The Pro-Life Action League has been hosting our “Empty Manger” pro-life Christmas caroling day for 13 years now, and this year’s caroling effort was the largest ever, with over 40 groups taking part from coast to coast!
Here in Illinois, the League hosted two caroling tours, one in Chicago, and the other in suburban DuPage county. At Planned Parenthood Aurora, the largest abortion clinic in the state, a baby was saved from abortion when their parents heard our carols and talked to sidewalk counselors as they entered the clinic!
The Chicago caroling tour began as it has every year since its inception in 2003: with the unfurling of a 10-foot banner saying, “All I want for Christmas is an end to abortion.”
The first stop was Family Planning Associates’ facility in downtown Chicago, where sidewalk counselors witnessed a woman being taken away by ambulance just last month. Both at that site and the next one—Planned Parenthood’s Near North location, where 24-year old Tonya Reaves died in July 2012—the presence of volunteer “pro-choice escorts” ensured that we had an audience the entire time.
From there, it was on to American Women’s Medical Center, where several drivers stopped at a red light on Western Avenue offered us a thumbs-up. The Chicago caroling tour concluded at the Albany Medical-Surgical Center, which, thanks be to God, is now closed!
In Falls Church, Virginia, carolers were outrageously ordered by police to stop their caroling as they claimed it was illegal to sing in public! Fortunately, pro-life attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom were called in and the city backed off their absurd position very quickly and told carolers they were free to return and carol again.
It’s been great to see such growth in this wonderful pro-life tradition over the years. Plan to join the effort with a caroling day during this Christmas season, or be a part of it in 2016. Either way, have a very merry Christmas!