The Love of a Mother...

Today was one of my last days in New York City. Soon, I will be heading back to college at Franciscan University of Steubenville. I was in the South Bronx center today working and had the privilege to counsel a very special woman. At first, when I was talking to her, she told me she wanted an abortion. She was approximately 7 weeks so I thought that this case might be hard. I gave her a pregnancy test, and it turned out she was positive. As I was passing one of my fellow interns in the hallway, he looked down at the girl's intake form, scanning his eyes over the details. "Good luck," he said. I could just feel this was going to be a tough case. I prayed to the Lord to help me because I still got nervous over these sort of situations. I then walked back into the room and sat down. I explained that I was going to show her a short video on the abortion procedures so that she would be aware of them. Before I could even finish my sentence, though, she asked, "Do you guys help with adoptions?" I hesitated before saying, "Yes, of course!" She then burst into tears and said, "I can't have an abortion! I don't believe in it!" I immediately assured her that everything was going to be okay and that we were going to take care of her. I still showed her the abortion procedures just in case, but by the end of our session, I knew she was definitely not going to have an abortion! We exchanged numbers, and I set her up for a sonagram in a couple of weeks. I have a feeling that she is going to end up keeping the baby for herself, though, once she sees the baby. I then told her that her child was privileged to have so great of a mom as she. Anyway, I am so grateful to God for this amazing woman.

The Sisters of Life, Profession of Vows

The Interns of EMC showed our support for the Sisters of Life last Thursday, when we attended their Profession of Vows. I have never seen so many nuns in one place at one time! Their faces radiated joy, peace, and love! The ceremony was very moving. Three Sisters said their Temporary Vows and two more Sisters made their Permanent Vows.

From the Sisters of Life website, "The Sisters of Life is a contemplative / active religious community of women founded in 1991 by John Cardinal O’Connor for the protection and enhancement of the sacredness of every human life. Like all religious communities, we take the three traditional vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. We also are consecrated under a special, fourth vow to protect and enhance the sacredness of human life."

We work with the Sisters on a regular basis, referring clients in need to live with them in 'Holy Respite', in one of their Convents. We were honored to prayerfully cheer the Sisters on, as they followed the path that God had set out for them!


Heather

Each Mother is Different

The other day I had the opportunity to counsel four of the young ladies that came to see our office in the South Bronx off of 149th and Third Avenue.

One of the young ladies simply did not yet realize that she was indeed pregnant, which of course does come as a surprise to some. But that's what happens when you lay down, take off your clothes, and have the most intimate contact you'll ever have here on earth with another human being. Every time you have sex you can get pregnant.

She just kept laughing and saying something like, "I can't be having a baby". Which Liz, the director of the office, said, "Than what is it, a fish"

Her boyfriend understood and wants her to have the baby while she didn't seem to know what to do yet. He did his best to comfort her while she just tried to understand what was going on. Laughter was her way of escape.

I had another young lady that had just lost her virginity three weeks before. She's 15 and only here for the summer. Her parents are divorced and she is with her father for the summer.

Washington D.C.

Currently, Congress is in it's August recess, but within the next 30 days, Congress will be reconvening and so will the Obama Administration's to pass it's HealthCare plan.

Unfortunately, they also believe that abortion should be included. As if to say that abortion is a needed surgery. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Recently, I got the chance, along with four of my fellow interns, to go to Washington D.C. and attempt to let Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office know how we at EMC feel about that idea. Of course, I don't really think we were well received. Especially, when the Capitol Police were more or less told to keep an eye on us. Some how being peaceful just isn't enough. But then again, Martin Luther King Jr. and his marchers had the same problem. No wonder Alveda King is on our side.

The Capitol Police ended up warning us and the three people that layed down to symbolize the tiny babies that we are trying to protect; that there is a statute that makes a person subject to arrest if they are inhibiting the free traffic of pedestrians going by. These 3 people left plenty of room for people to go by and in fact the police were taking up more area and were more prohibitive than these three prolifers, but of course Nancy didn't like what was going on.

