Thank you Mis Diane

A week ago I returned from Baltimore where Almu and I have been three weeks there in Mis Diane's house. I was waiting to have enough time to write this post and thank you her for all the time she has had both of us there.

We felt as if we were at home, we felt very comfortable and that permitted us to do much prolife work. She has been an example of prolife person: giving up many plans on Sundays to write (she writes in a prolife journal as one of many other prolife things), wondering each day with a lot interest what had happened at Planned Parenthood, etc.

She also took us the 4th of July with his family to spend all the day at a house in Pennsylvania where we met all her ​​granddaughter Regina very well, who also told us about the prolife work she has done.

To conclude, with this post I wanted to thank you, Mis Diane and all who are hosting EMC interns in different states, because thanks to you we can expand our side walk counseling and open new offices all over the estates.

Adoption can be a good option

The other day I was at the Baltimore bus on my way home after a long day working on the doors of the clinic when I sat on one of the seats in the front rows and saw something incredible.

I love advertising and I always look at the ads when I travel by bus, metro... This time it caught my attention the one that was right in front of me. They were announcing adoption. They gave you the contact of an adoption center to give or receive a child for adoption. I really found that ad fantastic.

I really liked it because since I'm here working at EMC, I've never met a girl who wants to give their child up for adoption, and this makes me feel sorry, that such a nice alternative to abortion, to offer your child to a family with hope, strength and desire to raise a child they cannot have for whatever reason.

Hopefully this announcement will draw attention to many people, as it happened to me, so that they have on their minds this beautiful alternative in times when woman don't want to keep their babies and want to have an abortion, because they have become pregnant unexpectedly.

Tr in Baltimore

This morning the 6 of us that are in Baltimore have arrived to Planned Parenthood at 8.30 in the morning. Just at the time the clinic opened, girls started to go in. Many came to have an abortion (there are more services in this clinic).

The second girl I spoke to was very open to listen to me, which surprised me again. I always think that in this country women are much more receptive than in my country, because in Spain I'm sure they would say ''I do not care'', ''Leave me alone''... I explained her what we were there for, we wanted to help those women who wanted to interrupt their pregnancy, we were also there to explain what abortion was and its consequences. She wasn't aware of anything, thank God she took in several brochures I gaved her which explained what she didn't know. She told me she didn't have economic problems (she was working and lived with her son), her son was a year old and thought it wasn't the right time to bring another child into this life.

After talking for a while, I decided to show her the actual size of her baby with a fake baby rubber we have of 12 weeks (just of the 3 months pregnancy she was), and that was what shocked her the most. Then she went into the clinic. I stayed outside and, as I normally do, I prayed for her and for all women who came in to have an abortion.

At 11 am she came out the front door. I did not know what to do, until she raised her voice and said: '' I didn't have the abortion''. I approached her, I couldn't believed it. I asked her why she had changed her mind and she told me that the pamphlets had helped her a lot because thanks to them, she became aware of all the risks an abortion had, and didn't want her to suffer so much. To be honest, I wasn't very expressive, I couldn't believe it! I kept telling her that she had made ​​the perfect decision, that I was very happy to hear that from her and that we were there for all the help she needed.

Different but not less

Planned Parenthood does not open every day of the week so those days we go to another abortion clinic in Baltimore.

We do other kind of work there because the clinic is located in a private complex where we cannot step into. They are very demanding. The first day we step a little into the private lawn and the police suddenly came to tell us (they had been called from the clinic).

We usually go with a huge red banner with white letters that says:'' Babies butchers located in this complex''. Normally two of us hold it and the other two stand up giving out pamphlets and trying to do some counseling.

Most of the ones that go in come by car and is almost impossible to know which ones are going to the abortion clinic. Our idea is to stop all of them and get them to lower the window car so we can handout pamphlets and explain them there's an abortion clinic in the complex number 17. A large number of them do not know it, they get surprised  because we tell them they do abortions until the fifth month and they give us encouragement to continue with our job, whereas others do not even open the window or they open it to tell us they do not want that crap.

Hope to receive calls...

