Sidewalk Counselors Provide the Only Real Choice

Posted by Ann Scheidler (July 27, 2010 at 8:00 am)

Ann Scheidler at Sidewalk Counseling Seminar, July 24 [Photo by Joe Scheidler]

On Saturday, July 24, I gave a sidewalk counseling seminar at St. Ansgar’s Parish in Hanover Park, Illinois. Greg and Sandy Kascewicz took the initiative to organize and publicize the seminar attended by over three dozen potential sidewalk counselors.

Many people who regularly go out to pray at an abortion clinic are reticent to approach an abortion-bound woman to offer her a chance to choose life.

Admittedly it seems difficult to intrude in someone else’s personal life an decisions. But the pro-lifer who steps out in faith to come to an abortion clinic must realize that he or she has something very valuable to offer a woman who thinks abortion is her only choice. We offer hope, life and real choice.

Our opponents long ago snatched the word “choice” as their own because they cannot face the fact that they promote the death of a baby. In fact, at St. Ansgar’s, the new pastor, Fr. Clement Oyafemi, specifically highlighted the fact that if you are not pro-life you are pro-death. There is no “pro-choice,” he said. You are either for life or against it.

We, of course, are for life. And we know from conversations with many women who have had abortions, that most women would choose life if only they could see a way that that is possible.

Sidewalk counselors and their colleagues at the crisis pregnancy centers bring the choice for life to women who think it is not possible to welcome new life in the midst of their overwhelming problems. We help them understand the gift of life and the privilege of bringing new life into the world.

The purveyors of abortion paint the unborn baby as nothing but trouble, while the sidewalk counselor empowers a woman to acknowledge the wonder of motherhood.

Those of us who believe in the sanctity of life should never hesitate to bring this good news to those who are afraid to celebrate God’s gift of new life. The women and men who take us up on our offer of the chance to choose life will be forever grateful, and the babies whose lives are saved will make their own mark on the world.

Generations are affected in the choice for life or death. Never be afraid to offer the choice for life.

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Note: Visitor comments do not necessarily reflect the views of the Pro-Life Action League.

eric says:

What self-serving drivel!

You do not offer ‘real’ choice. You offer ‘limited’ choice. It’s simple, logical and real.

Posted July 27, 2010 at 6:45 pm

Jerry Vilt says:

Eric,
“criticizes” pro-life
and
“praises” pro-choice.

In my opinion, the motivation is the same in both cases:
advance evil (pro-choice)
oppose good (pro-life)

How to generalize above……I’m at a loss (at this time).

Posted July 27, 2010 at 7:28 pm

Pat says:

@Eric:
Self serving? Limited Choice? I’d love to hear the explaination on that one. From a distance, abortion looks like an “extremely” limited choice.

@Jerry:
Comment is confusing: “advance evil / oppose good”? Is that supposed to mean that Pro-Life = Oppose Good? Just checking.

Great to see people engaging in the conversation!

Posted July 27, 2010 at 11:28 pm

In my opinion the motivation is the same in both cases:

1. Promoting the evil of pro-choice.

2. Opposing the good of pro-life.

Posted July 27, 2010 at 11:41 pm

@Jerry:
That’s what I thought you were saying.
I just wasn’t reading into it correctly.
Thanks for the clarification.

Posted July 28, 2010 at 12:00 am

Hi Pat, the assertion that you are either for life or against it. Just like when Bush said ‘if you aren’t with us then you are against us’. It’s the old ‘when did you stop beating your wife?’ shtick.

Let’s see - you offer: keep the baby, adopt the baby, um, um

Pro-choice offer: keep the baby, adopt the baby, have an abortion.

A choice of two against a choice of three. Now do you understand limited choice?

Posted July 28, 2010 at 1:48 am

Won’t evil always win the “more choices” bit?

Because good is the “real”, excludes the evil.

But the above refers to “right vs. wrong”.

What actually happens (actions vs. words)……is good or evil!

Posted July 28, 2010 at 6:07 am

John Jansen says:

Eric said: “Pro-choice offer: keep the baby, adopt the baby, have an abortion.”

Eric— let’s say a pregnant woman goes into an abortion facility. Said facility makes money if she decides to have an abortion there. But said facility makes no money if she decides to carry her baby to term.

From an economic standpoint, why would said facility try to steer her toward any option other than abortion?

Reminds me of the sign outside an abortion facility in Chicago: “Coming Soon: Obstectrics [sic] and Prenatal Care”.

