How Could We Not Feel Like Weeping?

This is a picture of me and one of our new Cities4Life volunteers talking with a dad on the sidewalks of the abortion center. He claimed to know God. He brought a woman with whom he'd had several children, though the latest baby is from a different father. I was able to get him to concede that God makes no distinction between babies in the womb or outside the womb, the baby is human, abortion is killing an innocent human, abortion is wrong, sex outside of marriage creates the bulk of the abortions, sex outside of marriage is never condoned by God and whenever we defy God we make a mess of life, all his reasons for why abortion was ok were rationalizations that ignored the basic issue, and we are indeed our brother's keeper and called upon to act and speak to prevent others from following a path of destruction.

Whew!

So did he then go in to the abortion center and try to encourage the woman to leave? No. After all those concessions, he still said, "It is her free will and I won't force my will upon her."
Then I got him to concede it was not force to present all the logical reasons why this was an un-Biblical and destructive path. No matter. He would not speak up on behalf of the baby or challenge the woman's free choice.
"Who will speak up for the baby who cannot speak for herself?" I asked.
He shrugged, walking away.

Next. This young couple.

The couple in this pick-up truck claimed to be Christians. They agreed that God would never condone the taking of their child's life. They both were teary-eyed as they concurred that abortion was a violent, barbaric act that no one who loved God should consider. They agreed they would regret what they were considering. They understood that we were offering real hope, real help, and that they really didn't have to abort. Still, they drove into the parking lot of the abortion center.

Chrissy, one of our counselors has been doing this work for a decade or so. I have been on the sidewalks of the abortion center almost three years now. NEVER had either of us seen the parking lot so filled with cars. There are two lots at this center. Both were full. At least fifty babies died there yesterday.

Slowly, one by one, our wonderful Cities4Life team left. I watched the pick-up truck, certain that the conflicted, tearful couple would not follow through on killing their baby. What more could I have said or done? It is hard not to fall into the trap of believing if only we were more convincing, babies wouldn't die. Ultimately, it is between God and the woman, and her choice to follow or defy Him.

Still. I didn't want to leave. I wanted to see them leave the center and tell me their baby was safe. Our mobile RV drove away, and the nurse said goodbye to me. I lingered on the sidewalk. The nurse stood with me, and we watched the young man and woman I had talked to come out. They had not been in there long enough to have aborted I don't think. The woman had a white paper in her hand, which was likely the price list. They sat in their truck while I watched and called out to them, imploring again that they choose life for that precious baby created in God's image. If she had already aborted, they would have driven away, but they didn't.

After some time, the man went back in the clinic. Alone. Was he getting his money and her license back? (Both would have been required up front before the ultrasound which is required as well by law.) Had they chosen life? Trust me, the abortion center does not willingly refund money. Long minutes passed.

"I don't want to leave you here alone," the nurse said to me. She had arrived earlier than I had that morning. It was long past lunchtime now. We were the only two remaining on the sidewalk. It is not a good idea for us to be there alone. She was right.

"It's ok. I guess we don't know when he will come out. I wanted to see how it would end, but God knows...I'll leave now. You don't have to stay."
Reluctantly, I got in my car, and watched the door of the clinic as I buckled my seatbelt. The man had not come out, but the woman had not gone back in.

For now, it appeared the baby was safe.

Out of all those cars filled with mothers determined to abort, we think only two chose life. At least fifty babies in that one abortion center died yesterday. I don't know how many abortion clinics are in the United States. The latest statistic I could find was from 2015, which reported that there are 517 surgical abortion clinics and 213 medication abortion clinics active in the U.S.

If each of those clinics killed 50 babies a day, that would mean roughly 35,000 babies would die every day! This was an unusually busy day yesterday and I know that this clinic is one of the most prolific in the Southeast. It is not likely all 700 or so clinics had such a booming slaughter yesterday. Nonetheless, it is very discouraging.

Something happened that doesn't happen to me often when I speak on the microphone. I was talking about how some of the stem cells of the baby migrate to the mother's brain and heart where they remain till the mother dies. (This is true, recently discovered.)

"You may abort your child today and remove her from your womb, but you cannot remove her from your brain and your heart. God has sent a powerful symbol that a mother and her child are inextricably bonded."

My voice broke, and I felt like crying. Then I prayed out loud. One of our new volunteers told me that while I was praying, a car drove in, listened, drove to the second parking lot, and then drove away without leaving her car. A second baby appears to have been spared.

All of us were somber watching the two parking lots fill. How could we not feel like weeping?
******************
Jeremiah 31:15
This is what the LORD says: "A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."