Emily's Closed for Day and a Half!

It was what we had been praying for all these days at the clinic. We showed up Friday morning and found that Dr. Emily's was not doing abortions! It was a sidewalk counselor's snow day. I brought a group of Fordham kids down this morning (Saturday), and again we pleasantly found ourselves useless outside the clinic (minus the prayers of course). Emily's opened up for a brief hour, between 11-12, so we counseled during that period. We found out from a secret source that the doctors were out learning "new procedures." Can't be good, but then again, can't be much worse than what they already do to these babies and mothers.

I wanted to share a quote I got from a Flannery O'Connor novel I'm reading. It's about a father who watches his mentally challenged son get murdered in front of his eyes.

"All he would do was be an observer. He waited with serenity. Life had never been
good enough for him to wince at it's destruction. He told himself that he was indifferent even to his own dissolution. It seemed that this indifference was the most that human dignity could achieve, and for the moment forgetting his lapses, forgetting even the narrow escape of the afternoon, he felt he had achieved it. To feel nothing was peace."

I think this quote captures alot of father's attitudes who walk their women and children into the clinic. It's an attitude of despair, followed by an indifference which is a solution to the pain and guilt they try so hard to suppress. Life sucked for them, it will suck for their child, and so for them it follows--what is the tragedy in destroying life if life sucks?

It's up to us to bring the hope of Christ to these people and help them realize that Christ loves them and we love them, and we want to do all we can to make life easier for them and their children. And who knows, as I'll often tell them, maybe your child will be one to make life a little better for everyone else.