Sidewalk Counselors: The Front Lines of the Pro-Life Movement (Part One)

Sidewalk counselors are the unsung heroes of the pro-life movement. In rain, snow, hail, sleet or the hot sun, they are on-duty to share life.

San Francisco, CA (Catholic Online) - Do you ever pass by a building wherein abortions are committed? If so, what comes to mind on such occasions? Do you ever see clients of these places of death and destruction making their way to the building's entrance? If so, what comes to mind then?

In December 2008, I wrote the following story for the blog Children Deserve Birth: (http://children-deserve-birth.blogspot.com)

"We decided to keep our baby" are the sweet words I heard today while prayerfully awaiting the next opportunity to reach out to a woman or couple outside an abortion center in San Francisco. While standing next to the entrance of the abortion center, I noticed a young man in the passenger side of a car attempting to get my attention. A woman was at the wheel and there were several cars ahead of and behind them waiting for the traffic light to turn green.

"Assuming the young man was seeking directions, I walked toward the curb to assist him. Then I heard him say those six glorious words and what God, the author of all life, wanted me to know. Only He knows how often parents who were planning to abort their child had a change of heart and mind. We are blessed whenever He enables us to be instrumental.

"Seven months had passed since I had reached out to this couple at this same abortion center. In less than two more months they will be cuddling their precious son because they made the right decision.

"This Christmas they will have a son wrapped in his mother's womb to present to the Christ Child and what could have otherwise been a time of terrible mourning for them will instead be their most joyous Christmas ever."

Does the scripture narrative of the 'Good Samaritan' or the 'Visitation' or the 'Samaritan Woman at the Well' or the 'Annunciation' come to mind on those occasions? If not, hopefully they will one day.

The purpose of this article is to encourage you to think seriously about how you can strive to spare lives and souls by becoming engaged in outreach to victims of abortion centers.

Unfortunately, there are many of them throughout our nation where God's precious infants are put to death in horrific numbers and in horrific ways. These killing centers present us with daily opportunities to represent Christ with the intent to save lives and souls.

Your first thought might be, "I've seen those anti-abortion extremists harassing women in front of abortion centers and I will take no part in it." If you have witnessed people behaving in any way other than Christ-like outside abortion centers, I share your disdain. However, if you believe that any kind of outreach conducted outside abortion centers is harassment, you are very much mistaken.

If your first thought is that you don't have time, I ask you to consider the Visitation. When Mary set out to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was in her sixth month with child, she had just learned that she herself would soon give birth to the Son of God. Out of charity, without concern for the difficulties she might face, Mary put her self-interests aside and hastened to the aid of her cousin who was elderly and fragile. Mary remained at Elizabeth's side for three months. How often do we put our personal interests aside and reprioritize our obligations and responsibilities so that we can go to the aid of others?

Who are those others? They are our brethren, no matter how much their outward appearance may differ from our own.

Just as the Good Samaritan assisted a beaten and abandoned stranger lying beside the road, Blessed Mother Teresa (a foreigner in Calcutta) did not pass by her abandoned brethren lying in the streets while asking God to have mercy on them. She took action and became instrumental in directly bringing God's mercy to them.

Perhaps you believe that you should not interfere, that it really is their choice. I am not writing this article to convert pro-abortion people (among them are those who say they are pro-choice). I am presuiming that you are pro-life (and if you are a Christian, there is no other option). I am also assuming that you have had no personal involvement with doing outreach outside abortion centers.

So how can you be sure that an outreach is Christ-like? The answer is found both in the intentions as well as methods of those who are reaching out to others.

Let's focus on one form of pro-life outreach as the scope of this article - sidewalk counseling. What I'm saying may not be relevant to other forms of outreach, such as picketing, demonstrating, displaying signs or images, prayer vigils, preaching, evangelizing. They only apply to one-on-one encounters with sidewalk counselors and the persons to whom they reach out.

The term "sidewalk counseling" was devised to counter the media characterization of a group of pro-life advocates in California as demonstrators. This group had set aside their signs and all other external evidence of demonstrating and re-focused their efforts to become the most effective means of reaching and speaking with people in order to offer alternatives to abortion.

If you are well-informed about the abortion industry, you know why sidewalk counselors are needed. The very first mom who changed her mind after I had reached out to her had been told by Planned Parenthood that her child was just a "blob of tissue."

Sidewalk counseling involves reaching out to mothers and fathers who are contemplating or planning abortion and offering them information that they have a need and right to know. These parents are provided with information on where to go for free pregnancy tests, counseling and practical assistance. The can also be given materials on fetal development, adoption, abortion procedures, risks and side effects, as well as post-abortion counseling and healing resources.

This ministry is conducted on public sidewalks outside abortion centers on days when abortions are being committed and/or days when pre-abortion evaluations or pregnancy tests are provided.

Contact with these parents can happen both by way of conversation and literature. It is done with love and out of concern for unborn children who are in danger of being deprived of their God-given right to be born into the world. The work is also done for the sake of the parents, especially mothers, who are in danger of being severely harmed in numerous ways.

We are concerned with saving a child from certain death and his or her parents from certain harm, one family at a time.

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Fredi D'Alessio is a defender of those who have no voice but ours, our first neighbors in the womb of their mothers. He has been on the front lines of the great human rights struggle of our age, the pro-Life movement.

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