Freedom of Speech is apparently an elective for prolifers. Imagine that. What will we see next?

Be Gone, Satan!

Today, I went to Dr. Emily's Abortion Clinic. Because 40 Days for Life is fast approaching, the clinic has recently had clinic escorts at each of the entrances. These escorts are from a pro-choice feminist organization that is strongly against pro-lifers to an extreme. Because we are supposed to love our enemies, I try to be friendly to these escorts, but I get scorn in return. Usually this does not matter to me, but today, their hatred (because that is what they have, pure hatred for us) began to get me depressed. I could hardly even say a Rosary because I kept on getting distracted.

I was getting even more discouraged when suddenly, I looked down the sidewalk and saw two men in gray robes walking toward us. Immediately, I grabbed a nearby intern's arm and exclaimed, "The monks are here!" The Capuchin Franciscans of the Renewal had arrived at Dr. Emily's! Immediately, the brothers introduced themselves to the lead escort, but she was very rude to them in return. They then walked over to us, and we began talking. It wasn't long before the lead escort came up behind us, and said to one of the brothers, "You are in my way. You are blocking the sidewalk. You need to move." The brother looked around. The sidewalk was huge and we were not blocking the path so the brother replied, "We are not blocking the path. You can go around us." The escort repeated herself, "You need to move. You are blocking my path." The brother repeated, "No, I am not. You can go around us." The escort seemed to get even angrier and said, "I need to get through!" as if we were blocking the sidewalk. The brother moved perhaps a few inches, leaving enough space between us so she could walk through us. "You are still blocking my path!"" The brother then said in an authoritative voice, "Be gone!" Immediately, the escort walked away, leaving us be! I was so surprised that she had obeyed. What a sense of authority the brothers had! This scene encouraged me greatly, and I was able to better counsel for the rest of the day.

The big opportunity

This monday we were talking with a girl who came to our office in the 149 St. She were pregnant. It wouldn't be strange unless her boyfriend weren't suposed to be infertile (by an accident). She was very convinced that her baby was of him. The boyfriend was trying to have a baby with his previous partner for more than 8 years. They were thinking about abortion because they "aren't ready" (The girl is 26 years old and the man is 35). Both of them are working. When they are suposed to be ready?

We told the girl if she didn't think if that pregnancy was an opportunity that life brought to them to be parents at last. We also told her that maybe there wouldn't be another chance after that one.

After some time talking with her, he finally decided to think about it and talk with his boyfriend. Hopefully he will be happy about the new because he didn't know that when the girl came to us.

Jennie Nwokoye

Everyday Miracles

I tell my friends that in this job, you get used to seeing miracles happen. So often, a baby is saved not through our own actions, but through the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of these women. I saw this clearly last week with several of my turnarounds.

One of these girls I had originally seen a month ago. We had lost touch, and I had no clue what was going on with her. Then she showed up at another one of our offices a few days ago, thinking we were an abortion clinic. I had actually seen her name in the appointment book, and made sure I was there. For the second time in a month, she had stumbled into the truth. And such a powerful truth—while watching a video we routinely show the girls, she suddenly fainted and vomited. I was shocked, because I’d never seen anyone react to this video so strongly. All of us quickly gathered around to make sure she was okay. Even as she had to deal with these strong emotions, there were loving people supporting her. She later called me to tell me that she was going to keep her baby. God made sure that she was exposed to a truth she could not ignore.

I saw another such miracle last week outside of Dr. Emily’s. After giving a girl a sonogram and talking with her for awhile, she left without making a decision. Then out of the blue she called me back to thank me, saying that she was keeping the baby. She told me that the night before her appointment at the abortion clinic, God had told her in a dream not to kill her baby. Up until this dream, she hadn’t even believed in God. But between hearing His voice in the dream and running into me at the abortion clinic, she knew God was sending her a message.

It is for this reason that I always tell the girls that it is God who brings them to us. Just as He put the baby inside their womb for a specific reason, He brings them into contact with us for a reason. These everyday miracles are the work of God in the lives of these women.

