Today I mailed a package of 32 newborn diapers to Summit Medical Center, an abortion clinic in Detroit. Why? Because I promised to.
On Monday, I got a call from a phone number in Michigan from someone who had opened up the “care package” I sent to 569 abortion clinics on January 22, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which included a pair of plastic handcuffs. In my signed note in the package, I linked the handcuffs to abortionist Naresh Patel, arrested last month for fraud, and said to call me for help getting out of the abortion business.
The Michigan caller was angry about the package, and said I should be sending her diapers, not handcuffs, so she can help women coming for prenatal care. I said I would and asked for the address, which proved to be that of Summit Medical Center on McNichols Road in Detroit, Michigan.
We talked for 10 minutes. The caller offered the usual argument that she’s helping women by providing abortion. Several times she declared that this is a “cruel, ugly world.” The despair of that comment really struck me.
With help from Lynn Mills, a pro-life activist in Detroit, I was later able to identify the caller as Summit medical director Anise Burrell. Lynn also confirmed that Summit does see some women for prenatal care.
Today I sent the diapers to Ms. Burrell, along with an ironically appropriate greeting card—on the front, “A new baby changes everything”; inside: “Except its own diapers.” Here’s what I wrote inside:
Dear Anise,
Enclosed is the package of diapers I promised to send you when we spoke on the phone earlier this week.
I’m grateful that you took the trouble to call and talk to me for 10 minutes about the issue of abortion and your part in it. What stands out to me most from our conversation is your calling this is a “cruel, ugly world.” You used that phrase at least twice, once in reference to the children you say you’re sparing from it.
I agree that there is much cruelty in the world, much ugliness. But from my perspective, abortion only makes the world crueler and uglier. Abortion itself is ugly; few can bear to look at the images of what abortion does to its unborn victims. And it’s cruel to the child whose life is ended only weeks after it has begun.
But abortion is also cruel to women. It’s a cruel society that says to a woman, “To be free you must participate in the killing of your own child.”
I know that many women face a desperate situation when they turn to abortion. But I haven’t given up hope that we can make this world kinder and more beautiful by offering women something better than abortion, which too often leaves them trapped in the ugliness & cruelty you lament.
I hope you can put these 32 newborn diapers to use. But I also hope you will reflect on all those children—especially the next 32 scheduled to be aborted at Summit—who won’t live to have their diapers changed by someone who cares for them.
Yours for Life,

Eric ScheidlerP. S. If you ever want to talk again, you’ve got my #.
I hope that Anise will call me back someday, and that we can talk about how she can get out of the abortion business and make this a kinder and more beautiful world by offering real help to women and their children.
