Face the Truth Tour Saves a Baby Downtown

The Pro-Life Action League has taken to the streets with the truth about abortion this spring, the third year that we have conducted monthly Truth Days as a supplement to our annual “Summer Blitz” Tour. During the April 18 Truth Day, a baby was saved from abortion.

Educating the Lunch Crowd

April’s half-day Truth Tour started just before noon, to miss the early morning cold. But it was still a chilly day as we held signs at Daley Plaza during the lunchtime rush. As usual, the reaction from the public at Daley Plaza was mostly positive, and our volunteers had many opportunities to discuss the abortion issue with passers-by.

Truth Tour Exposes Abortionists Lies

After lunch we moved on to Lake Shore Drive, between Monroe and Jackson. Near the end of our time at that site, a young man passed by one of the First Trimester signs and stopped in astonishment. “That’s what abortion looks like?” he asked. “They told us it was worms, like a little ball!”

He explained that he and his girlfriend had met with the staff at an abortion facility, and actually had an abortion scheduled for the next week. He said that he was supposed to be paying for the abortion, but after seeing our signs, he said he couldn’t do it.

The young man, who was named Dave, told Truth Tour Coordinator Eric Scheidler that the baby was about 20 weeks old. Eric showed him a picture of baby Malachi, aborted at 21 weeks, and gave him information on getting help with this untimely pregnancy.

Pro-Aborts Show Up for May Tour Date

A handful of pro-abortion counter-protestors showed up at our first Truth Day site on May 18 at Wacker Drive and Madison Street. They were not unexpected; some unusual e-mail messages in the days leading up to the Truth Day had made League staff suspicious that a counter-protest might be planned.

The pro-abortion group was peaceful, unlike the violent anarchists in April 2004. Four of them held signs near the bridge over the Chicago River reading “Who Decides?” with the NARAL Pro-Choice America logo.

Another two held hand-made signs near Wacker and Madison. One read “My mom loves me more. She chose me.” We agreed that it is a loving thing to choose to have a baby. The other held a sign reading “Choice saves lives” between two signs of babies whose lives were taken in the first trimester of life.

This was an “early bird” site, from 7:30 to 9:00, with coffee and donuts provided for the volunteers. Reaction from the public was overall as chilly as we’ve come to expect at this site.

A man on the north side of Wacker punched each sign as he passed by, and one woman commented to a volunteer, “We should have abortion to six years.” However, Eric’s son Nate, on a pro-life home-school field trip, was able to pass out nearly all the flyers we had provided for the entire day.

New Strategy Tested at the Art Institute

For the second site along Michigan Avenue between Monroe and Jackson Streets, Tour Coordinator Eric Scheidler decided to test a new arrangement of signs. Typically, we hold several of the same time of sign in a row, one after another, to heighten the impact of each abortion image.

For this site, Eric decided to stagger the signs—first an Eighth Week of Life sign, then a First Trimester abortion sign, in a repeated pattern. Thus the display comprised a series of mini-lessons in what abortion does to the unborn child.

Staff and volunteers were struck by some of the conversations that the display inspired. Everyone passing by was talking about abortion—certainly including many who hadn’t seriously discussed the issue in years, if ever. A father passing by League Director Joe Scheidler with two young children explained, “That’s what a baby looks like inside its mommy. And that’s what an abortion does to the baby.” Joe admired the father’s honesty with his kids.

None of the pro-abortion counter-protestors appeared at the second site that day.