The Importance of Hope and Perseverance in the Face of Suffering

One day at Lizz's office I counseled a girl who already had three abortions. She was pregnant for the fifth time and was anticipating a forth abortion. I continued taking her information and then proceeded to show her a DVD titled "Abortion Procedures".

After the video I began to ask her questions. I first asked how she felt after learning about all the risks. I also asked what she thought about the act of abortion. She responded in a broken way, confused by stress and fear, explaining that she just couldn't have the baby. She continued stating the reasons for having an abortion: she was financially unstable, her living conditions were less than ideal, her boyfriend didn't think it was the "right time" to have a baby, etc...

I then asked her why she thought she was in such a panic about this and why there were so many risks. She didn't have an answer so I told her why I thought there was so much that could go wrong. I told her that it was because having an abortion is unnatural. I asked her if she thought it was natural to have someone open you up and take the baby growing inside your womb out. She then began to cry.

I was sorry to see her suffer in the position she was in but glad to see that she was looking at the problem in the face and seeing what abortion truely is, possibley for the first time. I then asked her to reflect on her life since 16 years old, when she was first impregnated. I told her the reality of her life right now is that she has been going around having multiple sex partners, and when the natural occurence of becoming pregnant happens, she goes and has the babies killed in an effort to keep her life manageable.

I then continued to tell her that she could have this baby and that she can stop this vicious cycle. I told her that she should now stop having sex until she was stable enough to have a child. She agreed to come in for a sonogram but never showed. I will continue to try to get in touch with her and I asked that all who have read this will keep this woman, the father, and the baby in your prayers. I also ask for your prayers for forgiveness for the abortion clinic workers and that God may have mercy on them.

Viva Las Vegas

EMC took part in Operation Rescue/Operation Save America's Annual Event which took place in Las Vegas, NV this year. Imagine a week of Pro-life Activism in Sin City of all places! It was Great! Hundreds of Pro-lifers descended on the desert and what we had in store, they were not prepared for. We peacefully and compassionately let the City of Las Vegas see the victims of abortion.

I had the privilege of working at the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) display. We were stationed in the middle of the Fremont Street Experience: Summer of 69 Celebration. We were on the sidewalk between dozens of Casinos and underneath an overhead canopy that extended the length of five football fields. The temperature in Vegas that week was probably a sweltering 113 degrees, but underneath the canopy it felt at least 20 degrees cooler! So you can imagine where all the people were! That's right, they were walking right by us and our giant GAP display that showed the horror of what abortion does to a helpless child!

We handed out fliers to passers by and had many, many great conversations. The kind of conversations that get people thinking, thinking about subjects like right and wrong, justice and injustice, human rights, the dignity of the human person, fetal development, logic, and what exactly abortion does. Most people rarely think about these things, or they tend to compartmentalize such subjects to make themselves more comfortable. Because after all, it is written on the human heart and in the conscience that once we see injustice, we have the responsibility to do something about it.

Quite often people would stop and stare at the pictures. In one instance a young man looked for a very long time, left, and came back. As tourists walked up to our display one after another, I would ask them if they had ever seen pictures like these before, or what they thought of the images. Sadly, more often than not I would hear, "No, I have never seen such sights." As I write this now, I think to myself, that there is this major debate going on in our nation and in our world. So many people (our popular media are particularly guilty of this) take the "Pro-choice" side of the argument, without ever really knowing what abortion is, what abortion looks like, and without ever seeing the victims of this so called right. Because as we know, abortion not only kills one, but it also harms the other.


It is true that not everyone was happy seeing these images. In fact there were so many complaints about our display that The Fremont Street Experience put up a sign apologizing for our presence. But we were not there to make people feel all warm and fuzzy inside, while children are brutally ripped from their mother's wombs at the rate of 3,500 abortions per day in America.

