(Nate) I don’t think people fully realize the situation at hand when it comes to abortion. I recently bought a t-shirt that says “Question Abortion.” Most people are not comfortable taking sides of a controversial issue, and so if the issue is not directly affecting them, they simply put it out of their mind. I’m sure this was also the case during the time of slavery in the United States. It took a long time for people to wake up to the fact that these “negros” are people too. Slavery was once considered legal by the Supreme Court, just as abortion is today. This gives me hope that some day people will begin to realize the same for the unborn children who die everyday, that this is an unavoidable injustice, not just a far away problem to remain neutral about. These children need heroes like Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. to wake people up to the fact that babies are dying. Many people say, “its not a baby, its just a blob of tissue”. Why is it so hard for people to accept that they were once a blob of tissue as well? Just as we treat young and old (although different in appearance and personality) equally, why can’t we treat humans like humans while in different stages of development. The fact is the heart begins to beat just 18 days after conception and brainwaves can be recorded after just 43 days, and the baby can smile in approximately 77 days. Anyway, I could rant about this for a while, but that’s not really the point of this web page. The point is I believe abortion is murder, and Coalition for Life allows me the opportunity to do something about it peacefully. The Coalition organizes volunteers to stand in front of the local Planned Parenthood (the only abortion clinic in Brazos Valley) from 7am to 7pm Monday through Saturday, to pray for the end of legalized abortion. This is called “Stand and Pray”. Recently I have taken an even more proactive involvement to attempt to talk to people entering and leaving the clinic to encourage them to find medical services elsewhere, in order to close Planned Parenthood, or at least get them to reconsider the economic consequences of having protesters as long as they provide abortions. The majority of their customers do not go to Planned Parenthood for an abortion, but for birth control and female services. (We won’t get into the subject that this clinic only has a doctor on site when performing abortions once a week!) A large number of their clients would probably agree that abortion is wrong, especially the Christians. But it boggles my mind that they can believe that and continue to support an organization that performs abortions, or especially to continue to say its a woman’s choice! Anyway, this has been a growing experience in my faith and in evangelism, and I truly feel like God has called me to do this work.
(Becca) Nate was involved with Coalition for Life when I first met him. I went with him to Stand and Pray for one semester and since then my schedule hasn’t allowed me to. Besides being able to peacefully speak with people who come to the clinic, Stand and Pray has opened my eyes to a glimpse of what it was like to be persecuted. Pro-Choice (not all Pro-Choice people are this radical) people frequently yell horrible things out their windows flip us off, and when its rainy they deliberately try to splash the people who are praying. Less frequently, objects have been thrown at people praying, personal items have been stolen, and parked cars of protesters have been vandalized! I also believe that abortion is murder and a sin, and I wish there was more I could do to show love to the women who are making these choices everyday.