About Silencing Those You Disagree With: Fighting To Be Heard

Today, I will help run a baby shower for a young woman who chose life over abortion. The baby shower, hosted by Truth and Mercy Pro-life Ministries who partners with Cities4Life, will provide EVERYTHING the baby needs for the entire first two years of her life. The mother was so overcome by the truth of the Gospel which we shared with her on the mobile ultrasound RV parked along the curb of the abortion center that she and her sister both asked Jesus then and there to be Lord of their lives.

She is due at the end of this month, and that precious child would be another abortion statistic if the Cities4Life counselors were not there the day "C" arrived at the abortion center. Her choice for life for herself and her baby might not have been so firm if HELP Crisis Pregnancy Center Mobile Ultrasound RV had not been parked in front of the center with the equipment to show this woman her child's beating heart.

A few weeks ago, a member of Charlotte's City Council visited that abortion center. She spent hours talking with the pro-choice staff and police, but not one minute with the pro-life folks standing on the sidewalk offering tangible help to the mothers streaming in thinking abortion was the only hope in their situation. Shortly after that time, we were informed a NO PARKING ordinance would be issued for the area where we park our cars and our RV.

This is the true nature of the pro-choice movement. Silence and obstruct those who interfere with the big-money enterprise of abortion. Marginalize the pro-life counselors as "protestors" with no understanding or even attempts to understand the enormous on-going assistance and hope they offer to these women.

No, instead, the city is exploring other ways of limiting our access to these women. There has been additional talk of silencing and limiting our right to the sound systems we use so women in the center and parking lot can NOT hear our offers of services, resources, baby showers, mentorship programs, and more.

Yesterday, I spent hours on the phone with one of the women I met over a year ago and helped with our Cities4Life network. This woman is in an abusive situation and had no idea who to turn to or how to escape. She called me. She told me she could not believe how much Cities4Life has already done for her, and how they continue to help her and her baby.

"I honestly don't know where I would be if it hadn't been for you all," she told me. One of our network crisis counselors will be meeting with and assisting this desperate woman. Others are lining up other resources to help her. It is THIS voice our city seems to feel needs to be silenced.

Monday night, our group and partner ministries such as Love Life Charlotte will be gathering at City Hall to voice our concern at the City Council Meeting at 6:30. I will be speaking in one of the ten allowed public forum slots. I will try to say something in my three allotted minutes that will help our council to understand that abortion is so often not about 'choice', but about coercion, helplessness, hopelessness, abuse, and despair. Cities4Life offers tangible help, constructive resources, training, and most importantly the hope of God to transform and equip whenever we walk with Him in obedient faith.

We would love to overwhelm the council chamber with people supporting our mission of turning Charlotte into a city where life is viewed as the sacred gift it is. If you share our vision, please join us. Help us to turn a terrible darkness into light, and while you are at it, consider contacting Cities4Life to see how you can serve alongside us.

Right before going to bed, another woman I just met and counseled Friday at the abortion center texted me: Thank you. Love you. You really were sent by God. No doubt.
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Isaiah 6:8 

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”