At the end of the day, if you think that showing these pictures, is wrong, or uncharitable, or even just plain gross, I would offer you the story of Emmett Till. The effect that pictures of his open casket had on the Civil Rights Movement in America was no small deed. Emmett was a young, African American boy of 14 years old from Chicago. While visiting cousins in Mississippi he spoke to a white woman. An innocent enough act. Four days later he was dragged out of his uncle's house in the middle of the night by two men, the woman's husband included. Till was forced into their car, beaten, shot, and lynched. Three days later his body was found in the Tallahatchie River. A 75 pound cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire, weighted his body down. His face was so mutilated that the body could only be identified based on the ring that Till was wearing. His mother chose to be courageous, she chose to have an open casket funeral to let "the world see what they did to my boy." Pictures were published in magazines and newspapers and the people were outraged. Simlpy showing the victim helped spark, and some say started the Civil Rights Movement in America. The effect is undeniable.

Mexican Couple

This time it was at the other Bronx office that we have where we heard the following problems of a mexican couple. The thing is that they where here since 3 years ago illegally and the had paid an amount equal to $15000 per person to come to USA. So over the had a big debt to give back to a mexican at their current city.
It was so sad to hear that because we knew that the where lied in the way they came to the States.
Also, both of them where unemployed but the problem is that they weren´t actively looking for a job.
We also said to them that we could help them finding a job or clothes and so on.....
At the end they told us that they where going to think about it and that the following week would be coming to the office again.
Hope they come back soon.

Saving Babies

Here in NYC there are always a lot of people walking around where ever you might be. With more 8 million official NYC residents from the five burroughs: The Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island, and Brooklyn; NYC is one of the biggest cities in the world.

Here in NYC, EMC is doing a number of things to reach out to pregnant young ladies that don't think they want to keep their baby.

We set up tables at busy intersections, we operate a number of centers in four of the five burroughs, we show DVD's of an actual abortion, and counsel women in front of abortion clinics as well as when they come out of the abortion clinic.

One More of More than 30.000

The last friday I went with Lucía, Sean and Grace to Dr. Emily's Abortion Mill. I was speaking for a long while with a spanish speaking girl who was going to go in the mill, saying that she had no chance to keep the baby. However, she stopped to talk with for a while before going in. After speaking for a short time in english, I started to talk with her in spanish, expressing myself much better, quicker and clearer. I told her that what the clinic wanted was her money, and what we wanted was, sincerely, her to be one of the more than 30.000 girls who kept the baby and are so happy about that now.

After speaking and giving her some information, she didn't go in the mill, and turned around to call to one of our phone numbers later! :)

Politics, Policy, and Real People

One more thought on our trip to Washington DC earlier this week --

Until interning this summer with EMC, all my pro-life work had been on the political side -- activism, educational outreach, lobbying, opinions articles. I tend to approach problems this way, with a political bent or methodically from an intellectual standpoint. This makes me a fine student, but it doesn't necessarily translate into our work here.

Since my arrival in May, I have learned enormous amounts of information concerning fetal development, abortion procedures, and the help available in New York City to pregnant mothers. But mostly my time and thoughts have been concerned with the chaotic, surprising, and often heartbreaking situations of the women and girls we see.

This is real life. These people aren't ideas or abstractions. They are not here to back up mine or yours or anyone else's ideology. Half these women don't even know what the labels pro-life and pro-choice mean.

So standing in Washington DC in front of Nancy Pelosi's office and trying to get members of the US House of Representatives to listen to our demands seemed almost surreal. Holding a banner, declaring that 'Abortion is not Healthcare,' listening to the empassioned words of Alveda King on the steps of the Cannon building, I marveled at how distant these two aspects of our fight can seem.

Which matters more? The woman sitting right in front of me, not convinced the life inside her is precious and unique? Or the bill sitting on the desk of every US Representative, mandating that every taxpayer pays into a fund which will enable women across the country to get abortions that much easier?

And the question for me becomes, for whom are we fighting? It might be easy enough for those who are pro-choice to use rhetoric and weak statistical evidence to make their case on Capitol Hill, but on the streets of the Bronx their case falters pretty quickly. In the face of the women we see, the politics of abortion seem irrelevant, and oftentimes purposefully ignorant. After working for EMC this summer, the arguments concerning why taxpayer-funded abortions constitute a public good have become barely comprehensible to me -- do policy makers even attempt to understand the people and situations they are supposedly trying to help?

