Pro-life activists at 2010 Face the Truth Day in Rockford, IL [Photo by Sam Scheidler]
On Tuesday, August 9, the League will join forces with the Rockford Pro-Life Initiative for a Face the Truth Day in Rockford, Illinois.
This will be our 8th consecutive year visiting the city, which is unquestionably one of the nation’s abortion hot spots, due to the presence of the particularly bizarre and macabre — even by abortion facility standards — Northern Illinois Women’s Center.
Window displays at NIWC in recent years have included a rubber chicken attached to a Crucifix and a blasphemous poster showing Jesus giving the middle finger, along with the inscription “Even Jesus Hates You.”
A while ago I spoke with Kevin Rilott, one of the leaders of the Rockford Pro-Life Initiative, who regularly prays outside NIWC. Almost anticipating what I was thinking, he told me that a lot of people tell him they would never want to pray outside an abortion facility like this, where the evil is so palpable.
On the contrary, he said he’d rather pray outside a place like this instead of, say, the $7 million “Abortion Fortress” of Aurora — some 70 miles away — whose comparatively pleasant outside appearance completely masks the evil within (not unlike a “whitewashed tomb”).
Then he said, “When you see a rubber chicken on a Crucifix, it makes you want to pray harder.”
I hadn’t thought of it that way, but that would certainly explain why the pro-life activists of Rockford have have so doggedly continued to pray and offer life-affirming alternatives to women outside NIWC.
“I Just Wanted to Thank You for Being Here”
Last year, as in years past, we received some great media coverage during our Rockford Face the Truth Day, and we’re sure to get similar coverage again this year.
And inevitably, each year when we go to Rockford, something memorable happens, like the time a few years ago when a woman pulled up to us in the parking lot where we’d set up headquarters for our final site of the day.
She got out of her car and approached the League’s Ann Scheidler, and it was clear that she was very upset. Ann was expecting a tirade of anger from the woman over our display of graphic abortion signs, but instead of an angry outburst, the woman broke into tears and said, “I just wanted to thank you for being here.”
She explained that a few years before, she had driven past that same corner and seen our graphic abortion signs. At the time, she was pregnant and planning to get an abortion. Seeing the reality of abortion completely changed her heart. She kept her baby — then a three-year-old little girl, asleep in the backseat of her car. The woman declared, “She is the love of my life,” and as she embraced Ann, she thanked her again for showing the reality of abortion and changing her life.
What memorable experience will happen at this year’s Rockford Face the Truth Day? Join us and find out!
You can get the full schedule for the day here.