Posted July 28, 2010 at 9:45 am

Eric,

Would that be something like…

1) Earn money to buy something,
2) Borrow the money to buy something, or..
3) Steal it.

If I’m not allowed to steal it, my choices are limited.

I don’t really want to get into a match of wits. It simply comes down to abortion as being a moral or immoral choice. Regardless of religion, because it is not only religion that claims theft, adultery, murder, perjury, etc.. to be immoral choices.

What the Pro-Life side offers is help in avoiding making, what they believe is, an immoral choice. A choice that you can’t take back, you can’t undo. Many women don’t regret having had an abortion until they later have children. I listened to a woman that was hit with it after having four children. One day it just hit her, there should be five children here.

Many women are pressured into abortion by relatives, boyfriends, circumstances…

The pro-choice side seems to be set on offering a helping hand, with abortion being the leading/preferred “choice”. The easy way out. The abortion clinic has one product to sell.

The pro-life side is trying to offer an alternative, assistance, protection, adoption, comfort.

I recently read an article that stated that women don’t take the choice to have an abortion lightly. They have good reasons. Then it went on to detail the reasons: afraid to tell parents, bad timing, going to college, not sure if can afford another child, lack of support from father, and also a whole host of lesser reasons.

The pro-life side is reaching out to say, how can we work through this so that you can stay in college. To talk about what that “bad timing” is. To work through financial issues and propose assistance/alternatives. To find the support that you need. To help a young woman who’s nervous about telling her parents, etc…

The abortion clinic offers….

I don’t have any delusions of changing your mind. Just throwing out an alternative perspective.

I think it’s great that you are asking the questions.

Posted July 28, 2010 at 9:52 am

RSD says:

“Pro-choice offer: keep the baby, adopt the baby, have an abortion.”

Now, really….when did PP offer to keep the baby OR have the baby adopted as part of it’s services?

Just check all the LiveAction undercover video’s on what’s going on with PP’s counselor. PP only offers abortion.

Given that reality, a choice of two against one. Do you understand that “pro-choice” is no chice at all?

Posted July 28, 2010 at 10:55 am

Pat, your response is understandably subjective. I do not equate abortion with stealing even apart from the aspect of their comparative legalities.

Pat, John and RSD - I refute your assertions that abortion clinics do not allow other choices to be made.

There are also undercover videos demonstrating the misleading and selective information provided by pro-life centers.

Posted July 28, 2010 at 5:39 pm

Matt Yonke says:

Eric — Let’s play fair and put our cards on the table. Here’s a link to Live Action, a group that has put out tons of undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers lying, skirting the law, failing to report sexual abuse of minors and just plain giving out false information.

One video shows a Planned Parenthood counselor telling a girl 10 weeks pregnant that babies don’t have heartbeats till 17 or 18 weeks gestation, which is patently false. Heartbeat begins as early as 3 weeks. The counselor even deceptively calls cardiac activity before 18 weeks “heart tones” as if it were a something different than a heartbeat. Fetal heart tones is simply the medical name for the baby’s heartbeat.

Why would they give false information? Two possibilities spring to mind. One is that they’re ignorant about the basic facts of fetal development that could be obtained in a google search. The other is that they want the girl in question to have an abortion, their biggest money-making procedure, and if she thinks her baby has a heartbeat, she’s less likely to think of it as a human being and less likely to have it killed.

So, there’s hard evidence for the position that abortion clinics lie to get girls to have abortions. Let’s see some links to the videos of pro-life pregnancy resource centers deceiving.

Posted July 29, 2010 at 10:44 am

I have my work computers blocked from showing videos so I’ll have to wait until I get home to view your link.

I shall then supply evidence regarding pro-life, and in particular Crisis Pregnancy Centers, and all their lies.

Posted July 29, 2010 at 9:58 pm

I know I didn’t post it. Perhaps the others implied it. I would never say that abortion clinics don’t “allow” other choices. It’s just not good business.

It’s like what they say about going to a surgeon for medical advice. It just might involve surgery.

Posted July 30, 2010 at 11:09 pm

Eric says:

My hand is up! I cannot find the video I have seen of misleading information being given inside a ‘pro-life’ clinic.