Inside the Beltway or out, I'm grateful for the different opportunities I've had to fight this fight, grateful for the chances I've been given and the perspectives I've seen. After this summer, it is likely that I will return to more political pro-life activity, but I will never forget the faces of the real women I've met, the lives I've been blessed to impact and those who've blessed me, and just how high these stakes really are.

Doing Research

I was looking on the internet for stats on abortion and I came across this.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,348649,00.html

Press Conference on Capitol Hill

We had the oppertunity to visit Washington DC for three days to take part in two Press Conferences on Capitol Hill. During which we protested the Abortion Mandate in the Propossed Heathe Care Reform Bill. Alveda King and other leaders in the African American Community spoke about the effect of abortion on the Black population in America. Our very own Chris Slattery spoke about EMC and the work we do with women in Crisis Pregnancies in New York City. Later we walked the halls of Congress praying that this unjust bill would not pass. It was exciting to participate in a moment that will go down in history.

The Cost of Abortion

Our Brooklyn crisis pregnancy center is in the same building as two abortion clinics. Coming from a lunch break one day, I saw two Paramedics carrying a woman out of the building on a stretcher. I ran up stairs to tell Linda the Center Director what I had seen. She immediately ran to the sixth floor to find out what was going on. Ten minutes later she returned with the details. The young lady being rushed to the ER was having an abortion and in the process the doctor hit an artery. The complications to abortions are so many! Women are sadly not aware of these risks. If only this young lady known ... maybe she wouldn't have had to go through this ordeal. This was a preventable injury.

Abortion Is Not Health Care!!!

Abortion is not health care!

We went down to Washington D.C. last week, and joined a demonstration outside the office of Nancy Pelosi. Health care, for who? For the unborn means the unmerciful destruction of its life. For the woman, medical studies all over the world, shows us how abortion do profundly affect women: incresing the risk for breast cancer, risk of becoming sterile, depression, to mention just few of them. What does it mean to provide health care? Women deserve better than this.

Redemption

Although most of the work we do is with women who are still considering abortion, we still do very important outreach to those women who are post-abortive. It is absolutely necessary to reach out to these women, because it is only the pro-life movement that recognizes their pain and allows them to grieve. Part of this ministry happens outside Dr. Emily's, as Grace and Sean discussed in their post. Yet we also deal with some of the longer lasting repercussions in our clinics.

Even if there were not so many other reasons to be pro-life, the experiences of so many of these women would be reason enough. Just this past week, two girls shared with us the the story of a sister and a friend, both of whom attempted suicide after an abortion and were committed to psychiatric wards. In a culture where abortion has become an "easy solution," such cases are frighteningly common. Even women who have hardened their hearts against the pain, and come to our offices seeking yet another abortion, will often be unable to discuss their prior abortions without a great deal of emotional pain. Sometimes it is not until I begin listing the symptoms of post-abortion syndrome, such as depression or anxiety attacks, that they finally begin to realize just how many of their problems over the years stem from their abortions.

Healing from an abortion is obviously difficult and complicated. Yet one of the great joys in this work is offering these suffering women a hopeful future. When a post-abortive woman turns around in our clinics, the decision is especially powerful. Although the babies lost can never be brought back, there is great redemption in choosing to protect and love the baby they hold within their womb.

Healing the wounds of abortion

One of the most important things we do on the sidewalks outside of Dr. Emily's happens after all the abortions have taken place. The women stumble out of Dr. Emily's with nothing but a lollipop and a yellow piece of paper, often with no one by their side or a person to come and pick them up. Some of these women are crying, some of them are still too dazed from the drugs used to put them under to process what just happened, all of them broken. In a lot of ways this is the hardest part of the day. As Sean once said while we were watching a crying girl get into her car, " it hurts me to see how much they hurt".