This morning we went to the doors of the abortion clinic in Baltimore. It is very different from Emily's in New York because over there most of the girls go to have an abortion instead of here that they do many things, from training classes for teenagers up to abortions. This means that when they walk in it is important to ask them whether they are pregnant or not.

They weren't many girls coming in for an abortion today but I had the good opportunity to speak with two of them carefully. Both of them wanted an abortion but one of them came to take a pregnancy test and the other to have an ultrasound. This clinic wants to transmit a lot of confidence by doing everything step by step and gradually so that girls become familiar with it.

I basically explained these two girls the other alternatives to abortion and that abortion has serious physical and psychological consequences that the clinic would not tell them because what they care about is the money and their business. I gave them several booklets and they took them without hesitation. I told them I was there for everything they needed, that next week we were going to open an office so that we could make appointments for counseling and I they took my phone number as well. I hope they don't hesitate to call me.

A different 4th of July

Last Thursday was July the 4th, the Independence Day of the United States, the most important national day in this country and we had the great opportunity to be here.

At 8am, the typical procession began in our neighborhood. The music and the noise of people in the street woke Almu and me. After breakfast, we took two chairs of the house and sat down to watch it. It was like the ride of January the 5th in Spain, we really enjoyed it.

After this we returned home to wait for Lulu, Diane's daughter in law, to come and pick us up. We drove to Pennsylvania to the house of another of the four sons of Diane. It was a big house in the countryside with a huge garden. There were many guests, family and friends, and a part from us two from EMC, Mikel and Javi were also invited.

They had prepared a snack and a very good barbecue outside. There was a lot of typical food. They were all very happy and very grateful to see us there for the work we were going to do the next few weeks. We spent much of the time with his grandchildren, and Regina, one of her granddaughters who is 17, told us she had done some prolife work like us before.

The picture is of us four with a friend and one of Diane's grandchildren. 

Our next three weeks...

On Monday afternoon we took the big van Chris has where there's place for 10 of us towards the airport. Over there we picked up 2 new interns and started our way to Baltimore, where Almu and I were going to stay for 3 weeks. They had to spend the night there as well because we arrived late at night, about 11.30pm, and it was better to have a rest there and continue the following day to Virginia, where the rest of the interns where going to stay for a few days.

When we arrived to Diane's house late at night, she was waiting for us with a really good dinner. She showed us the rooms we would stay in, we each have our own bedroom which is simple but very complete, tidy and comfortable. She's a lovely lady who has being in the pro-life movement for a long time and has now volunteered to keep us with her for 3 weeks. We have also met his son and his family, and they are all as nice as her. Two other boy interns are also staying in Baltimore for 3 weeks in another house. We are half hour drive but we see each other every day at work and in the evenings.

We are very comfortable in this city, very happy where we are staying, getting on very well with pro-life people we have met here and looking forward to doing a good job in Baltimore.

A BIT OF ADVERTISING

On Thursday I had to take the subway at midday because we had to go from the office of the Bronx to the clinic where pregnant women are sent for ultrasounds to pick up some leaflets we needed.

On the way back we saw an advertisement for pro-choice and right next to it a EMC one. They both had a similar design: picture at the left hand side and at the other hand the text, although each advertising meant different things.

In the pro-choice ad appeared a pretty smiling young girl looking very happy, and in the pro-life one appeared a girl who looked anxious and insecure.

All the ones that were in the subway with me started to think about the two ads and how it could be that the announcement of something so horrible as abortion, which I personally know after seeing how girls come out from Emily's, was more attractive than ours.

We began to think beyond the visual impact it had and started to think about why EMC had decided to use the picture of a girl with that expression instead of another one.

We arrived to the conclusion that objectively, the pro-choice add attracts more but, what's the most important aspect in an add? The target to feel identified. And I'm 100% sure that mothers who want to have an abortion feel anxious and insecure.

Off to New Jersey

Each day they appear more and more women with difficult situations. I can not explain only one as all seem so shocking. I thought I had to explain my experience with the 13 year old girl who came on Monday, but unfortunately, we are getting more girls than the expected of that age. All interns are shocked and that's why there is already a post about it so I'll explain the story of a girl who came yesterday.

