By Jeanne O., volunteer sidewalk counselor
It was a crazy day at Planned Parenthood (PP) in St. Paul. There were three abortion escorts already at PP when I arrived at 9:30 a.m., and then three more showed up so for a short period of time there were six escorts. A car with two women was exiting PP and briefly paused at the driveway. I approached the car with our materials, but the driver stated to me that they chose not to go through with it. I was surprised and said, “Wait, you are not having the abortion?” She repeated no and got ready to drive away. But I remembered to ask this question: “What caused you to change your mind?” The driver answered, ” You people standing out here.” I asked if I could give them a baby blanket and they pulled over to the curb. I had two blankets and asked which one they wanted. The younger lady in the passenger seat (who had not said a word yet) was SMILING ear to ear, and she took the package with the blue blanket. I blessed them and then saw the driver began to cry as they drove away. I am not sure which one was pregnant but it was a beautiful sight to see both the smiles and the tears of emotion and to know a little baby was given life and spared death by execution today. And I had little to do with this save. No convincing, magical words were said by me. But it was confirmed again by her words that even just our presence and prayers on the sidewalk helped change hearts and a baby will now live because we were there. To God be the glory.
Additional details from Brian Gibson, who had reached out to these women earlier when they drove in: “I do remember them driving in. One of the many where the new escort was trying to block me from the vehicle. I did not get literature to them, but was able to call out, telling them of the help available. This morning was insane, but God, who is greater than all, used the chaos to bring about goodness.”