However, this part of the deal can be full of much beauty and grace. Many times the women are open to us approaching them and comforting them. We tell them if they are hurting there are people they can contact and there are places they can go for healing. We have had beautiful moving moments with the women on the sidewalk where we were able to embrace them and say I am sorry they had to come here and I hope they never have to go through this again. Sean once asked a girl if she believed in God and she nodded. He replied as far as the heavens are from the earth so are our since once God forgives us. He told the girl God was ready to forgive her right then and heal her right then. She nodded and we knew she understood and it meant a great deal to her.

The Lifehouse

Currently at the Bronx Lifehouse, in the mid-Bronx area just off of Tremont, south of the Bronx Zoo; we have 15 interns living on three floors in a five floor house. EMC has had the house since May of 2008. At that time we had to do a lot of work on the house to make it liveable. As you can imagine it is difficult having so many people in one house at one time. Although, after August 15th we will only have four people as college students are returning to back to college for the fall semester. So as you can see people are constantly coming and going and interns are constantly needed. Volunteers are also welcome and encouraged to help when ever possible.

Being Pro-life Isn't Only About The Babies.

When I get into a conversation with pro-aborts at Dr. Emily's Abortion Clinic and they bring up that we don't care about the women, only the unborn, it saddens me. They're assuming, and they're assuming wrong.

You can see it on their faces. These women don't have hope. When these women walk past us toward the clinic, it is so important within those few short moments to share the ways that we can support them. We can give them information helping them with morning sickness, prenatal care, adoption options, financial aid, housing, jobs, counseling, anything. We're tring to make it as easy as we can for them to keep their baby. We're trying to give them hope and a confiedence that they had lacked before.

Pro-aborts rag on the pro-life movement saying that we don't truly care about the women and aren't compassionate toward their situations, and sure, some pro-lifers are only concerned about the unborn. But we're here to say that there are two human beings involved, and two souls. You cannot save the baby without first saving the mother.

Happy morning

We are Lucía and Jose and we want to tell what we did this saturday when we went to Liz's with Laura. That morning we recieved 5 girls. 4 of them were spanish speakers, so we were able to counsel them in our native language, which made our work much easier. All their stories were very hard. At the beginning, it seemed that all the girls were very convinced about get an abortion. We needed to think the best words and reasons to show to each girl, because their circumstances were quite different between them. After talking with the girls in different ways, and showing them the abortion procedures video, we were very happy to see that 3 of the girls were almost sure to keep the baby.

They were 27, 17, and 23 years old. The last one wasn't so decided, but at the same time she was the one with the most advanced pregnancy (almost 20 weeks), and the abortion was going to cost about 2.000 $, and even not being a reason about conviction but of money, it will be very helpful to realize her that it would be even more expensive the abortion than keeping the baby (her main reason for abortion was the lack of money).

Tomorrow we'll meet the 17 years old girl, whose mother was talking with Laura while we were with the girl. This was very helpful because the mother was encouraging the girl to keep the baby after our counseling.

We'll continue writing this about these stories. We need your prayers!

One more baby!

Friday I was able to experience a classic turnaround at Dr. Emilys! There was a young woman about to enter doctor Emily's. I was able to get her to stop and talk to me right at the entrance of the gate. The only thing I had to do was ask her if she really wanted to be her and that we could help. She told me about her concerns and how she did not really want to be there but she did not know what else to do. Jose and I spoke to her and assured her there were other options, we were there to help, and this abortion would do her no good. We exchanged numbers, she promised she would stop by Liz' office, and she walked away from Dr. Emily's. I texted her later that night and she told me she and her boyfriend were very excited about keeping their baby and thank you so much!

Pamphleting

Pamphleting is one of the biggest things that we do in the summer when we have a large number of interns. It helps us get the message out that we are close by and ready to help. It also helps us educate the general population about the truth on abortion and what some of the facts about it are.

Please continue to help us reach the general population through education in a cost effective manner. It says in Hosea 4:6 that "my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge".

If we are to win the abortion issue, we must properly educate the people about it.