She arrived with a suitcase that her boyfriend dragged into the foyer of the office that couldn't nearly fit through the door. Her boyfriend waited in the hall and she entered the room where we do the counseling. She felt really nervous. When we started talking, I suddenly had to give her tissues because she was in tears. She asked us when we were going to interrupt her pregnancy and said it had to be that day because she had to go to New Jersey to a friend's house. We told her that we did no abortions there but that we gave advise and all kind of helps to pregnant women, and that we were always looking for alternatives to abortion. Without losing her temper, like many others do, we continued our conversation.

She told us she had to go to New Jersey because her friend was going to let her get in her apartment for a time. Since January she has been out of home, her mother was abusive and had driven her away with only 21 years. She was terrified to her mother, very very much. Her father lived in a foreign country and her two brothers (smaller than her) were still staying with his mother.

She told us that the decision was more than taken and wanted to leave. She refused to give birth to a child, she didn't feel ready, and didn't want the relationship in between her and her baby to be ending up like the one she has with her mother.

However, I noticed that it was a very receptive girl and with a lot of heart. She listened until the end and took with her all the brochures we recommended.

An interesting conclusion

Yesterday I went to Emily's for the second time. I thought it would be like the first time I went, but it was not. When I arrived, I saw at the door, standing up with reflective vest, volunteers pro-choice. Their job was to try stop me from talking to women entering the clinic. I shouldn't stop because they were there, in fact I should be more decisively and stronger than ever. 

One of the things that more annoyed me was when I gave a brochure to a girl that was about to enter because she was going to have an abortion, and 2 meters from where I had given her it, one of the volunteers pro-choice took it off and threw it away in front of me. I also noticed how outstanding they were of us so that we didn't talk to anyone that came to Emily's. They were able to chase you, the meters that were necessary, so that they could arrive and block you before being able to have a conversation with them.

All these pro-choice's reactions made ​​me think and arrive to the conclusion that our role at Emily's has much influence. Because if the brochures we hand out where not useful they wouldn't break them, and if the brief conversations we have with the girls weren't enough helpful they wouldn't block us either.

This conclusion and people standing with us every Saturday in front of the clinic praying helps me keep going with each Saturday at Emily's because if it is hard a normal day during the week, Saturday is much more.

My first contact was with the offices EMC has in the Bronx and Brokling. However, yesterday I had the opportunity to spend a morning at the door of Emily's, an abortion clinic.

How different experiences. While in ones I can make them recognize that abortion is not the best and only option in a indeterminate period of time in others I have just the seconds it takes them to step inside the gate of the suffer, I decided to call it like this after seeing the faces of the women as they left.

They usually get anxious and nervous. When they enter the clinic, they receive them and give them a bracelet that identifies them and an hour to start what will change their lives.

Until the hour arrives, the only support to lose the nerves of some of them is with a cigarette, which forces them to go out the back doors of the clinic, which is about 15 meters from the gate where interns stand.

When this happens, we have to raise our voices to try, once again, make them think about what is still in their hands. Most look as if they where deaf but yesterday it was not like this. I tried to talk to one of them from the gate and she walked towards me to talk better.

It was unbelievable. I talked to her until it was ''her turn''. ''Her turn''? I thought you got a turn to buy at the butcher but I didn't know abortion clinics use the same term to end a life. I'd like to know how the baby feels when he hears it's the turn of his death.

Hi,

I'm Beatriz. I have just arrived to NY to work with EMC. I'm 20 and I study architecture at the Politecnic University of Cataluña in Barcelona, where I actually live although I was born in Madrid and lived in England for two years.

I'm the third only girl of 4 brothers. I have a theory about life: in this life there are only a few things that are truly important to me, and family is one of them. My family is the one who has given all I have and all I am. Family is the best thing anyone can have and consequently I defend life.

After hearing about the great experience my cousin Paz had had in summer '11 and meeting Chris at the World Youth Day in Madrid that same year, I quickly decided I had to come. Summer '12 couldn't be so here I am this year. I think it's a great opportunity to work with women who are in great need of help.

In the following two months I will use this blog to share my experiences with all those who read it!

I know it's a difficult task but I'm going to try my best to be helpful.