I came across a few other things though:

‘Live Action has admitted that its own members had to pose as underage children who claimed to have been raped in order to obtain these incriminating videos. In other words, in order to obtain these videos, these pro-life advocates have routinely lied about their age, lied about their medical condition, and lied about the circumstances of their visit to the abortion clinics.’

and

http://www.abortionaccess.info/chooselie.htm
She gives me the same answer I got at JMJ Life Center: “Up to nine months. You can walk in the day before your due date and get one. There’s no law about it.”
As mentioned earlier, that is simply not true. Under Florida Statute 390.0111, the law states that third-trimester abortion is only permitted “to save the life or preserve the health” of a pregnant woman, and that a physician must attest to such a circumstance in writing.
Another item on the abortion safety checklist from A Center for Women warns that abortion providers and clinics are not required to be licensed, implying that any charlatan with a rusty knife is free to perform abortions without consequence.
Again, not true. The law is clearly spelled out in Florida Statute 797.03(2): “It is unlawful for any person or public body to establish, conduct, manage, or operate an abortion clinic without a valid current license.”
And to put Melissa’s contention that abortion is a “money industry” in perspective, fees to adopt healthy infants can run as high as $30,000; my former OB/GYN charged $10,000 for prenatal care and delivery; and an abortion costs about $350.

Center for Pregnancy is an “integrated auxiliary” of the First Baptist Church of Orlando. It is, essentially, an arm of the church, yet it receives public funds from the “Choose Life” tag.
I give them a urine sample and am told my pregnancy test will take 40 minutes. (Pregnancy tests generally take about five minutes.) I ask them if I can leave and come back for the results. The staffer says no.
About 10 minutes later, two women — “Jesse” and “Maria” — take me into a room. Within two minutes Maria asks, “What are your attitudes on abortion?”
I object to the question. “Why do I need to answer that? I just came in for a pregnancy test. Can’t I just have my results?”
Jesse assures me, “Well, we’re here to help you.”
“That’s fine,” I say. “But why is the test taking so long?”
Jesse loses patience with me.
“Look, we’re here to help you,” she says, “to help you to decide what to do if you are pregnant.”
I’m irritated with her. “I just want to know my results!”

And why are Crisis Pregnancy Centers listed under ‘abortion’?

There are many more examples of this available.
It would appear that both sides are guilty of lies and subterfuge, the evidence is out there.

But you know what. It’s not going to change things. Abortion always has, does and will occur. Faith in a deity will end before abortion does.

Posted July 31, 2010 at 3:10 am

But wait! There’s more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXr8UazYJgg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiEgnfYPEXQ

Then there are the lies:

‘Abortion causes breast cancer.’
‘You’ll never be able to have children again if you have an abortion.’
‘Condoms don’t work.’
“The abortion pill, RU-486 is dangerous and not medically safe for women.”
“Birth Control and Emergency Contraception (the Morning-After Pill) are abortants.”
“Abortion causes permanent psychological and mental damage, including Post-Abortion Syndrome.”
Abortions cost much more than carrying your baby to term.”
“Surgical abortion can kill you.”
“You have plenty of time to make a decision. One-third of all pregnancies end in miscarriages anyway.”
“Your baby can already smell, and hear you.”

CPCs have created Google business listings and categorized themselves as abortion clinics. In other situations, they list “abortion services and referrals” and “contraception referrals” under their services.

Posted July 31, 2010 at 3:16 am

http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=KXr8UazYJgg&feature=related

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sacredactivism/message/876

http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/new_video_crisis_pregnancy_centers/

http://www.naralva.org/action/~1.shtml

Posted July 31, 2010 at 4:59 am

“Faith in a deity will end before abortion does.”

If abortion is intrinsicly evil, and persisted on, faith in a deity will end indeed, and then abortion will be seen for what it is!

Posted July 31, 2010 at 4:29 pm

Matt, did you not want the additional information I posted regarding the dishonest tactics of pro-life to be seen, or was there a problem with it’s format or something?

Posted August 1, 2010 at 5:43 pm

Eric — Sorry, posts with multiple links get held for moderation automatically. You gave a lot of material there, I’m going to look it over and get back to you with my thoughts as soon as I can.

Thanks,

Matt

Posted August 2, 2010 at 4:41 pm

Understood Matt, probably wise.

I accidentally posted the same stuff twice. The second lot had more than the first because the first one did not include stuff that I felt was spurious and of no value. When I uploaded the first lot everything just went blank. That’s when I just basically ‘dumped’ all the material I had on the second post - then the ‘moderation’ comment appeared. So you can just ignore the second lot if you wish, it’s up to you.

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