Does this sign look offensive? [Photo by EJS]
The Pro-Life Action League’s ongoing Face the Truth Tour hit the streets Wednesday, October 20 for a “Life Day,” a variation of our monthly Truth Days. In recognition of Respect Life Month, held every October, the Life Day features only pictures of living babies, born and unborn. (Other Truth Days are dominated by pictures showing how abortion kills unborn babies.)
We began at 7:30 a.m. at Madison Street and Wacker Drive, a favorite site, with coffee and donuts for our early bird volunteers. We distributed literature and held signs along Madison; signs east of Wacker depicted a fetus at eight weeks gestation, while those west of Wacker showed a variety of infants.
Some “Offended” by Baby Pictures
Like on our first Life Day last year, we received some negative responses, despite the total lack of graphic abortion pictures. Shortly after we began setting up, a Chicago police officer arrived in response to “multiple complaints” about our “disruptive and offensive” signs. The officer was courteous and professional as we explained the purpose of our display.
Life Day Tour on Madison St. [Photo by EJS]
One passerby told a volunteer that her sign, which showed a cute black baby with the words, “God’s Gift of Life,” that her sign was disgusting. Another told League staffer Annie Scheidler, who was holding a sign with a big baby face, that her mother should have aborter her.
A Single Mom’s Thanks
But much more common were positive remarks, like those offered by a woman who approached us right before we set up. She had apparently seen us during earlier Truth Days, and thanked us for being there. She told Annie and Eric Scheidler that she faced an unplanned pregnancy twenty years ago and five different friends told her to get an abortion. She had a son, who just celebrated his twentieth birthday. “He’s the love of my life,” she said, with tears welling in her eyes.
Life Day Tour on Michigan Ave. [Photo by EJS]
A man working in one of the buildings on that corner came out and gave Ann Scheidler a card with a note of thanks and a donation towards the coffee and donuts.
Dutch Tourists Praise the Tour
At our second stop at the Art Institute of Chicago, on Michigan Avenue, a limousine of tourists from the Netherlands pulled up alongside volunteer Luann Bloom to ask about our display. They told Luann that the Netherlands are “Sodom and Gemorrah” and gratefully accepted a variety of literature on fetal development and abortion.
Three dozen volunteers participated in the Life Day, including several who joined us for the first time. Several hundreds copies of the excellent “How You Began” flyer were distributed to the public.
