This beautiful mother and her precious baby met me in very different circumstances. Overwhelmed with an unplanned pregnancy and the fears of telling her parents, Sonya (not her real name) went to the abortion center. She saw the HELP Pregnancy Center RV and the line of Cities4Life Sidewalk counselors as she drove in. Something tugged at her heart. As we hear from so many women, she thought it all might be a sign from God.
Sonya saw her child on the mobile ultrasound aboard the RV, and heard a clear Gospel presentation. However, while she tentatively chose life...for now... she did not feel she was ready to submit her life to Jesus. We of course offered her our full array of help and resources. None of our help is contingent on a faith commitment. However, we unabashedly share the reason for our hope and convictions regarding the intrinsic worth and value of the unborn. For a few weeks, she wavered. She did not tell her parents of her pregnancy, still contemplating abortion.
I stayed in touch, as I do with all the moms I initially counsel. I sent her daily Bible verses, and spoke with her regularly about God and the precious nature of her child. I knew she had finally reached a turning point when she texted me, “I told my mom. She took it really well.” Then came the text I had most been waiting for: “I think I am ready to ask Jesus to be my Lord.”
This morning, many months later, I received this picture with the exultant words: Baby’s here! Soo happy to have given him life!
Lately, we have been told by some police officers that we may no longer step into the driveway to offer our information, resources, and help to the women who drive to the abortion center. Moms like Sonya would not have received the booklet or the opportunity to speak with us that saved her baby’s life and led to her committing her own life to Christ. We have been warned that even if a car stops, reaches out to take our information, and no other cars are in sight...we will be ticketed if we step one step into the driveway. (We are not stepping onto private property mind you...we are staying on the public sidewalk that crosses the driveway.)
Please understand the irony here. In the abortion center, it is legal for human babies to be dismembered and destroyed by the dozens...but it is illegal for our counselors to step one foot onto a public walkway across a driveway to offer someone the hope and resources that would assist them in choosing to let the baby live.
Federal law says we may not hinder or interfere with the forward progress of any vehicle. We do not. We are always on the side of the car, never in front impeding forward movement per the law. There has NEVER been a single accident or incident involving a single safety issue in the decade that Cities4Life has been doing this. Furthermore, Federal Law supports not only our freedom to speak to these women, but our freedom to distribute literature to those willing to take it. Diseminating pamphlets is a federally protected form of free speech. Yet our counselors have been threatened with tickets and even arrest if we step towards the driver of a stopped car in the driveway who reaches out for our information.
If this concerns you, please contact our chief of Police, Kerr Putney, at kputney@cmpd.org
Meanwhile, our Cities4Life teams will do our best to continue to let conflicted women like Sonya know that there is help for them that can persuade them to choose life rather than abortion. And we will rejoice over the picture depicting the miracle of a beaming mother cradling the precious child she had no idea she could love so completely.
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Deuteronomy 28: 1-6
And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
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