Dear Mr. McGuire,
    Please could you ask your daughter if I could use her poem as a window display at Church on Feast of the Holy Family? Our Church is in the Clifton Diocese, Gloucestershire UK. Many thanks.

  5. It almost sounds pleasant to stand in front of an abortion clinic in Virginia.In New York..almost every car passing gives you the finger..yells obscenities.One car even swerved at me and a fellow protester narrowly missing us.Very few offer support..but some do.The clinic tries to intimidate by taking pictures of the pro-lifers..we smile and pose for them.the clinics are usually located in minority neighborhoods.The patrons coming for abortions are usually minorities…if they only knew about Margaret Sanger and her racist views.Often someone will bring a life size image of Our Lady of Guadalupe..many of the people coming to get abortions are hispanic..seeing her image clearly makes them very uncomfortable.I have two boys my wife and I adopted..both were in danger of being aborted..but both women went against the wishes of the boyfriends who impregnated them..thank God.One day maybe I’ll get back to standing out front with both my boys by my side..keep up the good work and the ggod fight God bless all of you on the front lines of this spiritual war.

  6. God Bless You and your daughter <3 Excellent article. Thank you for the encouragement! This is a war on Gods smallest , most precious creation..that must end. It will..the tide has turned and you're chronicling the details of the soon arriving victory!

  7. As someone who has had life experience with both adoption and abortion, I’ve come to believe the latter is truly a crime against humanity. I’ve sensed a turn in public opinion against abortion, however, that I believe began a few years ago with the debate over partial birth abortion. I also think the rising anger and shrillness of the abortion lobby shows that they realize they are losing control of the debate. Your article is one more straw in the wind that tells me the good guys are winning where it counts — on the street and among the people.

  8. Chum upon the waters of life

    Indeed…. I do not want to nor mean to be crass, yet

    I pause to ponder about the young children lost and my heartaches for them and their families. Millions pour out their sympathy. Collectively like a Tsunami wave of grieving and prayers being lifted up. The hoopla, counseling, and urgent considerations that have begun due to the loss of their innocent lives have blanketed an entire town.

    Indeed, yet I also pray for all the children, innocent as they were, about 9 years ago, who were also conceived around the same time as these recent victims, but whose lives and freedoms were also shredded by abortion. Their cries were never heard; there were no HEROES, no FIRST RESPONDERS, nor news media pounding out every possible witness, nor public outcry for justice. No, they were silently discarded with no half-staff flags, nor glowing candles, nor flowers, nor piles of toys. No, just cast away like fish bait chum upon the waters of life.

    Such sorrow was expressed in the media about the 900 other Americans whom have died due to gun shots in an average month, and the urgent need for reforms and bi- lateral non-partisan passing of new laws to protect everybody, so that it may prevent something like this happening to even just one more child. Then what about the millions of younger citizens disposed literally by the bucket-loads since Rowe vs Wade?

    We Americans are allowing a genocide closely approaching the magnitude of HIROSHIMA and all the CONSENTRATION CAMPS combined with hardly a whimper, and no remedy in sight.

    Most all of us abhor news of “Friendly Fire” and “Collateral Damages”, yet this news has become commonplace and just accepted.

    Since 1973 we could have potentially saved one of our larger cities. It would by now be inhabited with many of its older citizens turning the BIG 40 by now. Nope, not for them, their liberty, justice, and rights to life were legislated away. They never became of age. They only became dead.

    I see the animal rights advocates cry out for funding and empathy on TV commercial spots showing sad neglected soiled puppies and cats, yet is there any of their humane efforts going towards all these other young innocent human lives being lost each and every day. Its like we complain of all the noise, then pick up a hammer and keep pounding.

    Often it seems, that we Americans are our own worst enemy, and yet we exclaim and the end of so many events, “GOD BLESS AMERICA”…
    It is hard to imagine that our nation brings GOD much JOY of late, and I pray for His mercy.

    I’m a concerned citizen just being a loud cry from the wilderness and remain hopeful and grateful, and pray we find our way back to the right road.

    Michael D’Amore

  9. I ask the pro-abortion people what color and weight of millstone they would like.
    The experience of Colton Burpo illustrates what these poor people will go through after passing.

  10. “Every experience in front of the clinic has left me convinced that we’re winning. You can’t fight the street. If you don’t believe me, try it and you’ll take heart.”

    As long as the nation allows itself to be deceived by the idea that nine unelected lawyers can overturn laws passed by legislators, then outside of a mass “awakening” or, in other words, repudiation of Roe vs. Wade, I don’t see how the people can win.

    Apparently, I am to be the lone voice in the wilderness, but it is impossible from a moral or Constitutional perspective for abortion to be “legalized.” The Supreme Court is not a law-making body-it decides cases-and because abortion is not mentioned in the Constitution (which only applies to the federal government), it is a state issue (by the 10th Amendment), and can’t be reviewed or “struck down” by the Supreme Court on Constitutional grounds. Furthermore, of course there can be no just “law” passed (by any government) which allows the direct killing of an innocent human life. The right to life is an inalienable natural right. Any “law” which allows the abridgment of this natural right violates the natural law and therefore is unjust.

    Roe vs. Wade was a piece of legal sophistry, and was an evil, unjust, and false judgment. That it has passed muster as a perfectly valid decision (which somehow has “legalized” abortion by “striking down” state laws against abortion) in the public square exposes the general ignorance of the population and the tacit complicity of those who should know better and either do not know, are silent when they shouldn’t be (or their voices are being excluded by the mainstream media), or secretly support the wickedness.

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