I go to our local Planned
Parenthood sometimes. We pray and have resources for people on the way in if we
are asked for them. One woman drove by one day, parked her car and walked back
to us, very angry indeed! She had had 3 abortions. She came back later as we
were packing up to leave. She and I got talking, and ended up going for a drink
in the Irish pub close by! We met a friend of hers there and they played pool
and I looked on at the game while eating Shepherd’s Pie (I was starving). We had
a few words later and hugged goodbye before leaving. Then she said to me, quite
sadly: ‘I’m 51 years old. I have no
kids.’ But even then, I felt she didn’t get the obvious connection, because
in the next breath she asked me not to ‘go
protest’ anymore.
If only people knew that sometimes you go with what you’re given and can’t always get the timing right… another time outside the clinic, a man passed by with a small child. ‘We have him because of you people,’ he said. ‘Thank you.’ We don’t know his story, but it was obvious that our presence there made couples think, even turn around.
If only people knew that sometimes you go with what you’re given and can’t always get the timing right… another time outside the clinic, a man passed by with a small child. ‘We have him because of you people,’ he said. ‘Thank you.’ We don’t know his story, but it was obvious that our presence there made couples think, even turn around.
In the UK, Ealing Council has
voted for a buffer zone to ban people handing out information outside Marie
Stopes and BPAS. A group of women have formed an organization saying that the
presence of people offering to help them have their babies were just what they
needed at that time. They’re called https://behereforme.org – the testimonies are very moving – here’s a testimony from a woman who
got away from her coercers at Marie Stopes (at another location) by jumping out
the window and running towards the prolife people:
https://behereforme.org/prolifer-outside-clinic-gave-me-strength/
https://behereforme.org/prolifer-outside-clinic-gave-me-strength/
The powerful testimonies
of the women helped were not listened to. They were all vulnerable, many
abandoned or coerced. None appeared to be exercising a real choice.
Aisha Chithira, who
travelled from Ireland in January 2012 died after an abortion at 22 weeks at
that very Marie Stopes Clinic in Ealing. She was weak after the abortion,
wished to stay overnight (not possible, it’s a day clinic). She died in the
taxi on her way to her cousin’s home. Aisha’s reason for the termination (Associated
Press) was that she was afraid to have a delivery or a Caesarean Section, (at
term) she thought it would be ‘dangerous’. Perhaps in her country of birth
(Malawi), this might have been so, in any case she was afraid.
By UK law, two
doctors are supposed to agree on a termination…? Were her fears even discussed
with her by either doctor? Did the unfortunate woman even see two doctors? She
was let down by ‘abortion care’ given that a caesarean is multiple times safer
than a D&E termination, is done in a hospital operating theatre, by an
Obstetric Surgeon, takes only a few minutes compared to a late termination, which
can take hours from dilation to removal of ‘the pregnancy’. Ms. Chithira’s
cervix did not dilate properly.
Aisha’s story was never
fully pursued by the media, and all charges were dropped against the clinic.[i]
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